On Monday I was listening to all the weather reports and they were calling for a rather big snow storm to hit on Tuesday. I was supposed to fly to Florida on Tuesday afternoon and kept thinking…..I will never make it based on the weather reports. I checked the USAirways website and saw that there was a very, very early flight on Tuesday and I thought if I can change my flights maybe I can make it. Well, the stars aligned and I was able to get my flight changed. There was one seat open on the flight, and I got out just in time, as the storm was arriving. The ladies from the Seaside Piecemakers Quilt Guild and I were all very happy because I made it!!!! Via email I had been dealing with Pat and Roz. They picked me up at the airport. Pat knew that I was going to arrive around 1pm and would not have had time to eat lunch so she had packed a nice lunch for me to eat while we drove about 45 minutes to our location. I liked Pat and Roz as soon as I met them. On the drive they said “Would you like to stop at a quilt shop? It’s on the way.” I think you know what I said.
We stopped at this fabulous quilt shop called The Quilt Place. http://www.thequiltplace.com
The shop was bright and cheerie and had lots and lots of beautiful quilts displayed. And lots and lots and lots of fabric.
It was a real pleasure talking with the owner of the shop, Teresa. She recently started a quilting retreat in her area and it sounded really wonderful. There is more information about it on her website listed above. At the next retreat they are making the bargello style quilt in the photo below.
Did I mention…lots and lots and lots of fabric.
Roz picked me up on Wednesday morning for the guild meeting and lecture. Prior to the meeting an old student, and I don’t mean old in age I mean she took classes from me many, many years ago. Peggy Kelly brought her project she made in a beginners quilting class she took from me. Man…did this bring back memories. Thanks for bringing back lots of good memories for me Peggy.
The Seaside Piecemakers Quilt Guild http://www.seasidepiecemakers.com is very large. They currently have 300 members and 50+ on a waiting list to join. (Just so you know, years ago when I heard about waiting lists in guilds I did not understand, there are fire codes that are strictly enforced in some areas and the code only allows so many people in the room at one one. It is not because they don’t want you in their guild because they really do.) It was a very lovely guild. If I lived in the area I would certainly get on the waiting list. They are very active and very pleasant. They laughed a lot and brought joy to their members while they handled the business part of the meeting. Thanks ladies for making feel so welcome. I hope our paths cross again.
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BOOK REVIEWS
I read this while on R&R at the Outer Banks a couple of weeks ago. “The School of Essential Ingredients” by Erica Bauermeister was a really nice beach read. The book follows the lives of eight students who meet once a month at Lillian’s Restaurant for a cooking class. Tom is a widower who lost his wife to breast cancer and his wife loved to cook. Claire is a young mother who has the demands of raising her children and taking care of her home. Antonio is a kitchen designer. The characters are brought together by food and companionship. This was a nice, quick, enjoyable read. Thanks to the student in class who recommended this book.
During our recent trips to Connecticut Joe and I listened to John Grishams new book “Sycamore Row”. I thought the book was excellent. I have read just about, if not every book, John Grisham has written. I think he is a fantastic writer. I have always thought his first book, “A Time To Kill”, was his best book and I was so happy to find “Sycamore Row” is a sequel to his first book so several of the characters have returned. Since the main character, Jake Brigance, is an attorney I kept thinking Joe would be making some comments on the legal issues and of course he did. But on this occasion Joe would stop the audio, make a comment, turn it back on and immediately what Joe said was what happened. It was kind of funny.
Jake gets involved with a very interesting trial pertaining to a hand written will made by Seth Hubbard. Seth wrote the will right before he hung himself. I really like how the book developed and how it all came together in the end. Thank you John Grisham for sharing your gift as a writer. The book gets two thumbs up from me.
