It was hot on Saturday. And humid. But i had agreed on behalf of my quilt group that we would do a presentation about quilting at the historic Mount Bleak House, built in the 1840s, which is on the grounds of Sky Meadows State Park. The parks department likes to have events that reflect life at the time the house was lived in...crafts, music, history, etc. We would do a talk about quilts from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then demonstrate quilting from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
I recruited my friend Diane to do the presentation because she's very knowledgeable, has a lot of experience making quilts including some out of reproduction Civil War era fabrics, and is very confident in a group situation. I brought a bag full of quilting books and several quilts, Diane brought two baskets full of quilts, April brought a quilt rack and several quilts, and we set up on the lawn behind the house. And waited. And waited. We thought things would be slow, but had no idea that only a handful of people would come for the program.
I thought we'd be standing up in front of a crowd, talking, showing quilts, refolding them, answering questions...instead, we sat on the rocking chairs and had a fabulous day getting some quilting done. Diane had fun reading my books! April worked on a coiled rope basket bag, i did hand quilting on my fortune cookie quilt and on the bunny quilt for my sister, when Dee arrived she sewed the binding onto a Christmas kitty quilt, and when Jeanne arrived, she had a binding to put on a Christmas quilt as well.
Diane, April, my rocking chair, Dee
Jeanne
Afterwards the ranger/volunteer coordinator said that next time they would make the program shorter--the afternoon only, when people are more likely to have finished a day hike or to be in the park for a picnic. I don't think any of us felt the day was wasted...it was amazingly peaceful sitting under the huge hickory tree, looking out across a misty valley that didn't look much different than it would have looked 100 or even 200 years ago.
