Mary Lou Weidman in her booth at the Quilt show. Star of the show indeed.
Oh the excitement of it all.
I was just like a small child in a big toy store. Everyone else seemed to be in the same boat…a cheery thought. Imagine hundreds of yards of quilts, and an equal number of quilt shops. Fabrics by the bolt, quarter, and half yards leapt from every corner, and tools, toys, and machines were everywhere. Each quilt was a masterpiece in its own way, and each shop and stall had something unique to offer. New quilts here for sale, over there antique quilts waited for just the right home, and in the middle everything else waited just for you and me. It was joy unfettered to have the free time to wander these isles….oh, abandon sanity all who enter here. Miles of women, one or two handsome men with armloads of fabric, and a half acre of husbands trailing behind. The last four years I have had to work instead of attending this quilt show…now here I was enjoying every thread I saw.
“Wow!” was the most often heard cry of the quilter. “Look at this one,” another oft heard echo. Every one talked with everyone….and even I talked enthusiastically to ladies I never saw before or would again. Pictures were whipped out of envelopes, friends were dragged from one side of the hall to the other with great exhortations. And color was at the heart of it all for me.
A Rotarian Quilt.
I wanted a red quilt. I set out with nothing else set firmly in mind. I did have a particular red in mind….sort of a terra cotta-ish red that wouldn’t clash with my existing red living room pillows. Red isn’t boring, but I arrived feeling just a bit trapped by the formality of my last quilt. This one was to be an “Abandon Yee”….sort of quilt. Wild. Passionate. Enthusiastic, even. Maybe. Perhaps a little like the house quilt in its enthusiasm, if nothing else.
I took disc after disc of images, unfortunately most of them in the red range. Perhaps even in the reds, crèmes, greens, purples, and more reds. Just to bring home an idea of the colors I saw in my mind and in my imagination. I diligently plowed my way through or past each and every booth pleading lack of money and not buying anything at all. You would have been proud of me.
A quilt to Julian completed just after the disastrous 2003 fire.
At one end of the hall were “Two Whacky Women” with some lovely Hoffman fabrics. One was a red and orange blur that I actually copied the info down on….but didn’t buy. Miles of quilts later, I found a very mild mannered booth with truly innocuous colored fabrics in beiges, browns, brown greens, and lovely textures……oh, neutral without being neutral. Those pieces offered an excellent foil to the brilliant reds that filled my mind.
“OH, G???” Cell phones are loverly inventions, and I used my rarely used cell to interrupt G at work.
“Can I spent some money?”
I had to ask. We’d just spent a bit on Grumpy, and I didn’t want to wantonly buy a truckload of fabrics at Quilt Show prices.
And in the end, marvelous, delightful, frivolous fun was had by all. I headed home on the trolley with discs of images and a small bag of happy fabrics just waiting to grow into the images luring in corners of my mind.
A border that caught my eye.
Magic flying pussy cats.
Ice Critters.
Imagine.
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