Quilts in the Mill (Prallsville Mills, Stockton, NJ)

Prallsville Mills in Stockton, NJ

I only have a few minutes to tell you about the great day I had at this quilt show (Quilts in the Mill) at Prallsville Mills overlooking the Delaware-Raritan Canal and with the Delaware River just beyond

A Churn-Dash Exhibited

because I have an hankering to go quilt something! It was a kaleidoscope of a day. My friend Lynn drove down from Schenectady to meet me at this show, and brought copies of her brand-new quilting book which I will tell you about in a few. (This is exciting!) Lynn especially wanted to hear the popular quilter Linda Hahn speak and see samples of her New York Beauty quilts. Let me tell you about this show first...

I've been to this annual show before, a few times, and I'm happy to report it has grown. There were more vendors than ever before, more quilts exhibited on the mill's three floors, three ways to win prizes, and the speakers were in a second building with some more vendors and prizewinning quilts from previous years. Just inside the front door was a quilter's dreamland of fabric bits and larger pieces for deep, DEEP discounted prices. Basically, I was buying fabric from other people's stashes, but to a quilter who might want just a wee bit of this and a bit of that, this is heaven. Besides the bigger pieces folded and bundled, there were three plastic bins with a sign that said, "Fill a Bag for $1. Bag must zip." And, my friends, the bags supplied were GALLON-SIZED. So I did:

My gallon-sized bag of loot (This was fun)

And there were treasures, some of which will go into my general stash to provide variety and some will go directly into scrappy projects already started. And there were a bunch of these stars:

One of the treasures from my bag o' loot.

I only bought one star, and I'll make it into something somewhere. I bought plenty more wonderful things: there was a button lady with thousands of buttons, and a vintage linen vendor from whom I bought some antique linen hankies even though I'm just wrapping up my antique linen hankie quilt. (I guess there is another in my future.

Prallsville window (with canal)

Before I move on to Lynn's and Linda's books and projects, I have to dwell for a moment on how warm and friendly quilters and quilt appreciators are. Attending a quilt show like this is a treat for the eyes, and inspiration for the needle, but even if an attendee knows no one there are nice people to chat with. The feeling is like a metaphorical cup of tea or warm cozy quilt on a chilly evening. Even better is when an attendee runs into quilters she hasn't seen for awhile.

Jane was there, and it was nice to catch up with her. I also ran into a posse of ladies from the retirement village where  I teach Music courses. WHAT??!! What are they doing here?? It is quite a trek from their Shangri-La to Prallsville, so imagine my delight when I saw their roadtrip van pull up. We had a joyful reunion as I'm not teaching there this fall (I'll return in the Spring with The Evolution of the Symphony), and I spent the next couple of hours with tears of joy in my eyes. I'm not sure if they remind me of my mom and aunts, or if they inspire me to be like them in 25 years or so, or if it is just because they are so supportive and encouraging to me when I visit them with lectures and musical examples. But of course they were at the quilt show--they fit right into the positive vibe of these things!!

Such a charming place to have a quilt show!

So back to the show... Linda Hahn is a quilter from Manalapan, NJ, who has published two books with the American Quilter's Society (and has two on the way). Her specialty is the spikey New York Beauty pattern which I have not yet attempted. I picked up New York Beauty Simplified (AQS, 2011), and some templates and tools to rectify this lapse in my quilting oeuvre. I grabbed some shots as she did her trunk show:

That's Linda Hahn with one of her smaller quilts. Check out that quilting on the black!

The very versatile NY Beauty pattern in yet another setting.

Many of Linda Hahn's New York Beauty quilts have NY-inspired names. This is "Beauties on Broadway".

And last but not least, my friend Lynn's book. It has been a delight to watch Lynn grow as a quilter. We met when she was in graduate school at Rutgers for Music Education and I was the Music Librarian then. We attended lots of concerts given by her and my colleagues and often got together for lunch to chat over music topics and whatnot. THEN WE FOUND OUT WE BOTH LOVED QUILTING! She was kind of new to the art at that time, but she had some great ideas and lots of enthusiasm. She joined my quilt group for a bit and enchanted my gang. Then she moved back to upstate New York and started a family, so it's a real treat when I get to meet up with her at a quilt show like this. I asked her to tell you about her new book, so here she is:

In case you would like to buy the book for yourself or your library, or invite Lynn and her co-author Kathryn to speak at your guild or show, here are their deets:

AMISH SHADOWS Light Reflected by Kathryn Rippeteau Greenwold with Lynn Reynolds Makrin (2014, KayLynn Designs)
www.KathrynGreenwold.com
www.facebook.com/KayLynnDesigns

Now you must excuse me because I have to go sew small pieces of fabric together to make bigger pieces of fabric, also known as quilting!

The Quilt Show at Historic Cold Spring Village

I visit Historic Cold Spring Village at least once a year or so, usually for one of their weekly (in the summertime) special events. I blogged about the place back in 2011 right here, but today I'm focusing on the Quilt and Fiber Arts Show. We walked among the authentic Cape May County buildings brought to this location to form this little village and visited various vendors of fabric and fibers along the way. We saved the Country Store and its old-timey and handmade merchandise for last.

The Country Store is housed in the James Hathorn House (c. 1722/1780)

The Ice Cream Parlor was doing a brisk business this day...

The Ice Cream Parlor is located in the Ewing-Douglass House (c. 1850)

...and the Bakery offered some tempting treats.

The Ezra Norton House from Dias Creek (c. 1850) houses the Village Bakery

But we're here for fabrics and fibers, remember? Over at the Spicer-Leaming House (c.1817), a costumed interpreter was showing a visitor how the spinning wheel works. We watched.

Across the road at the Corson-Hand House (c. 1837), experts were demonstrating wool carding, and down around the corner my friends from Jersey Shore Alpacas had a tent set up where they were selling luxurious alpaca yarns and gorgeous soft things made from these fibers. This farm is right around the corner from Cold Spring, and Tish and Jim welcome visitors to their farm to visit the alpacas and browse through their store full of soft alpaca things. (Check the link above first, though.) They even offer workshops!

I like the crocheting and knitting, but quilting is my true medium of expression. The first bunch of quilts on display were hung in the 1894 Welcome Center. Visitors got to vote on their favorites on Saturday, and we got to see the winners in various categories when we were there on Sunday. As a person who has entered quilts in shows, I think they're all winners. It's not easy to put your creation out there for all to see and judge! Here are some samples:

There were quilt supply vendors at the Walter P. Taylor Octagon House (c. 1880 and formerly a chicken coop), and at the Dennisville Inn (c. 1836) where I got some red cotton velveteen for a crazy quilt I plan to tackle soon. I never seem to have enough cash for all the things I would like to buy (four or five hundred would be a good start), but that is just as well since I wouldn't have the time to actually stitch the stuff. Maybe this year I'll finish something and enter it in next year's show...but for now...more inspiration...

There were more quilts displayed by the Gazebo (see them at the top of this post) and that was also the site of the QUILT QUIZZO trivia game. Visitors were formed into groups by organizer Merry May, a respected and accomplished quilter from Tuckahoe, NJ. We answered questions on quilt history, quilting innovations, and famous quilters, for example, and after two rounds our Team C had pulled away from the pack. This was a good thing, as Round Three was all about anagrams, my Achilles Heel and my Waterloo. The scrambled words were names of classic quilt blocks, but it doesn't matter because my brain is missing the anagram figurer-outer synapse. But Oh Happy Day! We won!

Margie and Janet show off their Quilt Quizzo medals of fine gold plastic.