Cindy, Quilts, and Katherine

I headed off to the quilt show at the convention center (TCC to locals). I had been planning to go with some women who attend ASG meetings. I didn't go with them on Friday because of the stormy weather. I thought I would look at the show by myself and was feeling a little bad because I didn't go with the others. I was pleasantly surprised by what happened. I parked the car on the street and was reading the parking meter notice to see if I had to pay on Sunday. A woman across the street saw me and told me that I didn't have to pay. I thanked her, then asked if she were going to the quilt show. She said she was, then asked me if I'd like some company. Ordinarily her daughter went with her, but couldn't make it this year. Cindy and I spent the next few hour together looking at some amazing quilts and talking about our lives to each other. We spoke a common language, not only about quilts and sewing, but about our families, children, and retirement. When we parted, I felt like I had made a new friend. It always seems remarkably easy to connect with and talk to women who sew. This is true both in WA and here in AZ. The quilt show itself had some phenomenal quilts. I took lots of pictures, but narrow them down for this blog. Although I don't quilt much myself, I appreciate all of the workmanship. One thing I noticed is that hand-quilting is not as popular as in the past. Only a few quilts had the layers stitched together by hand. Long-arm sewing machines are quite popular now. I didn't see any quilting frames for hand quilting on display. Times have changed! The machine quilting was beautiful in most cases. Many women piece their quilts, then turn them over to someone else for quilting (stitching the 3 layers of the quilt together).





Tonight we had Katherine over for dinner and games. Katherine is Larry's nephew David's fiance. They just got engaged over the holidays, right before David flew off to Paris to study math for a few months. Katherine is here working in Tucson. We talked wedding a little and had a nice time getting to know each other better. I was happy to learn that she likes opera, especially Wagner. She and David have tickets to the opera here in Tucson, which means we are likely to go with them sometimes. That could be fun. She also plays the harp. She and David seem very happy together and skype together twice a day.