I mentioned that I had been left two items by our family friend Jo, when she passed back in March. I brought them back with me, because I was unwilling to entrust them to the postal service, because they were both one-of-a-kind items and not replaceable.
The first one - the artwork - was quite large. It's 3' by about 2' and it has a stick in it (part of a yardstick) for hanging, so I could not fit it in my suitcase- in the end I wrapped it in plastic bags and carried it on top of my carry-on.
It's based on a topographic map - maybe you can see the quilting lines that mirror the topographic contours. It's of Lake Crystal, which is a location in Minnesota, which is where I think this artist is based.
If I remember correctly, my dad bought this and another topographic-map quilt (which still hangs in my parents' living room) from the artist at a geological meeting
I can't read the artist's signature, but there it is on the back. I think Jo wanted me to have it because she knew I appreciated both quilting and maps. I'm not sure where to put it up - I was remembering it as being long and narrow like the quilt my parents had, and it won't fit in the place I was thinking of for it. I'll find a place, though, even if it's in my bedroom.
(Update: a little searching online, I found her name: Shelley Cords-Swanson)
The second item is something I made for her. She had given me a huge box of leftovers from dressmaking (she made a lot of very nice clothes for herself, I guess mostly back in the 1950s? That's when most of the pieces dated to). I used some of them for clothes for my collector dolls and some for quilting. And I made her this for Christmas 1997, partly as a thank-you:
It's a crazy quilt, but a more "contained" one - I made a series of patches (If I remember correctly, I did the "stitch and flip" technique, like string piecing or log-cabin style) and then stitched them together. I just tied them because I had limited time and also a lot of the fabrics were fairly thick. And it's meant to be for display, anyway - it's only about 24" by 18".
She made a tag for it, which I guess is good, it meant the attorneys were pretty clear it was the piece it was and that it was to go to me:
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One more photo - they decorated the church for Christmas the weekend I was gone. This year, they decided to use (or maybe, they FOUND after a long time) a box of Chrismons that I don't ever remember seeing. One other woman said she remembered the CWF making many of them years ago. As far as I can remember, as long as I've been here (about 20 years), they used ribbon bows and gold angels on the tree.
I like this much better. For several reasons - they're symbolic in interesting ways (most are symbols of Christ), they're more varied (all the angels were the same, so this makes for a more visually-interesting tree. But also - the church I grew up in and the one my mom attends now use Chrismons on their trees, and so there's something familiar and nice about it. (And ten years ago? I made some with the youth group - those, I encouraged the kids to take home to decorate their own houses. I might still have one or two of the ones I made in with my tree ornaments.)
This is the church's tree this year:
Like I said: I like it. I think it was a good choice they went with these this year
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