Of guilds and churches and crazy

I've been quite busy since our return from Houston. It seems that I can't catch up enough to remember what I want to write about. I am, after all, attempting to document some of my quilting life and a little of my life outside of quilting. In other words, quilting is not my only thing! It will, however, be more of my thing. 


Let me explain. The day after we returned from Houston (and one of the reasons we drove home on Sunday) the Cotton Quilters' Guild held its November meeting. It was rather important, since the agenda included finding out how much revenue the quilt show earned, how we'd spend that money, and voting for new officers. 


I had a show and share (the tee shirt quilt I wrote about here), but so did the other Mary in our club. Look how pretty her quilt top is. 

I don't remember exactly how much the show earned but probably shouldn't give that info anyway. We did vote to use some of the money to attend the Gulf States Guild Show in Slidell on April 14. I'm considering perhaps submitting a quilt or two for that show.

Then, of course, it was time to choose new officers. I think know I was railroaded. Nominated, seconded, voted, unanimous! And in the snap of the fingers, I was to become the new president. My reign presidency begins in January. Now, I will admit, I expected to be nominated. After all, the current president had warned me mentioned it in passing. 

What I did not expect was that no one else nominated anyone else. I was poorly prepared. I am ill prepared and likely will not get better. If the Cotton Quilters' Guild goes to heck in a handbasket, it certainly is no fault of Mary Marcotte. That's my excuse story and I'm sticking to it. It occurred to me that I don't even know the names of all the members. That thought came along well after I'd left the meeting, mind you. I have this uncanny penchant for sicking thoughts while I can fix do something any time it's too late. So I take use Scarlett O'Hara's plan, "I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow." (from Gone with the Wind) I suppose I'll think about the guild tomorrow.

Different Story (to avoid thinking)
Something of interest occurred in Houston. My friends and sisters and nieces and I were planning to meet up at the quilt show. We didn't. But we had to meet up because we were sharing the same hotel. This church steeple is so tall it can be seen from several areas around the convention center. We decided (while talking on the phone) to meet in front of the church since we could all see it. I pause here to say that my family is Catholic, but I had no idea what my friend's religion is. 

While parked in front of the church, I read a sign aloud because I do that some oftentimes. Angie (my sister) actually listened to me and heard 1) we were sitting in front of a Catholic church and 2) mass would begin in five minutes. "Wait! We need to attend mass! We can do that now." 

 

In three minutes we were parked, paid the meter, and were walking inside while calling Lee (the other sister) and her girls to tell them to come to mass to find us. Yes, Pam (oh, my poor friend) got caught in the fray and attended mass with five members of my crazy family. 

Pam was a trooper. It turns out she grew up in the Catholic church, so she was able to follow along and didn't mind being imposed upon. At least she said she didn't mind. Everyone even waited patiently after mass while I took pictures because I love churches. Patient but hungry so I got only a few pictures but some pretty good ones.

I suppose the moral of this post is that you never know what might happen when you're a Bourque girl. (Bourque is my maiden name.) And when you're with any of the Bourque family members, you are just along for the ride.

The church is absolutely beautiful, so thankfully, this particular ride ended a bit closer to heaven! 

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: Houston IQA, yeah!

We went, we saw, we walked! Oh, so much fun. Oh, so many quilts. Beautiful quilts. Vintage quilts. Modern quilts. Quilts!

I really had a blast. My sister Angie and a friend, Pam--who had never met each other before--and I spent two days at IQA in Houston. These should suffice for inspiration for a few days. They just happen to be the first ones to upload to the cloud. I'll show more in the next few days/weeks. 

These are all from the Remembering Sue Garman exhibit (I am almost certain, but it became increasingly more difficult to keep track of where I was in the show. There are so many quilts and I'm not exactly an up-one-aisle-down-the-next-aisle kind of girl. I tend to wander from shiny object to shiny object.

These indigo quilts really spoke to me. I love the blue/white palette. The two colors are clean, so every detail shows beautifully.

 Some of the other quilts that caught my attention are all these colorful beauties. Check out the dreamy rainbows of color.

 Come back for more photos from Houston. I took over 500 photos in three days. (A few are actually fairly decent.) Plus, I found a few goodies to bring home. I'm excited to show you those and to play with them. Oops, that was going to be a surprise, so I guess I can only tease you for now. See you tomorrow!

Return to GWC

On Tuesday I drove a bus of students to Southeastern University in Hammond then to Global Wildlife Center in nearby Folsom. 

The kids were tasked with learning all they could about the university, admissions, scholarships, and college life.  At GWC they were to feed the animals while learning about their habitats and needs, countries and climates, and conservation efforts. 

The photos I'm posting tonight are all from Global Wildlife. There are many more, but I've cleaned up these already.  I'll try to post some from the tour at SELU later this weekend.  Unfortunately, I can't post any of the kids here.  But I can post some on the Bunkie High Facebook page, so if you're really interested......

 

The baby animals are just so cute, of course, and they know it! They are smart little darlings, too, running around, begging for tidbits, sticking out their tongues, hopping on hind legs if they so much as think you'll tip that white cup.

The worst, though, are the cup thieves...those big, tall guys who jut their heads into the wagon, take advantage of your shock to grab the cup of feed, and lumber off, upturned cup empting into their mouths before you realize that $2 just walked off while you were unawares.  Oh, they can try your nerves!

 

And the hoards!  They come running in herds of hundreds at the slightest shake!  That white cup is one powerful little dinner bell: barely move, the rustle is a loud ring of "come and get it"!

 



Come and get it!  Supper's ready!  Yum yum, get some!  These guys understand all dinner bell calls.

Global Wildlife Center

Want to know what makes for a long day?  A field trip. 

No, no, not just any field trip: one that is about three hours from home. 

It's really long if you're the sponsor of the trip....you know, you do the planning and make sure students are where they're supposed to be.

It's a little longer if you're the bus driver because there's no napping on the bus.  And if the bus is our typical activity bus, i.e. one that rattles and fights the road, it's just a few miles harder.

But! It's a lot longer if you're the sponsor, the bus driver and the trip is in Hammond.  Worth it?  Absolutely!  We LOVED it!  As you can see from the pictures, it was definitely a trip I'd like to take again.  Maybe not as sponsor and driver, but definitely on the passenger side of a comfortable car.

More pictures on a later post.  For tonight, I'm a little tired and we have EOC testing beginning tomorrow, so I absolutely must be at school.  I'd never expect my students to field trip on Tuesday and test on Wednesday without me.  That would not be leading by example, however exhausted their example might be.

Biloxi and back

Thirty-four years ago, Richard and I shared vows in front of family and friends, enjoyed a reception that our parents put together for us, then went on a wedding trip to Biloxi Beach.  

Since we are celebrating this weekend, we decided to make a foolish trip to Biloxi.  I say foolish because we've done this before .....drive the three hours to the beach only to find that there are no hotel rooms available. The July 4th holiday always seems to extend into the weekend and apparently everyone wants to be on the beach for the big Fourth of July celebrations and fireworks.  

As I said, we've done this before, but Rich just doesn't get it.  He hates to commit to a hotel, for no reason in particular.  He just does.  So off we go, flying under the radar with no accommodations. I don't know why I go along with it, but I do.  Every time.  Oh, I make excuses and I try to convince him, but he's so romantic and there's something about his big spontaneous gestures.  

So off we went, and back we came!  It's rather funny because although we spent hours and hours in the car (the three hour trip became a 10 hour trek) we spent all of 10 minutes walking on the beach and were home by midnight.  However, we really enjoyed the road trip.  We were able to talk and catch up with each other, to make plans and share dreams, and laugh together at our own foolishness.  

Really, we enjoyed our "visit" in Biloxi.  The beach, these beautiful sculptures by Marlin Miller, the lighthouses and marina--all of it brings back sweet memories and helps to renew our love.  After 34 years, it's just so easy to love the guy, even when he insists on making foolish, romantic gestures.  I wouldn't want to spend our day any other way.

Photographs from http://biloxi-gulfport.visitsouth.com/