My trip to Pennslyvania

I'm back!  We returned very late on Saturday night and have leaped right back into the thick of work, school (yes, school's started already), PTA meetings, chores, and so on.  I'm just getting around to downloading my pictures and picnicking them (editing).

I spent a fabulous week in Pennsylvania with my sister's family.  At my request, one day we drove to Amish Country to see the Heritage Quilt & Textile Museum.  We had several teens and tweens in tow, so I couldn't linger, but I was thrilled to finally get to see a portion of the Esprit collection of Amish quilts housed by this museum.


My Sister


Esprit collection of Amish Quilts in main room



The building was formerly a bank, patterned after Penn Station in NYC.  It had a gorgeous, detailed ceiling.  Photos were allowed, but all the quilts in the atrium were in glass cases.  I took photos anyway, to get an overview of the space.



Clever use was made of the vault.


View into the side gallery featuring some local Lancaster County quilts.

Joseph's Coat quilt attributed to Fanny S. Bucher Snyder, circa 1885.  There were two spectacular versions of these on display.  My photo does not do justice to the vibrant colors.  Different quilting patterns were used in each color strip.  More info. about these quilts can be found here. 

One more quilt....


Sampler

I picked this up at the museum's gift shop:



And this tiny handmade doll (only a few inches high) for my daughter):



I was amused to discover the doll posing with the umbrella when I went to photograph the doll this morning.



At a nearby quilt shop, my sister bought me this wonderful pincussion made from a scrap from a vintage crazy quilt and an antique button.


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Now it's back to the usual grind.  I hope to get back to my WIPs soon.

Hi There!

I've been on vacation - the "stay" portion of my vacation and it's been non-stop activities with the family but not much sewing or quilting.  I did manage to get my July and August blocks done for my Shrinking Quilters' bee:



July's block for Lydia.  [Sorry about the photo not being centered.  Flickr has changed it's format and I'm going to have to re-learn how to link my photos.  GRRRR!]

Lydia sent Amy Butler "Love" fabric with instructions to make an abstract block with all straight lines.  Fortunately, she allowed us to use solids from our stash.  I added a couple to give the design a slightly less busy look.



August Block for Dee.

Dee wanted a simple block design from a tutorial from Modify Tradition's blog.  Info about this block can be found on Dee's blog  thequiltingdee.blogspot.com.