I just got back from teaching for 3 days at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show. Let me say first that this is a fine show with excellent quilts and vendors. The people were lovely, the classrooms were nice – all in all a wonderful experience.

The show is held in Bloomington, IN. I went to dinner with Sue Nickels, her friends from home, and Frieda Anderson one night to Farm, a restaurant featuring local, organic food. Very good.

These drapes made from old quilts were hanging behind the hostess desk. I thought it was interesting that they had been cut into narrower sections, rather than hanging much one wider whole quilt in this place. The white fabric at the top and the contrasting tabs are a nice touch.

These quilts are not museum specimens and I thought it was a nice way to have them on display.

I spotted these stone (or concrete) pavers set into the grass on the far side of the parking lot from my 3rd floor window. The way they are stacked and staggered suggests piecing to me.

Mary Ellen, a student, was carrying this fun bag. I don't remember what store it came from but that flower would be fun to applique.

I went to a yarn shop where they had this wonderful throw on the back of a leather love seat. I don't crochet but would have considered taking it up if they had had a pattern. But no, they didn't make it, they bought this but couldn't remember where.

It looks like Anthropoligie – and it looks like something I cannot afford.

Believe it or not I got to ride in a swanky stretch limo with Sue back to Indianapolis last night. It took about an hour and we drank wine and lounged on the lovely leather seats. It was a delightful (and rare) occurance. I didn't take a picture, I was enjoying myself too much :-).

On the home front, mom fell once while I was gone. Luckily she didn't break anything. She swears that she will always use her walker now and I do so hope she does. Her intestinal problems are back and she goes to the doctor tomorrow. Let me just say out loud, in print, for all to see, that my husband is a saint for taking care of my mom during a rough patch. Getting old is just hard work.

The move to their new place begins next Saturday. I do so hope that things level out for them both once they are settled in.

I'm teaching at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show this weekend. I don't remember ever flying into the Indianapolis Airport… it's very nice! Sue Nickels and I arrived at just about the same time so we rode together to Bloomington where the show is held. But on our way out of the airport we spotted some wonderful bench-art pieces:

So we sat on them and had our picture taken!

Upon closer inspection, we found assemblages of little people. Look to the left of me, just on top of the seat of the bench, do you see a little something sticking up? It's this little lady:

There were several more but this is the best photo. Makes me want to go home and put little people around my house!

I left mom home mostly alone. Steve or Lorna and kids are there for lunch and Steve is home for dinner and beyond. She's doing great I'm happy to say. It's nice to see her smiling!

Mom is now a Texan! She's staying with us for a couple of weeks until we complete the move and we are already having fun. It's been a long time since Mom has been able to come here for visit and once she is in her own place she'll only be 5 minutes away.

I brought a lot of papers for her to sort through (at her request). As she weeded through them, she found birth and wedding certificates. When she found hers she looked at me and said that I probably should know something. I was not sure what to expect because she seemed so serious.

It turns out my mother has a first name that I never knew about! My mom is Zena – a warrior princess! (OK, I know they spelled it with an X, but it's pronounced the same.) She hated the name Zena growing up and I don't think she ever went by it. Even now, she's not crazy about people knowing. I told her I was going to blog about it and half of her was sort of pleased and the other half was not so sure. So don't any of you call my mom Zena.

My mother had an Aunt Zena who had black hair, twinkly eyes, and a hot temper. She raised four boys. Mom said her Aunt Zena was always an adament anti-smoker until she got to her 70s and then she 'smoked like a firestack'.

People describe my mother to me as a sweet, thoughtful lady – and she is. She is also tough. She grew up poor in West Virginia coal mining country. She got out of high school and went to work in a law office. She met my dad, they got married and moved to Oklahoma. She raised us, and went back to school when it was unusual for a woman in her 40s to do that. She earned a nursing degree and worked for many years as an RN. Daddy has been gone many years and mom has soldiered on. I think she is a perfect warrior princess!

On a related note, when we named our boys Harley Christopher (who we call Chris) and Arthur Jeffrey (who is Jeff) she said that it was a bad idea to make a kid go by their middle name but she never said that she knew that because she had done it her whole life! We didn't listen and the boys have somehow managed to survive. Mothers can be so funny :-).

PS – Mom does not look remotely like Lucy Lawless.

I wish I had thought of this – but I didn't. You can thank Molly from The Purl Bee. Her trivet is made from big felted wool balls just like the ones we have on our site. I think I'm going to have to make some!

Click here to read the instructions from Molly's Sketchbook.

On the quilting front, if you tried to find the May Baskets kit and couldn't that was my fault. The html got messed up and I missed it. It is fixed now. If you want to see it, click here.

In other news, I flew home at the crack of way before dawn yesterday and came home to weather that was warm and humid – just like it was in Naples, FL. Steve was babysitting Jack and Elanor and we decided to take a short trip to the park.

Jack loves the purple dinosaur…

And he can be fierce…

Elanor decided to hop on since I had the camera out…

They roamed over the park. This is a small park but there are a variety of things to climb and swing on. I'm not sure how the dome-shaped monkey bars have managed to escape being replaced with something safer but I can say that both of our grandkids love them…

Jack, at not-quite-3 1/2, is very tall and strong for his age.

In other news, Mom is perkier and excited about the move. Christy is doing some packing and getting as ready as she can be until she gets more boxes. Both of them are looking forward to being in Sherman – and I'm looking forward to it too. Nice how that works out!

Have you ever wondered about money? Where it comes from, how it works? I've not spent a whole lot of time on this but I finally did get around to listening to the podcast from This American Life from January 7 entitled The Invention of Money.

This American Life is a radio show on NPR. Some of you will already know it and some of you will not. It's worth a listen. I enjoyed this show in particular, especially the last segment on how the Federal Reserve works. (That's Ben Bernanke, the chair of the Federal Reserve, looking younger and more carefree than I remember.) It's even more strange/magical/scary/impressive than I thought it might be.

I'm still in Naples, FL. It's warm and a bit humid and lovely. The guild here is full of friendly, happy women and we've had a very good time together so far – with one more day of class to go.