AQS Syracuse - Getting There

There's nothing like deciding on Wednesday that you are going to drive six hours to see a quilt show on Friday. It's called planning ahead. (NOT!) I was talking to my Mother, one of those "what are you going to do this weekend, anything interesting?" conversations. I said I was trying to decide if I wanted to drive six hours to see my Black Box quilt in the AQS show in Syracuse.

"That's a national show, isn't it? That's a big deal. You're going, aren't you? You're not thinking of going alone are you?" she asked.

"Why, do you want to come with me?"

"Ly-ynne!" (you know how your parents stretch out your name to many syllables when they think you're being a bit obtuse?)

So OK, she says she's going to ask her husband. I look on the AQS website to find a hotel. I call a hotel, I make a reservation. Done. Mom calls back, says she can go.  Good thing, I tell her, I already booked a hotel and you should have heard the desk clerk laugh when I told her I wanted a room with TWO double beds because "I love my mother a lot, but not that much..."

Before I went to bed that night, I packed a suitcase. I kid you not.

So we leave Friday morning about 9:30ish or so, after I gassed up the car.

Millie is all about the I-was-here-photos.

We drive rather languidly through western NH, stop off in Keene at a grocery store and build a couple of salads at the salad bar, pick up some fruit and nuts, etc.

Just after noon, we drove through Hoosick New York where we saw this quilt block painted on the side of a house.

A few hours later, Millie was wondering why she was wearing a button that said "I am AQS" when her name is Millie.  We found my quilt, and Julies, and bought some show pins, then (because we got to the show late) left to go have dinner. We'll check out the show on Saturday, then we'll head home.

But that wasn't the high point of the day. We got a ride to the show on the hotel's shuttle...

(my Mother: How did you pick the hotel? Me: I made a reservation with the second hotel on the list. When I called the first one, the line was busy. See, a lot of thinking went into this trip. NOT!)

Anyway we're on the shuttle and we get to talking with a couple of other ladies who are also going to the show (they took a break for lunch). They asked where I was from and I tell them I've just driven six hours and that I have a quilt in the show. "YOU DO!!!" they exclaim. "Um yeah," and I reach into my bag and pull out the postcards I brought with me that show The Black Box quilt on them.

"The one in the middle," I say, "I made that one. I mean, I made all three of them, but the one in the middle is the one in the show."

"We LOVED that one," they said. "We spent a long time looking at it."



oh.

wow.

I hadn't even walked into the show, but these two ladies had already made my day.

Blue Boy in Progress

While watching Father Brown last night on the local PBS station, I pinned three more blocks together, and cut the last set of strips into squares.

But the sewing will have to wait because I am on my way to AQS Syracuse to see my quilt, The Black Box, and Julie's See Rock City on display.

If you go to the show, take a picture of yourself with my quilt (and Julie's too) and send them to me! And if you are there on Saturday when I am looking around, and you see me, please come over and say hello!



Suzanne, I'm glad you loved it, thanks for writing!

Friday Catch Up

I still haven't been doing a lot of sewing. I'm still working on that thing I can't tell anybody about, and I want to finish it this weekend. I got the Black Box quilt off to Paducah for the AQS show in Syracuse. I've been resting, and I've read three books in the last week alone.

The big news is I am planning a road trip to visit my friend Kathy who now lives in Belfast Maine.

Kathy visited me in 2012 (OMG, has it been THREE years?) and is the maker of the most outstanding, awesome, magnificent free pieced houses I have ever seen.

It will be a four hour trek to her house, and we have several days of mischief planned. Sewing may be involved. I can't wait.



Charlotte, I have added you to my prayers. Three times. Good luck, friend.