Quilters' Hospitality

When I traveled to Peoria this past week to speak to the Gems of the Prairie Quilt Guild, I came home with not only good memories and warm feelings but a stack of 28 signature quilt blocks.

Someone brought the blocks to the meeting and offered them up but no one in the group wanted them. Since I couldn't bear for them to be tossed, they were offered to me and I took them home with me. They were made by some of the founding members of the guild and many are hand pieced.  Some of the signatures are also hand embroidered and are just lovely.

This newspaper  from 1984, which is when I assume the blocks were made, accompanied them and an article in the Arts section contains photos of some of the women who made the blocks. So don't get too excited - quilt blocks from 1984 do not necessarily qualify as antiques, but many of them are nice and do have an older look.

My Yahoo group is working on a signature block swap right now. I still have to sew about 15 more of the 50 blocks I committed to making but I will not be embroidering my name on all of them (Whew!),  just using a Pigma pen to sign.  I've blogged about my fascination with signature quilts from the past before so these were right up my alley and I was glad to receive them. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with them. You know how good I am about unfinished projects . . . .

I know I've said this before, but I meet such nice quilters every time I travel. After my talk, the group made it easy for me - all I had to do was stand there with the microphone while at least four people swooped in and held up my quilts for all to see.

I love reading old newspapers. Let's check out my horoscope and see if it came true! Yep - it says romance dominates. 1984 was the year my husband and I were married. Wonder what the important project I began was?? What did I discover??

And look - Ann Landers! I miss her, don't you? Of course I read her advice column for so many years, I probably know everything anyway and can solve whatever's thrown my way by now, LOL. She was a good friend to many of us and every day at work I enjoyed reading all the stupid questions people asked. This question from 1984 would not have meant anything to me then, but I have a teenager myself now, so it's particularly pertinent. If my daughter had been alive in 1984 she might even have written it herself, except for the smoking part. Parents:  all they do is nag, nag, nag.

You wouldn't exactly call Peoria the South, but it's south of where I live. So thank you, Peoria, for your "southern" hospitality!