Saturday, April 28, 2007

Female Quilters and Male Mechanics

While visiting family in Kentucky, I took time to visit the 23rd annual American Quilter's Society Quilt Show in Paducah. I've been twice before, once many years ago, and once about five years ago.

I'm not a quilter - just an appreciator. But, this show is pretty amazing. Top prize is $20,000 and went to the same woman who won last year. Be watching this space for more info on her, as well as other quilters, who agreed to be interviewed for the blog.

One of my favorite pieces was called La Belle Rouge by Mary Chester of Rantoul, Illinois. It won an honorable mention. I loved all the different motifs she included.




I took many, many, many photos and will be sharing more as I go through them.

After the quilt show I came back to Jim's where he, Jackie, and Mattie's brother, James, were standing around the open hood of Jim's car. It was such a contrast to the very feminine world of quilting, although there are some men who are well-known in that world. But, I left the world of women to go to three guys standing around an open hood.

We were all teasing James, but he was the one who had offered to help in the first place. I just thought it was so typical and humorous to see three guys peering into an engine.

Jim was pointing out things he had replaced last winter...




And James and Jackie were nodding in approval.




It was a very male moment, although, frankly, Chrissy is a good mechanic... but she was working today so wasn't there for this.

Movies on the Barn

Tonight Mary Ann and Jackie hosted a movie night for everyone in their church. Probably about 50 people came. It was the brain child of their youth minister, Scott. I met him and his wife, Stacey, today. They're really nice folks. Scott did the setup, with a little help from Jackie, but it was really Scott's baby.

The backdrop for the movie screen was the barn.




Scott came out earlier in the day and set it up. It worked out really well. They had a great sound system and everyone brought their own lawn chairs.

Mary Ann popped three bags of popcorn.




Zona (in the white) and Janice (in the colorful sweater) helped bag it up as Mary Ann dumped out one panful after another. More than a couple of people had never seen popcorn popped in a pan.




I think everyone had a great time. The movie was good and it was a neat way to see it. Oddly enough, I had been out earlier in the day to take pictures of some old barns around. I'm glad I got a photo of this one before it had a movie screen attached.

Jackie, of course, was ready to supervise the popcorn making.




I may have mentioned here before that Mary Ann has tons of hummingbirds in the summer. They are just starting to arrive. The first part of the week there was one, the next day two, and now there's a small group of them.

At the height of the season, Mary Ann uses about 25 pounds of sugar a week to make hummingbird feed. They will empty all the feeders multiple times a day.

It was a little late in the day, and digital cameras are not quick enough to really capture them, but I did get a quick snap of a couple of them.