I'M A SUCKER FOR QUILTS AND ANTIQUES (Cheri)

As Mark mentioned, we were in Camden, South Carolina yesterday.  My day was divided between “shop-hopping” and antiquing.  Over 80 quilt shops are participating in the All Carolinas Shop Hop this September and October, and I aim to get to about half of them.

“Barn quilts” are very popular in North Carolina, but yesterday was the first I have seen a “door quilt:”

Tomorrow I’ll share a couple more antiques that caught my eye, along with quilting fabrics today that I bought which have a similar aesthetic.

In the meantime, this reminded me of a the Unemployed Philosophers Guild Presidential Slogan Jigsaw Puzzle that Mark and I finished just before I went to last week’s quilting retreat:

The graphics on this caught my eye.  It is a commendation, issued either by or to Major General John A. Lejeune (lately of “Camp Lejeune” water fame):

While I can’t vouch for the antiquity of this scary sight – and didn’t ask the proprietors to – it did appear to be authentic, absent perhaps the eye.

After I finished antiquing, we had an early dinner at Salud, an outstanding Mexican restaurant in an old brick building downtown.  We sat near the bar, which caught my eye:

Here’s a better picture of the lights hanging from the ceiling:

There were also intriguing, very large round and oval basket lights hanging over the tables, but they were too difficult to isolate in a picture.

Salud reminded me of a restaurant surrounded by boutique shops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico that we visited.  One of the shops had fabrics and kimonos.  That they had kimonos intrigued me, so I asked.  It turns out that San Miguel is a popular destination for the wives of executives at the Toyota plant in the nearby city of Guanajato!