Quilt Museum in LaGrange and a fancy lunch with Karey
A couple of months ago I was revamping my sewing-workroom and discovered I had piles of books and projects and supplies to the extent that I was having a hard time finding things. Some of the quilting books I had collected since the mid 70’s and were no longer in print, some were my Mom’s books, and some were my Grandmother’s books. People on the Quilt Art list were all talking about purging their fabric inventory of ‘old’ fabrics they no longer wanted or planned to move in a new direction. Karey B of Quilts Inc suggested a possible donation site would be the quilt museum===I asked if they would be interested in my books–to which she said “YES”
So I started sorting out my books–I kept the ones with general sewing techniques particularly the ones from Threads although I doubt will be making any tailored clothing again. Books that featured my artwork, books on dyeing fabric and two books by Margaret Cusack–a lovely lady/fiber artist I met in Ohio–my sister-in-law gave me her book illustrating the Night before Christmas. It was hard to give up my very first quilt book–Ruby McKims 100 Patchwork patterns but not so hard my mother’s first book which produced by Quilts and Comforts to provide all sorts of useful measurements–how many yards and strips to cut for binding of various quilts, how to piece backs–the yardage required–and so forth. Although I have three engineer sons, that sort of planning is not in my makeup and so I looked again at some of her notes and decided it would be well-loved in its new home.
That took awhile. I thought it would all fit in a couple of boxes—but silly me–I had to go dumpster diving for four more boxes, carried them downstairs small stack at a time, and then loaded them into my truck. Here is my empty back seat—imagine boxes of books to the top of the head-rests! Fortunately Karey and her staff had arranged a helper who quickly retrieved all the books; the librarian was excited to see some of them and remarkably was able to give me a list of my donations within a couple of days–I would have taken longer but then I would be looking through them all.
They have had one scholar come to do research in their library–which is small but very nicely organized–and of course I am welcome to return to visit my books.
Karey took me to lunch at Bistro 108 where I had a wonderful portobello mushroom burger and enjoyed general conversation and a bit of gossip.
Not to be missed is the wonderful exhibit on display now of Butterfly quilts–and Karey gifted me with an exhibit catalog–the first they have printed for the museum.
I got home around 5–had to be at work the next day—–but it was a wonderful day.
Sylvia Weir Art 