Visit with a friend and triangle progress!

Last Friday, I headed down to the Boston area to visit with my dear friend, Rita.  And we had a wonderful visit! I was mistaken, in that she is 86, not 91!  (She's my dad's age, not my mom's!  Brain cramp!)

I met Rita when I first moved to the Boston area, back in 1996.  I had been quilting a little previous to that, but thought if I joined a guild, I would get into it more.  So I found the local guild, Crosstown Quilters, and showed up at a meeting.  I was early, of course, and the few gals there said to sit anywhere, so I plunked myself down at the middle table, so I could hear and see everything!  Turns out......I picked the best table, because Rita came and sat next to me.  She told me years later that she thought I had spunk, plunking myself in the middle of everything!  Ha!  We became fast friends, and she invited me to the local senior center, where they met every Thursday for quilting and every Monday for rug braiding!  I had always wanted to learn to braid, so of course, I started going with her!  What a great group of ladies at both meetings, with the quilters from the guild's center table making up most of the group at the senior center!  Nice......I already knew them!

I learned so much at these groups, where all the ladies were well into their 60's, and some in their 90's!  Amazing talent, and they were all willing to share ideas and techniques with this 'spunky' 34 year old!  I was very lucky to be there!  What's more, is that the senior center was an old victorian house in town, and I just loved being in those surroundings!  Sadly to say, the upkeep of the old home was too much for the town to manage, so the meetings were moved to the town municipal building, and the old victorian 'Hersey House' has gone to disrepair.

But back to my visit with Rita.  She does all sorts of crafts......quilting, rug braiding, counted cross stitch, crewel work......and it's all lovely!  Here are some of the things she's kept, because she gives most of it to her daughters and grands.

I just love her rugs.  The one in her dining room is over 30 years old!

Gorgeous crewel work!

This little hexie wall hanging was fabric salvaged from an antique quilt top that the neighbor found in a dumpster!  It was terribly torn up.....rags, really......but Rita salvaged what she could and made this beauty!  The hexies are 1/2" sides!

Here's Rita with her latest piece of crewel work.......it's really lovely!  She's such a sweetie!

And here's Rita with our good friend, Dottie, who conspired with me to set up this get-together.  We had to keep my visit a secret, because Rita will fret herself into a tizzie worrying about me visiting!  So it's much better to surprise her!  And she sure was!  We had a lovely day of just talking about quilts, and stitching, and did a little show and tell with our past projects!  Dottie brought lunch, and we had a perfect day of it!  Fun!

Now, of course, since I got back from Boston, all I can think about is my Triangle quilt!  And if you happened to read the comments from my last post, you'd see that Linda C from Quilts in the Barn blog actually owns that inspiration quilt!  Holy cow!  What are the chances of that!?!  She bought it on Ebay, and I'm so glad that wonderful quilt went to a good home!  Upon further inspection of my pic, I realize that the 'matching' fabric I have for the offset triangles is just slightly different.  It's the same print, but the original has a bit of red on those little black marks!  But that's ok......I'm loving it 100%!

Here's my progress in the last couple of days!  I just can't leave it alone!  lol

I'm going to have to refigure the setting for this quilt.  Because we have a footboard on our bed, I always make quilts to fit the bed so it doesn't get tucked at the end; the binding just rests next to the footboard.  So when I do a quilt, I have to make the long sides the top and bottom!  It usually doesn't matter much, because blocks are blocks......but I just realized that I am preferring the triangles not to 'sit' at the bottom.  Here's a pic of the original again, and I really like looking at it from this angle.  What do you think?

And......a big 'Thank You!' goes out to Rachael at Blue Mountain Daisy for reminding me to take a pic of my peonies!  This one is nearly gone, and I didn't even think about it!  Thanks, sweetie!

Ok......I'm heading back to the sewing room.......triangles are calling me!

Have a great week!

regan