I woke at 7 and realised that Deb was not up yet. She had an
early class at 8 so I woke her up and she was out of the door in 20 minutes.
I was packed all the fabric I had bought at La Grange into envelopes to send home
via post. Hmm… first adventure of the day… find the post office. The closest one
was down the road by four blocks. First issue-
I was at 700 Smith Street but all I could see was two huge buildings. I ended
up asking a man who came out of one building, who took me over the road to the
Court House which contains the post office. No external signage. Second issue of the day, because it is a federal building
you and all your items have to be scanned. I
eventually found the post office and a wonderful employee, who was so helpful
and the two envelopes became one.
First class of the day was a lecture by Lori Triplett on
Pioneer Quilts. This was the biggest disappointment of my time here. The hall
was full, but we had to go down stairs to "view " the quilts. Couldn't see or hear. There were lots of complaints and grumbling.
Next was my lunchtime lecture by Cynthia England. Great speaker and very honest about the techniques she uses.
Fabulous pieced/ sometimes appliqued work.
Lunch was a slight challenge- Breads, Chicken and rice for main followed
by cake with a few berries. Well the chicken and berries tasted good. During
our meal I mentioned how difficult/ impossible it was to find GF
bread in the city. Mandy was sitting next to me and offered to take me to the store after the quilt show. - a fairly generous offer
to a total stranger.
Next class lecture was one on using up all your scraps by
Judith Guthier. Very well presented and some lovely quilts. The last class/ lecture was
by Freida Anderson on free motion machine quilting.
Finally it was time to see the quilts
downstairs. Yes they are simply wonderful. The workmanship is superb on each
one. I might not like the colours/ techniques/ style/ subject matter but they
represent the best in the world at this time. The memorial to Sue Garman was
spectacular. Her quilts were just incredible. I took lots of photos, but by 5:30 I was flagging and tried to contact Deb. Our phones
have great difficulty in connecting in the George Brown. Eventually we found
each other and went to find a cuppa.
Next issue of the day. All the pop up cafes
except one very basic one had closed at 5. We ended up getting
a cuppa ($3.50 for hot water for me because they only had Earl Grey Tea!) and
sat and sort of listened to a presenter down there.
Mandy rang me up and arranged to meet me at the fly over to
the car park. As I said goodbye to Deb I told her that if I was being kidnapped
“make sure the kids know I love them”. She laughed. I wasn’t so sure. Mandy didn’t
realise there was a south and a north fly over. So I waited at the north while
she waited at the south! After 10
minutes I rang her before running the entire length of George Brown to meet
her. Despite having difficulty
with her phone GPS and a few “round the blocks”, she finally found a huge Whole
Foods store. I would have liked to have checked out any other items they may
have, but restricted myself to the GF bread. Lined up and we were out of there
in 5 minutes. She drove me back to the hotel- a much shorter trip with her
sister giving map directions from her phone in the back. So incredibly
generous. The city was beautifully lit, celebrating the big win and the moon
was full in the sky above.
I met Deb at 8 and we went down stairs to have a meal in the
restaurant near the hotel. Delicious salmon with veggies. Fabulous. We chatted
with a lady from LA who was going to Australia in December with her family. Another late night. 11 by the time I
downloaded photos. At least I don’t have an early start tomorrow. It is going
to be a HUGE day in Houston. A big celebration of the baseball win.
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