Visiting: Quilters and others!

Contrary to popular opinion, I have not died (yet) nor have I dropped off the face of the earth. I did, however, drop in to Connecticut where I visited lots of friends, family, nurseries, gardens and fellow quilters.

It is hard to believe that two weeks have passed since I went to a meeting of Sisters in Cloth in Guilford, CT. The Sisters are a group of 13 art quilters who meet, share their work, teach each other techniques, and exhibit. In fact, the exhibition schedule left me quite breathless and filled with feelings of ...well, envy!

Many of the venues are arranged by the Sisters, others are ones which the Connecticut branch of the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) developed. I have finally joined SAQA after many years of contemplating it, but the Ohio group is deadsville compared to the Connectucut/New England bunch. Do check SAQA, you'll be glad you did!

It was wonderful to meet with the Sisters in Cloth, they are really quite welcoming, and their work is gorgeous. I really wish I could somehow commute from Ohio to CT regularly to join them. Check out their lovely blog (and the individual members too!) here.

I was just a tad embarrassed to discover that I had met Carol Ludington before....Carol participated in the one and only class I have ever taught.... I am filled with embarrassment as since it was the first time, I needed to polish the presentation and techniques of teaching. Cringe.

Visiting other quilting groups is always invigorating. If at all possible, when you are traveling, I encourage you to do so. Quite often, you can pick up ideas and just seeing how others work, run their meetings, and just generally do things.


Visiting friends and relatives, and offering my daughter the time to re-connect with her friends was the main motive in going. I also wanted to see what I term "Big Water." Ohio has no naturally occurring lakes. While we have lots of scenic rivers, I miss the ocean and the "big water" of the Great Lakes of my home...heck! I even miss the many inland lakes which dot my corner of Michigan.

So, we did take a short side trip to Essex. See the "helicopter" at the pier? That's a large dragonfly which decided to flit into my picture as I was taking it....it looks large enough to grab one of the fishermen on the dock!