22-Inch Quilt Contest/Exhibit Feeds Needy Children

Special to the Readers of the Killer Hobbies Blog...

The overwhelming need to feed needy children inspired Judy Howard, owner of Buckboard Antique Quilts, to sponsor the “Food for Body and Soul Touring Quilts” Contest and Exhibits. The exhibits are touring the U.S. for three years with all proceeds from the $100/week-end exhibit rental and accompanying 1905 Cookbook—Food for Body and Soul going to local soup kitchens and food pantries. Judy is also donating 100% of sales of her 150 antique quilts, tops, blocks and vintage textiles on to feed needy children. Learn more about the antique quilts at Buckboard Quilts.

See Heavenly Patchwork for quilt photos, entry and rental forms, calendar of shows and sample recipes and stories. Deadline is February 25, 2012.

These two hundred 22 x 22 inches and larger touring quilts capture the essence of pioneer cooking, ethnic customs, vintage kitchen collectibles, passion for food, family, celebrations and holiday traditions.

It's not too late for you to enter your 22-inch quilt to receive a free copy of the 1905 Cookbook--Food for Body and Soul and a chance to win $2500 in prizes.

Please mail your 22-inch quilts to 12101 N. MacArthur, #137, Oklahoma City, OK 73162.

You can reserve this exhibit for your next show, civic or church event by emailing BuckboardQuilts@cox.net or calling 405-751-3885. Displayed in as little as 20 feet, sixty 22” quilts can be hung in 40 minutes displayed three up, back to back, or spread out for maximum effect. Drop-down labels on the quilts feature heart-warming stories.

Election, Quilt Show

I don't know how this got started, but I am an election judge. That title sounds important, but all I do is help people voting at the polls. There are various stations at a polling place, where we check people in ("Are you Registered?"), hand out ballots, answer questions, explain the ballot, and made sure they put the ballots into the recording box properly. I don't mind it, except it's an extremely long day. Polls open at seven and it takes about an hour to get set up, which means we have to be there at six; and they close at eight, and it takes another hour to take everything down and run the count, which means we stay at least until nine. It all must be done according to a lengthy, important list and we're all amateurs, which is why the setting up and closing down takes a long time.

Am I complaining? I suppose I am, but I'm also glad to get this glimpse of behind-the-scenes, how-it-works in elections. It's an honor and an important part of living in a democracy to be able to do it -- but it is a very long day. Just two hundred and twelve voters turned out in this off-year election, out of a possible thirteen hundred registered in the precinct. Last year brought out a huge number and we registered over two hundred new voters.

One thing that means is I am writing this on the fly again, so again I apologize for the disorganization, if any, of my post. Boy, two weeks in a row of disorganization!

Last Wednesday and Thursday I was in Des Moines at their Events Center, attending a big quilt show. Linne Lindquist's booth, The Craftsman's Touch, hosted me. My hat was a success -- I'll try to post a picture of it. It's a pilgrim's hat with feathers, meant to suggest a witch's hat. One seemingly minor thing that happened lingers in my memory. A young woman came to the booth and bought a number of books with quilt patterns in them. She was having a good time, she really liked the books, she and Linne talked and laughed while she way paying for them -- not that unusual. But our booth was at the end of an aisle and the wall across from it had a row of folding chairs so people whose feet were giving out could rest for a little while before continuing the search for the perfect gadget or fat quarter or pattern. On one of the chairs was a young man whose whole attention was fixed on the young woman. The sweet fondness of his expression, his obvious delight in her pleasure was like a lit candle in a dim room. This wasn't a noisy, newly-wed delight, there was depth and understanding in it. They weren't having fun together; she was wholly invested in the show, he was pleased to see her enjoying herself. He joined her after she finished her purchases, she took his arm, and they continued up the aisle, and I smiled after them for several minutes. What a joy it was just to be in their company for that brief while!

Monday night I gave a talk at a suburban public library -- Westonka Library in Mound -- and the turnout was surprisingly great for a weekday night. Lots of the attendees had actually heard of me and wanted to know more about my books and the characters in them. The woman who runs the library did a great job of letting people know about my appearance. I am ashamed to say I forgot my hat. They asked me to bring books to sell, and I was so busy filling a case with them and getting it down to my car I forgot to wear my great new hat. What's interesting, is that several of the attendees know about my hats were were disappointed. If any of you are reading this blog, now at least you know what I should have had on my head.

A Poem Lovely As A Tree

Okay, here’s the image. Isn’t it beautiful? It isn’t a painting, or not exactly a painting. It’s fabric applied in layers and touched up with paint. The artist is Doris M. Deutmeyer, of Dyersville, Iowa. She also quilts.
The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels is coming up September 29. There is a very, very old belief that if you eat goose on Michaelmas (pronounced in England "Mikkelmuss") you will not want for money for a year. We’ve been doing it for more than twenty-five years and it seems to work. It won’t make you rich, it just stops the fiscal emergencies. You know, there are some of us always a day late and a dollar short. Now you still might be late, but you’ll have the money – sometimes barely enough, but always enough. The big problem with trying to celebrate Michaelmas is acquiring a goose to roast. They are expensive – if you can find one at all. It’s too early for the Christmas trade in geese, and free-range farms are often still fattening them. One year we looked and looked and finally found a butcher who had a frozen one in the back of a big locker, left over from last year. This year we’re having a very small dinner (eight guests), having lost our site (we sometimes feed as many as forty). Not knowing if it’s the goose or St. Michael the Archangel that does the trick, we hedge our bets by saying a traditional prayer to the angel ("Defend us in battle . . .") and singing a parody: "Amazing goose, how sweet the flesh / That saved a wretch like me. / I once was broke, / but now I’m flush; / I’m saved from penury." It’s a pot luck, everyone brings a dish to share – maybe that’s what the secret is. If anyone else out there does it, let me know how it’s working for you. If you want to try it, contact me for the rest of the parody and the prayer and a good recipe.

I Think That I Shall Never See

Last week Thursday I went down to Madison, Wisconsin, to attend a Quilt Expo at the Alliant Energy Center. This is an annual affair, I’ve been to two or three of them. This time I was too busy to have time to walk around and see the quilts or vendors – except the few booths I walked by on my way in or out.

But: One booth on that route offered a form of artwork that called for cutting out fabric and "fusing" it in layers to make a landscape. The person running the booth had models, of course, but also another piece to show the possibilities of her method. It was a naked oak tree rising against a multi-colored sky. She had used paint to color the sky and touch up the tree’s limbs. I have a weakness for trees. I love really big trees, especially cottonwoods, oaks and maples. (I also love badly-formed evergreens, the kind that grow where the prevailing wind or bad soil distorts their shapes.) This tree was for sale. It was beautifully finished and framed and it cost a whole lot more than I wanted to pay. I told myself I couldn’t afford it, and walked away. But I had to pass it every day on my way to and from the booth where I was sitting and signing books.
So I suppose you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that it’s sitting on the floor beside my desk waiting to be hung where I can look at it every day.

I think I am going to try to post again later today, putting up the image of that tree. I am not very skilled at this computer thing, but I want to share this image.

WHOOPS!

I had to get to a "Career Day" fair at a local high school and was so busy making last-minute preparations and then getting out in the morning that I forgot to create and post a blog. I apologize.

These career day events can be terrific as well as an awful nuisance. Today we were faced with teens determined to show no interest whatsoever and it was like digging for diamonds in the mud during a monsoon while deaf to get even a slight indication of interest. At the same time, now and again a slight flicker of interest would show on a face despite all efforts, and when I offered a two-page handout on How to Write a Mystery Story, several drifted by after the class to unobtrusively pick up a copy. I was fortunate to share my presentation with a young man who, with a cousin, has set off on the small-press route to publishing children's stories. He was personable, funny, intelligent, engaging and between the two of us (anyone who writes about murder simply must stir a teen's heart to some small degree) we did all right the three times we did our thing. I only wish we had known we'd be working together, as I know we could have done better in collaboration. Maybe next year. We both handed out bookmarks, and perhaps some of the teens will bother to try our books.

This past weekend Ellen and I drove in horrible weather to Chicago (well, Rosemont, a suburb) to attend the International Quilt Festival. I was at a table with two authors and a stitcher who had done a quilt so amazing it made me want to go home and throw my fabric away. Her name is Sieglinda (seriously!) Schoen-Smith and she did the quilt as an illustration for a children's fairy tale about tiny children-fairies who live underground and who come out in the spring to paint the flowers. Gorgeous, gorgeous work, applique and embroidery. (See http://www.quilts.com/webcast0325/JudgedShow/Best%20of%20Show_Master%20Awards/Mother%20Earth%20and%20Her%20Children.jpg.html) Tiny, tiny stitches on the faces of the children. Advanced quilters would stand and stare at her work then shake their heads and walk off. We did the show Thursday evening and all day Friday, then Saturday drove to Palos Heights where I spoke to a stitchers group and sold books after a delicious luncheon.

Tuesday I am going to interview a brewmeister about microbreweries for Blackwork -- one of the main characters shares ownership in one. (I need a reason for her to rub up against the murder victim and quarrel with him, and since he's a drunk this seemed a good way. It also gives me an excuse to learn about microbreweries.)