Quick Trip Up the Mountain

Last Friday the universe aligned to allow me a quick trip up the mountain to Virginia. I needed to go meet with someone about an art commission, I was two years plus overdue to visit my aunts (time flies!!) and as it happened the Blue Ridge Quilt Festival was going on, and I've wanted to check that out for a long time. So it worked well to go when I did!

I left early enough to have time to drive through my hometown and by the house I grew up in. Main Street looked so pretty!

This is the church I grew up in

Then I met my aunt and a friend of hers and we headed over to the next town over for our day of fun. First we stopped by my art meeting (yay! I have a new commission!), then we had lunch at a cute little bistro. It had hand painted murals done by the owner's 80 some year old relative...they were beautiful!

This scene shows the Duck Pond at VA Tech...the white house is where the design library was when I was a student!

After lunch we headed to the quilt show. There were lots of quilts to see...these are a few of my favorites:

'Melange' by Jennie Rayment
There was a special exhibit of her work, which are made of intricately folded elements

'Mr. Wiggles Does the Circle Dance' by Sarah Ann Smith
part of a dance themed special exhibit

This was part of a memorial exhibit
(I think...sadly I thought I had an information pic and don't..my apologies!)

'Scrappy Clams' by Alicia Stephens
Started in 2008, finished in 2014 all hand pieced and hand quilted! She didn't know how many pieces are in it but it took about 50 spools of quilting thread to quilt it!

'Italy Remembered'
artist's name was not on the tag :(

'Quest for the Nutmeg' by Nancy Oldham

'Imagine Albert Imagining' also by Nancy Oldham
(his hair is 3D...I really loved this one!!)

Huipil from Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, Costa Rica (R)
inspired
'The Quetzal Birds' by Karen Tauber (L)
This was part of another special exhibit where quilts were made inspired by tapestry pieces. Fascinating exhibit! 

And then there was this! My photo does NOT do it justice...the colors were bright and beautiful!
It has 12,000 pieces, made by Carolyn Bucklin Mullins
this is her version of Bonnie Hunter's 'Pineapple Crazy'
It won 1st in the 'Scrappy Quilt' category.
I found out later it won Viewer's Choice too!

We spent quite a lot of time there! After the show we drove around campus a bit. It has grown so much since I was there! We headed back to where my aunt's car was parked, only to discover that I-81 was backed up for miles, both lanes closed due to a bad accident. It took a while to get to her house, where I was staying the night but we finally made it. She and I met up with my other aunt for dinner, then headed home to settle in for the night. It was a long, fun, BUSY, day!

Saturday I met my high school best friend for what was supposed to be lunch, but we were so busy catching up and laughing ourselves silly that we ended up just ordering a plate of appetizers. ..and THIS

To be sure!!!! My eyes almost fell out when the (cute, 20 yr old, petite who challenged us to try to eat the whole thing) waitress set that before us! Of course we roared with laughter!!! And then....

Yes. Yes we did.

Catching up was never more fun!! (disclaimer...we were there over 2 hours...we had to keep up our strength!! lol!)

The afternoon belonged to my other aunt with a visit to her house. There are so many memories there! Almost every Sunday and every Christmas Eve was spent there growing up. Even though so many of the family that gathered there are gone, I could see them all in my mind's eye as if we were all gathered there once again. It was a special time.

Late afternoon meant it was time to hit the road home, via a stop by a new design project. It's almost an hour NE of the studio, but was right on the way home, so it worked out perfectly to roll it into this trip and stop for a site assessment.

It was a whirlwind trip, but oh so wonderful!