Oh, my aching

everything…

Yesterday was the great jewelry hunt of 2013.  We bagged a few.  And, we found out what Sydney WANTS to shop for…and it’s not antiques. 

We went into every jewelry store in downtown Eureka Springs, even the ones we couldn’t possibly afford.  We shopped for rings and necklaces and earrings.  I don’t know what she bought.  It all went by in a series of repeats of the same stuff in store after store.  I’m pretty sure there was a cute pair of hummingbird earrings and a beaded ring, but that’s all I can remember. 

I bought Rob a little present and at the last little antique store, I found a buttonholer and what passes for a darning foot on a machine that takes Greist feet. 

I love the surprise of finding something I want at a really good price in a place I wouldn’t expect to find it.

That free motion attachment in the lower picture is just a curlique of wire that surrounds the needle and when the needle rises, the spring is supposed to hold the fabric down for the next stitch like our modern hopping feet do.  Except with this, you don’t use a presser foot at all and this goes around the needle.  For five bucks, it’s worth a try.

We went to two quilt shops.  The first was having a big sale.  They sell the inexpensive quilts, where you can get a king sized quilt for $125.  It would cost me that to buy the fabric for a king sized quilt.  They’re very obviously machine made and serve a purpose, but I’m not really sure how many quilts they sell.  The lady working there seemed kind of desperate to make a sale.  At the other shop, The Quilt Shoppe, they sell high end quilts and only have a very limited supply of inexpensive quilts.  Their quilts range from $1200 to $2400. 

Theoretically, they are made by the Amish and the Mennonites.  They don’t let you take pictures, again theoretically, because the Amish and Mennonites don’t like their work photographed.  But, I’ve never heard of that and I’m not really sure.  I’m no expert on those groups and what I know of them is really what I’ve learned as a quilter.  They are considered such a main-stay of quilting that we all eventually learn a bit about them.  So, I looked at their quilts on display yesterday.  If I were going to spend that kind of money on a quilt made by the Amish, I’d expect something more traditional, not something made of batiks.  Or bright prints.  I’m not sure how to describe it, but that didn’t reflect what I think of as work by the Amish, or even the more liberal Mennonites.

The quilting stitches were small, but variable, so on one quilt, they’d be the tiniest stitches, clearly made by an experienced hand and maybe 17 stitches to the inch.  But on the next one, the stitches would be 8 or 9 to the inch and they’d both be the same price.  I couldn’t quite figure that part out either.  And, we couldn’t touch the quilts, so I couldn’t see whether they were variable like that within a quilt, like they’d been quilted by many hands.

She told me the last time we were there that they have quilts up to $5000 and I went in yesterday specifically to see a $5000 quilt.  They were too busy for me to try to distract them for a philosophical discussion of the quilting tradition when I had no intentions of buying anything.  So, I didn’t see what I’d have to produce to expect five grand for my work. 

We got downtown and parked right at 10 and we paid for 4 hours of parking.  At 1:45, I finally pulled the chain on that little adventure and when Sydney said “Jewelry”, I said “no”.  Rob said “I think the bank has closed.”  I could barely put one foot in front of the other.   All afternoon, my legs and calves ached and I had to have a nap, which I almost never do. 

I couldn’t resist this picture of a downtown building. 

They don’t waste a bit of space.  There is the red brick building, and behind that, a victorian house, and then the sheer side of a mountain. 

Dinner was at a fish place that we’d had great food at last year, but this year, it was so over cooked that we could barely eat it.  I was so disappointed because I was really looking forward to it and it was so good last year and I suggested it for dinner last night. 

Sydney is at the stable now and will ride after while.  When she gets back and showers, we’re on our way to a cave.  I had no idea she would be so excited about a cave. 

Everybody have a great Tuesday.  Yesterday was our vacation hump day; there was as much of it in the past as there is in the future.  Sydney thinks it’s passing too fast.  Rob keeps trying to remind her that it feels that way because she’s having fun.

(but really, what’s up with all the eye-rolling?)

Lane