Quilt National [Ohio} and Indiana

I'm actually not going to write about Quilt National until tomorrow in the belief that my scanner which is being stubborj today will work like a dream tomorrow and then I'll be able to show one or two quilts of the 83 fantastic ones -- well, I didn't think all 83 were fantastic because a few were the sort that one says "How did that make the cut? Must have been a misleading slide set." But that's a matter of my taste. This picture, above is the Dairy Barn, home of QN as well as other art events during the rest of the time -- Athens is not a town one thinks of when one thinks of Ohio, but it is a very happening place -- an Ohio Univ. branch is there and so, it seems, is a thriving art community. It's in a lovely part of the state -- beautiful rolling hills, as is true mostly along the Ohio River where the most recent ice age ended, having pushed a lot of debris down this far and that debris has weathered to gentle hills and valleys.

I had a mostly beautiful drive on Rt. 32 which is otherwise known as the Appalachain Highway. From my "home" [i.e, where I grew up although the house I grew up in is not longer where it was -- purchased and moved when the road was widened -- so it is to my brother's home that I go] -- I had about 50 miles of driving around Cincinnati on busy highway, but once off it and beyond the suburban sprawl area, the highway opened out into those green, green wooded hills and some picturesque farm land. The road was not heavily trafficed so I could just drive along enjoying the rare opportunity to drive a car and be out in the country. The following pictture is a rest area with beds of day lilies.

Altogether my trip was green -- a wonderful break from the gray of concrete. I especially enjoy sitting on the patio at Joan and J.B.'s house; there are potted flowers and cacti, a huge maple tree that seems to be owned by one particulary vocal red bird, and surrounding the yard abundant woods with a variety of animals they see, but I haven't ... but okay, I know the deer, and raccoons, possums and maybe coyotes are there. I wish I had brought back a picture of the raccoon they photographed during an ice storm last winter. It stared in their windows, looking for food. "He ate with the cats," I was assured. So tomorrow, I'll write about Quilt National and I'll try not to harp on my usual theme -- that the photos and the real things are very different ... BUT IT'S SO TRUE. I have the catalog and have been through it 4 or 5 times since the show. It's published by Lark and is worth purchasing ... but it can't compare, finally to the real thing.