August 15, 2018

A New Friend From Mother Earth

A short while ago, I once again went to Kalona, IA, for the Iowa-Illinois Quilt Study Group meeting. 

While there, I wandered the museum shop at the Kalona Historical Village who graciously hosts the study group.  And I found.......

.......a lovely little box full of geodes!  I love geodes!  I can never just walk past a box of geodes.  Here's the one that followed me home this time.



This one seems to have so much scope for the imagination!  I think I see a red rock landscape at the bottom, the misty atmosphere above that, and the primordial emptiness of space above that.  Yes, I do wax poetic, as the saying goes.  Geodes do that to me.

What do you see?

My collection lives on the little window sill by my ironing board.

I try to only buy ones that don't duplicate a color or style, if you will, of what I already have.  It's not difficult.  The range of variation seems to go on and on and on.  I love my geode friends!



Oh, yes, and about the quilt meeting...

This summer's speaker was Carol Butzke, collections director at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts.  She brought piles and piles of quilts from her own collection to illustrate her three lecture topics - quilts in women's lives and history, the color orange, and toile fabrics.  It was spectacular!

I urge anyone interested in quilt history to join and support the study groups in your area.  The collective knowledge these quilt lovers hold is huge, and everyone is so eager to share and learn from one another.

My experience at the meeting last spring was amazing and then some.  I added to my family genealogical information via a quilt in the Kalona Museum collection.  Really!  

    




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