Thursday, April 30, 2015

Georgia on my mind.

What a day! Setting out at 9am we first headed out to Carrollton - a 1 1/2hour drive to meet with the lovely folk that run the Southeastern Quilt & Textile Museum. Situated in an old cotton store in the charming town whose roots are in the cotton growing and manufacturing. This industry has long since gone off shore, but other things have taken over and with a population of approximately 25,000 and all of the advantages of a university, Carrollton has much to offer it's residents and visitors.

Starting with a welcome from the Chamber of Commerce and the business association we enjoyed a lovely morning tea - proper tea to, they have an English member, Mary. 




Then we meet Tommie. This charming lady was born "up in the hills" to a single Mom. They lived with Granma & Granpa. momma worked in the cotton fields during the day, picking and in the early evening cycled to the bus and travelled to work in a cotton mill. Somewhere in her day she stitched and made quilts. Her favourite - Dutch Doll also known as Sunbonnet Sue.



They made do with flour and feed sacks sewn together for sheets and quilt backs.

Tommie has spent the last twenty years documenting any quilts that have come her way. She has purchased and made many, many quilts and tops. All are now tagged with labels like this. The quilt pictured was gifted to Tommie as a top only and when she finished it she changed the label. simple!







This memory quilt was made by Tommie using ha skies, gloves etc. Very sweet.

The we wandered downtown to lunch are the local cafes. There were fourteen to choose from. I ate at Highland Park, yummy soup. The. There was time to stroll the street and check out the bookstore, gift shop, art centre and more. Clean, tidy, friendly - can't say enough good things about Carrollton. Lots happening there this weekend. Wish we could have stayed.




P


The local University team is the...., you guessed it, The Wolves.

At the Art Centre didn't have enough storage for all of the props for the theatre group, so they hung the hats on the walls.





Jane taught us a fabulous quilt block.





The fabulous Ladies of Carrollton.





"I have a dream"

Yesterday, when we arrived in Atlanta we took time to visit the Martin Luther King Jr Historic Site.

I wasn't prepared for how I felt and what I saw. Having not visited a Holocost site or museum,mbut this is as close as I would want to come. One photo set me off. A family with young children gathered around a tree where hung a man by the neck. The look of glee on the children's faces made me look again. It really was a man hung by the neck. So awful, so sickening that so many generations have been raised to applaude racism and segregation.

Needless to say I moved from the museum quite quickly and listened to ML's speeches, watched a movie about his family's history and wandered the grounds. 

He really did have charisma! And of course, he had a dream. Imagine..............

Coming from a family of means he had many advantages in life, but the main thing that his parents gave him was a sense of fair and a love of learning.

The Noble Peace Medal


Peace Quilt



ML loved to look nice. This is a box of his cuff links.

Words from Ghandi

The Friendship Walk

Eternal Flame



The sign says it all.








Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Devil Goes Down to Georgia - or Quilters Take Georgia by Storm

No storm yet, but let's not tempt fate.

Departed our lovely Hotel Indigo, Nashville this morning and started South, via Chattanooga. Fun!
Went through a time change - lost an hour of shopping time, but caught up with a quilt store, Spool.

Spool is the home of then brad Ass Quilters Society and lots of fun, not big, but fun.

Door cover to the bathroom.

Further on down the highway we met up with our second Highway Patrol weight station. Good news is that they are campaigning throughout the States with heavy vehicles and yep, we got tagged to stop. Nice Sargent got onto the coach and told us we could get out and stroll around, use the bathrooms while he checked out our driver.

We were NOT Violators! Smitty, our pilot is ex-Fire Department and meticulous in his driving and record keeping.

Pity about the poop markon the windscreen, but this highway, I-75S is BIG! This is just all south bound traffic, the north bound are across a very wide strip with drainage and trees.


Look how tall those advertising signs are!

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Few more photos from our two days in Nashville

Diner tonight was at the Listening Room on 2nd Street. BIG food, good music.



Ribs - before

Ribs - after. No, I didn't eat my greens!

I'm reliably informed that he's a good Whangarei boy, married to an Aussie, isn't he?

Cool art from number plates.

Maybe I already told you about the Peanuts shop, well it's worth mentioning again anyway.

Same machine they used to roast their peanuts with in 1927 still does a fine job today.





Crazy wall art at the museum.

Old poster



This painting from 1857 was beautiful

Paula wearing her batman ears. Or Paula,with the AT&T building behind her 

My lovely room at The Indigo Hotel, Nashville