QUILTING IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, #2 (Cheri)

Yesterday's post didn't show any actual quilting, but I nearly finished my project.  (Didn't hurt that I was working on something that had been started at least four years ago.)

Maggie Moe

Apparently the Conference Center is the repository whenever churches in the local diocese cannot keep their extra-long pews or pianos, as there are many on the premises.  I lucked out and claimed one for organizing the hundreds of strips that I was using to make a quilt:

The core of the stash that I'm making this quilt from came from Monica Hawthorne, a quilter who worked for me in the early 2000's. 

I'll finish it when we return from our trip to the North and South Carolina coast and post a picture then.  (We leave for that trip on Monday morning.)

Here we have one traditional and the beginning of a contemporary quilt that others were working on at the retreat:

Both pictures by Maggie Moe

Unfortunately I didn't catch who made the pumpkins quilt.  Dave and his wife both belong to the Guild.

One day three of the others and I made a trip to a local quilt shop, which had this outside:

The Toe River Railroad was apparently part of the tiny Yancy Railroad, total track length 12.83 miles!

We also stopped at one of the very popular Mast General Stores, which deal in a huge variety of candies:

and all-around nostalgia.

The person who titles their jams has a puckish sense of humor; other varieties include Traffic and Jams and Coal Jelly.  You can also get Apple Pie Moonshine Jelly and Southern Sweet Tea Jelly.

This trip reminded me of our trip to Frenchglen, Oregon in about 1992.  (Absent the commerce I've described above.  The total population of Frenchglen is - literally - about 12 persons.)

Photographer unknown

Mark and I had a trip to see his parents planned, and had a few extra days, but no time to plan ahead.  One week before leaving, we spent an evening at the old Bookworks cafe' in Pacific Grove and explored southeastern Oregon on the (paper) map.

Frenchglen has an old hotel which is most often used by birdwatchers.  The rooms were tiny, as I recall, and everyone ate at communal tables.  (Don't blame me if my memory of the rooms themselves is wrong, as I may have confused them with the rooms at the hotel in Columbia, California.)  We had just bought a tandem bike, and had a marvelous time biking the mesa there.

Good memories!