I'm back!

Hi all!  Did ya miss me?  I've been traveling again.  Can you guess where I've been?

Yep, it was so far away that an airplane took me there and then a rental car got me the rest of the way!

For my readers who are local, here's a really cool picture of the city as we took off.  I love how you can see the bridges, the Reds stadium and all of downtown.

It's no secret that I dearly love to fly.  I always look forward to the opportunity to pack a bag and head to the airport.  Although, I can not lie, I do get a bit of a knot in my stomach until we are up in the air.  I think it has to do with anxiety over going through security and all the possible things that could go wrong before you actually get up in the sky.  Ahh...but once I'm up there, I'm like a little kid peering out that window.  I just love it!

Here's where I spent the majority of my time.  It's the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  I attended the American Quilt Study Group's annual Seminar.  I've been a member of this group for many years.

This was not a quilt show.  It was a gathering of academics, historians, museum curators and quilt collectors/enthusiasts/dealers.  Here's an excerpt from our group's website telling you a bit about our mission:

The American Quilt Study Group establishes, sustains, and promotes the highest standards for quilt-related studies. We stimulate, nurture, and affirm engagement in quilt studies and provide opportunities for its dissemination.

As you can tell it's not your grandma's quilt get-together!  I always come home feeling like a saturated sponge from all the knowledge I gain from being there.  During the weekend there were research paper presentations, study centers, museum tours and tons of freely shared knowledge.  It is amazing event if you are into antique quilts and that sort of thing as I am!  You might even get to have dinner or a conversation with a quilter's rock star like Barbara Brackman or Marianne Fons.  Yes, they both were there!

***

When I got to the Philly/Cherry Hill area, I realized I'd totally packed the wrong clothes.  It had been cold and rainy around here for days so I packed warm clothes thinking it would be the same there.  Yes, I checked The Weather Channel's website before I left.  It was supposed to be the same kind of weather there.  Ummm...yeah right!

Well I took off in the rental car with the GPS (her name is Snagnes, short for snotty Agnes...those with a GPS will understand the snotty part) firmly attached to the windshield in search of 1) a cross stitch shop I'd found on the Internet and 2) possibly a place to buy a short sleeve shirt!

Let me just say, if you choose to go looking for a stitch shop you found online make sure you write down the phone number and maybe even call ahead.  Yep, you guessed it, I got to the address only to find the store was totally empty and a for sale sign greeted me in the window.  Yet another victim of today's sorry economy.  Dang!

Frugal Resale Shop

Not to be deterred, I decided to see if maybe they'd moved up the street somewhere.  Nope, nowhere to be found.  I learned this after popping into this cute resale shop called Frugal.  Since I never pass up an opportunity to shop, I had to peruse the store.  Besides, I was in search of a short sleeved top too.  I found a very cute owl necklace and a cute polka dot top so it was all good!

 I tried to get a good picture of the top but the camera wasn't having it tonight.

I loved that this shop is an economically and ecologically responsible business in that all the merchandise is donated and the proceeds go to a local charity.  If something doesn't sell after a certain time it is given to a shelter.  She had a lot of hand crafted gift items there too.  I love that!

The very nice owner let me know the stitch shop was indeed closed for good.  However, she told me there was a new quilt shop in the next block.  I headed up the street to find the quilt shop.  Well, I found it and it had closed a half hour before I got there.  Oh well, I guess it was just not meant to be.  So back to the hotel I went to get ready for the evening's festivities.

***

Bed turning

That evening we had our ice-breaker event.  It was a "bed turning" of quilts.  Actually, the quilts weren't on real "beds."  What we do is put a couple six foot tables together, cover them with a white table cloth and pile on the quilts.  Think "Princess and The Pea" style if you are familiar with the story.  There were eight or so different "beds" you could visit.  Each with quilts from a different local historical society.  Here are some of the lovelies that caught my eye.

Frame quilt

Lyre Quilt

Red, White, and Blue quilt

Red and Green applique quilt

Since this post is getting lengthy, I'll stop for now.  Tomorrow I'll tell you about my visit to the needlework exhibit at Winterthur and the cross stitch shop I did find thanks to the recommendation by Peggy Lee over at Kentucky Sampler.  This shop was definitely worth finding!

More later,

The Inspired Stitcher