I’ve listened to and read several good books recently and thought I’d share them with you. The first one I listened to was “Stay Close” by Harlan Coben. If you read my blog you know that Harlan Coben is one of my favorite authors. This is another one of his mystery/thriller books which I like the best. The three main characters, Meg, a suburban mom with 2 children, great husband and the white picket fence house; Ray, her high school boyfriend who has had some difficult years and even though he was a talented photographer he is now working for a fake paparazzo company and Jack, the detective who cannot let go of a cold case. Each person has secrets and as the book evolves the secrets creep out. There were some good twists in this book. I liked it a lot.
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A friend of mine, Laura, recommended a book to me, “Whistin’ Dixie in a Nor’Easter” by Lisa Patton. Thank you Laura. I really liked this book. It was light reading. This would be a great beach read. The main character, Leelee Satterfield has two young daughters, is happily married and living in the south where Leelee has lived her entire life. Her husband has this wild idea that he would like to own and operate a B&B. He finds a B&B in Vermont and Leelee agrees to move. After living in the south her entire life this is a very big adjustment. Leelee leaves behind her 3 best friends and finds herself working long and hard to make a go of the B&B. I liked this book so much and was so invested in the characters that I purchased her next book.
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This past week I was lucky enough to be invited as the guest artist/speaker for the annual show held at Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio. My entire experience there, from beginning to end, was wonderful. Jeffery and Rebecca picked me up at the airport. Two nicer people you will never meet. The drive from Fort Wayne to Archbold was one large, beautiful farm after another. The fields are all plowed and the surrounding area is so green.
My first evening Linda, who owns the quilt shop in Sauder Village, came to pick me up and take me to see the quilts. There were 400 quilts on display. The show had a great variety..from traditional to contemporary. And there were a lot of large quilts. Here are just a couple of my favorites.
Diana Trost made this fabulous quilt. The applique and quilting were phenomenal.
This cute quilt was made by Kathy Vermillion. The name of the quilt is “Happy Hauntings”.
This very nice traditional quilt was made by Dorothy Jones. The name of the quilt is “Churn Dash”.
Another quilt made by Diana Trost called “Sue in Pink” was really well made and just a sweet quilt.
This eye-catching bargello style quilt called “Diamonds Jubilee” was made by Rita Trumball. Love the black and white combination.
Talk about an eye-catching quilt. “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” was made by Joan Reber. This is a very impressive quilt.
I loved the border treatment.
Ruth Royer made this wonderful scrap quilt called “With A Little Help From My Friends”. I understand Ruth’s friends gave her some fabrics to offer more variety in her quilt.
Sue Gruber made “Sunset Reflections”. This was a very nice pictorial quilt.
Every winner at this show receives a commemorative plate. This year the plate had one of my block designs from the “Japanese Garden” pattern on it. How cool is that? The story behind the plate is that in Sauder Village they have a potter and each year he makes plates to be given to each winner. Each year the plates have a different design. Great idea.
So, what is Sauder Village? In 1976 Erie Sauder opened Sauder Village. His vision was to educate children and families about the hard work and determination of their pioneer ancestors. On the grounds there are around 35 different buildings. Many of the building have a person inside, dressed in pioneer attire, talking about what is in their building. For example, I stopped in the glass works building and the herb shop. I also stopped in the basket shop to see how they made their baskets and the potters shop.
There is also a working farm on the location which was one of my favorite stops. Check out the baby pigs. So cute. (In case you wonder about the bright light in the background. It is a space heater.)
I loved the chickens. They are beautiful.
And the sheep.
Here are some photos of the ladies hard at work in one of my four workshops.
And here are my students from the Ocean Sunrise workshop with all of their blocks on the wall behind them. This group had the most finished blocks of any previous Ocean Sunrise workshop. There were some real overachievers in this workshop. My kind of people. This was a very talented group of ladies.
One day in class I had a student who had taken the Garden Medley workshop with me a while ago. She brought her finished quilt to share. I think her name is Betty. I hope I got that right.
And then two ladies from the Maple Leaf Quilters Guild from Goshen, Ohio brought their raffle quilt top to share. They used my “Japanese Garden Quilt” pattern. It took my breath away. I love it.
I not only loved the quilt but was so excited when I saw what they used for their stems. I used soutache trim which is becoming difficult to find. These ladies used rick-rack and hand couched it on for their stems. Great idea. I loved it.
I think from all the photos in this blog you can tell that I had a fabulous time in Archbold. I owe a great big thank you to Linda Rufenacht from the quilt shop at Sauder Village, Threads of Tradition Quilt Shop. To find out more about the shop and see photos of the shop go to http://www.saudervillage.org/Shopping/quiltshop.asp The shop is really, really nice. If you are ever in the area plan to spend a good part of the day going to the shop and then going through the village. You won’t regret it.
I’m off to Maryland tomorrow. Talk to you when I return.