Nebraska!-The Museum

One of the things the holiday time afforded was time for my hubby to get his pictures from our Nebraska trip downloaded.  So I don't overwhelm everyone with pictures (I have visions of readers scrolling down the post with a glazed look in their eyes), I will spread them out over the next few posts.

The main reason we went to Nebraska was to see the International Quilt Museum.  It was of an architectural interest to my husband since the building had won awards, and of course the quilts for me.  So here we go...

The building itself was very nice done.  The brick work hinted at quilts without being too literal. There was a lot of natural light in the common spaces and touches of quilt motifs without being overwhelming.

 

One of my favorite features was they way they used quilt motifs in neutral, subtle tones for their donor walls.

The main exhibit featured quilts using the hexagon, not my favorite but I can't help but be amazed at the number of tiny pieces that went into these quilts.

This was my favorite quilt from the second part of the exhibit which featured Nebraska quilters.  This was a more recent quilt, and unfortunately the lighting made capturing the outstanding use of color in this quilt impossible.  The actual colors were black, purple, charcoal for the dark fabric; and khaki to greenish khaki for the light fabrics.  It was stunning.

 Upstairs in the conference/classroom areas were some quilts from the local quilters.

Nice use of color

My kind of quilt--simple design, space for fun quilting

A postscript:  Since our Nebraska trip, my husband and I made another trip to see the new Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, Texas.  Again, it was the building (two historic building joined and renovated) and the exhibit that interested us.  Featuring 62 mostly award-winning quilts made in the past 25 years by Texas quilters, the exhibit was wonderful.  The space was open, airy, and well lit.  Unfortunately they didn't allow pictures, so all I have is a token photo.  Still, I would highly recommend going to anyone interested in quilts.

Next post:  The Bridge

Gifts-Part 2

To finally catch up on our family celebrations, I received a couple of lovely gifts from my dear husband, and my eldest son and his wife for anniversary/birthday:

The necklace was from my husband to replace one just like it that I had lost over a year ago.  It was one of my favorites, so I am glad to be able to wear it again.  The earrings from my son and daughter-in-law pair so nicely with the necklace.  I love jewelry that relates but doesn't exactly match. 

In my next post I hope to share some pictures from our Nebraska trip back in the fall, and that should bring me up to date, I think.   

Gifts

The holidays didn't go quite as we planned since both my hubby and I came down with colds just a few days before Christmas.  Consequently we weren't able to join the family for the celebration, making for a very quiet Christmas, but thanks to technology we were able to join from afar.  

To catch up, here are some the special things I have given and received for Christmas.  

First, from my dear husband, a lens for my iPhone:

I hope this will improve the quality of some of the photos I post here.

For one of my daughters I made what I will call a tote cloth since its original name is trademarked.  It can be used to carry produce she gathers from her gardens or kindling for her wood stove.  On a nice day, it could even serve as a picnic cloth.

This is the cowl I made my other daughter, but I will need her to send me a couple of pictures with it on to really show it off. (hint, hint :-)  )

One of my sons had my name for Christmas, and his family gave me a nice hefty knife to add to my kitchen cutlery plus a gift card for iTunes (yeah!).  

And my parents gave me a couple of quilting books to help me with skill and inspiration.

Every once in a while our family tends to do the unexpected.  At our Sunday school class Christmas party I made a steal during the white elephant gift exchange.  Even my husband was wondering what I was going to do with these.

I told him that I planned to wear them to the farmers' market, though they may not be as practical for that as I had hoped.  They aren't as warm as I might like, but they are something easily washable.  As far as people noticing what they are, that may happen occasionally, but I have come to learn that people really don't pay that much attention to each other.  And those who do will probably laugh to themselves, or make a funny comment.  The packaging gave me a laugh...construction, cooking?

I hope I didn't leave anything out.  If I did, someone remind me and I will add it to another post.  Having a cold made the holidays a bit of a blur.  Happy New Year, everyone!