Chautauqua Quilt Show

Yesterday I went to the Chautauqua Quilt Show in Lake Chautauqua, New York at the Chautauqua Institute. There, now I have spelled that word enough time that hopefully 1.)I will remember how to spell it and 2.)probably cause spell check to run out of yellow highlighter. The day could have also been called, How Many Times Can You Pass Through Pennsylvania in Twenty Four Hours? Friday night I drove from Pa to Ohio to stay at my Mom and Dad's. Saturday AM (4:30 to be exact) we got up and went to gather the other people on the trip and drive to Warren, Ohio to get the bus. The bus then took us back through PA to New York, then on the return trip, back through PA again and back to Ohio, where I picked up my car and promptly left Ohio and drove home back to PA. At 6:30 yesterday evening I was 1 1/2 hours from home, at that point we rode two more hours on the bus, then I drove two more hours back home...seem a little preposterous? It was a lot of riding and would I do it again? yes! It was a great day with my Mom and her quilting friends. I loved the Chautauqua area, it is beautiful and how I never managed to visit there before? Who knows? It is not more than 2 to 3 hours from here. (unless of course you go by way of Ohio to get there) I was like a complete tourist, I could not take enough pictures of the homes and buildings. The old Atheneum Hotel was enchanting! I would love to stay there sometime, even picked up a brochure, but wow $$$$$ it might be a little out of my league and after checking the calendar of events on the way home and not seeing AC/DC, Aerosmith, Lynryd Skinner, anything Harley, or the Pussycat Dolls on the line-up for the "season", I am pretty sure that I am not getting my husband to visit there. The real clincher was when I read the rule of "no motorcycles permitted in the institute EVER" or something close to that, I knew that my visits there would be limited to bus tour quilt shows with the ladies.
The homes and buildings were beautiful and we kept fantasizing of winning the lottery and sitting and quilting, painting, embroidering, knitting, or just the sitting part on any of these porches overlooking the lake for the entire summer! Kathy and I were doing the most fantasizing because we are the ones with JOBS! I could not decide which porch that I liked best.

This is our little group. I am thinking that my outfit might need a little revision...Stacy and Clinton here I come! Check out the shopping bags, the red ones, not the human ones...we were shopping fools!

This yellow house was for sale so on the way out I had to find a real estate paper and know the price....$13,ooo...short of a million that is! $987,000, if you are not good in math!

The Institute was founded as a Christian Education Center in the early 1900's. There are churches everywhere and there are quotes and Bible verses inscribed on walls throughout.

This was one of the quilt shows. There were seven? of them scattered throughout the grounds and there were six buildings with vendors selling TONS of fabric, notions, ideas, patterns, and ANYTHING quilting, sewing, embroidery,...wow, it was complete sensory overload.

These two "little" cottages would be the first two on my lottery wish list! They were actually not that small when you studied them, but beside those mammoth old Victorians, they looked little. Loved the red and white of this one, so crisp!

With winning the lottery, I could always paint this one some crisp, pastel, sherbet colors!

I even "curb-appealed" this one in my mind with some great off-white, green and mauve combination!

And this is the hotel. There had to be over 100 wicker chairs, settees, couches, little end tables, those wicker fern planters, and some great, huge wicker library type tables on this porch. I was so coveting it all!

And this is what I bought. Of course, more projects. Even though I am not a quilter, I managed to pick up some wool, those great towels at the best price ever, the vintage looking tea towels are sort of a redwork type embroidery. They looked like a great winter project. One of the patterns is for a wool sewing kit and the other is for items all made from potholders. They were really interesting and in my mind I think that I can make some of them BEFORE my Open House that is now one month away and throwing my into panic mode!

And now for the story of the day on the home front. I made the huge mistake of leaving an entire load of wool in the dryer and an entire load of donated fabric in the washer. How did I forget that they were there? Well it has been a busy week and I did have a bout with the flu and yes, I know that was Wednesday, which basically means that everything was in there since Tuesday and maybe that gives someone a glimpse into how my household runs. My dear husband decided to wash his clothes on Saturday (yes, I am spoiled, he does his own laundry, and no I didn't train him, he came with that feature standard) He FOUND the loads of fabric. Normally I am here when he says, "I am going to do my laundry" and I manage to scurry ahead of him to the basement and grab all the "goods" and run back past him. (A feat made much easier since he has lost weight and I now can actually "scurry" past him in the stairwells WITH loads of fabric in my arms and WITH a laundry basket in his arms ) But I was not here and that is where the BIGGER problem occurred. Nice guy that he is, he decided to carry all of the fabric to my sewing room. That was the girls side of the house and he NEVER goes there anymore. It was an entire area that unless I needed something fixed ( and in that case, tidied it up BEFORE I asked) that was non-existent to him. As I was standing in line at an outside vendor waiting for my "eat something on the run so that I can keep shopping sandwich" he called with his startling revelation of my sewing room that is right now littered with among the "ordinary" sewing mess, approximately 60 candy canes in various stages of completion and then seeing that he ventured on to the attic bedroom that looks as though a craft shop exploded. Not at all happy with me, I used the "spchel ...shhhhs..crckkhglle. cell phone shkkkiihhd....batt...skkllchhh..ery must be ckkl;kjikkj....going.klkjkjchs...dead" Shop on!