What I Did On My Friday-Off

Dear Friends,

There are 2 things on my mind today that I want to record here. The first is how very sad I feel for the people of Haiti. I was watching the Fox news reports this morning - 5 days after the earthquake and the situation is still horrible and frightening. The work to rescue and recover is going on and today they reported a rescue which is wonderful, but the real problem is trying to reach and serve the wounded and sick. Here is the link for LDS Humanitarian donations
http://give.lds.org/emergencyresponse

The second thing is that Scott Brown is doing so well in MA. This would be the biggest message to Washington in many years-to stop the insidious notion that the politician owns the seat and rules this nation. Republican or Democrat, I truly wish to see every incumbent defeated.

Last Friday I drove to Miami, AZ and met up with my oldest and dearest friend, Irene. We have been friends since second grade (many years ago) and have shared many miles together. She is one of my heroes and is married to another one of my heroes. Irene retired from teaching a couple of years ago and was looking forward to the time she earned for her personal interests, her husband and the rest of her family. Now, she and Tom are raising 2 beautiful granddaughters and giving these girls a wonderful home filled with love and security.

I enjoy every chance we have to get together and just visit. We did a little shopping in one or two antique stores in Miami-most were closed on Friday which is strange, but I guess their shop days are Saturday and Sunday, and found some items of interest. But then we found a quilt store!

I know you are shocked. And of course you will know where my $ went. The quilt store is on Sullivan Street, just a block from El Rey (how convenient). Julie's Quilt Shop is small but packed with some wonderful fabrics. She carries a lot of southwest themed fabrics as well as a wonderful assortment of sun-dyed fabrics. It is nice to know the shop is there and hopefully this summer I can plan some stops there on my trips to Vernon. This sweet lady even offered to open early for me if I called to make arrangements while passing through before her regular hours. This lady knows how to win a customer!

Now-what did I buy. Well, as a quilter that loves quilt history, I have been aware of the Gee's Bend quilts for some time. Recently, Zoe's got in the bolts of Gee's Bend Fabric that have been hand-dyed and are wonderful solids with a soft, subtle shaded look and rich colors. There are samples on the Zoe's web site to view them. If you are not familiar with Gee's Bend quilts or they story behind them, check out the story here.

I have always been impressed with the story behind the Gee's Bend quilts but they are not the kind of quilts I am drawn too. The early quilts were made from worn clothing or cloth the women had in their possession and were representational patterns of what they had in their memories and surroundings. One of the most popular patterns that they did was called "Housetops".



I bought one of the reproduction kits called Lazy Girl that Julie had just got in and will try to get this one made soon.

So I guess I need to get busy. The blocks are almost done on my after Christmas-Christmas quilt and only need to make a few more blocks for a promised quilt to Seth. And btw, I got the book I talked about in my last post-thank you Mary, plus adding 2 more books on scrap quilting to my collection. One Saturday a month, Zoe's Trunk has a group meeting just to work on scrap quilts. I am really looking forward to the that one.

Well, I've spoke my mind, shared a little and recorded some daily history. Talk to you again soon, love, Jan