Isn't that the question that the teachers ask you to write about when school starts in the fall? I have written my "quilty" summer vacation essay, so I can be prepared if someone should ask me.

I spent a week touring quilt shops and quilt events on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and in the Columbus, Ohio area. The trip to Cape Cod included traveling with my sister who lives near by. We had a wonderful day visiting Heartbeat Quilts in Hyannis, MA, snuggled in a neat hideaway on the lower level of a bank (close to the ATM machine, now how convenient was that!), Tumbleweed Quilts in West Barnstable, MA, which is adding a wonderful addition on to their store, Common Threads in Falmouth, MA, in an old barn with wonderful beams and one of those sliding barn doors, Fabric Corner, also in Falmouth, and in a wonderful new location, and Sit n Stitch in Teaticket, MA (Isn't that a quaint sounding name for a town).

Thank goodness, my sister, Chris, can find her way around the area so well, because without that map in front of me, I would have been very confused. There are not too many roads, but many of them are along or end up at the water. There are so many inlets and the coastline is very irregular. It just makes me feel good all over to see all those quaint towns and houses along the way. I love the area around Cape Cod and Plymouth where my sister lives. History oozing out all around! But enough of history, what about those quilt shops? Click on each of the shop names above for they are a link to the story and pictures about each shop's visit.

The second part of my week, I spent in the Columbus, Ohio area tootling around in a rented silver PT Cruiser (If that isn't a slick little car!) Now you might wonder, why Columbus? There were three major quilting events going on at the same time in the Columbus/Athens, Ohio areas, Quilt National, the National Quilt Association Annual Show, and the Quilt Surface Design Symposium. To top off a wonderful adventure into all aspects of quilting, there were several galleries and other special quilt exhibits going on in the area: Sacred Threads in Reynoldsburg, Uptown Quilts in Westerville, Art Quilts: Small Works at the Fifth Avenue Galleries in Columbus, A Stitch in Time: 200 Years Of Ohio Quilts at the Ohio Historical gallery in Columbus, Colorfield Quilts: Recent Work By Tim Harding at the Thomas Riley Gallery In Columbus and the Quilt Surface Design Symposium Invitational 2003 in the Columbus Cultural Arts Center in Columbus. Please click on any of the underlined links above to see and read some more about each venue.

I stayed at the same hotel and conference center that the QSDS was being held, which was fun because I was able to shop the vendors there in my "down" time and visit with some old friends (not old, but people I have known a long time) Now, what were you thinking I meant?

I was pleasantly surprised with how wonderful town of Columbus, Ohio is! They have a lot of reconstruction going on to buildings, roads and also sprucing up several interesting, historical areas of town. I had printed maps out on my computer, a map from the rental car company, maps from the NQA site and information from QSDS. All in all, I did almost the entire loop around town and out to Athens, Reynoldsburg and the cute town of Westerville. I didn't get lost once, except when I was trying to find the Cultural Arts Center! There was a festival going on with tents all over and several streets closed, and of course, what is a town without some one way streets always going the one way you don't want to.

So, there I was talking on my cell phone (stopped and not driving, I might add) to the girl inside the Cultural Arts Center building, which I could see, but I didn't know I was seeing it, because there were tents on that street and it was closed to car traffic...so she routes me behind the building and tells me to park on the back street at some meters that had bags over them that said DO NOT PARK! She says "PARK and come in, get a pass" that I can put in my window... I believed her and it worked...no ticket when I finally came out, lucky me!

It was a very enjoyable week with many happy memories. I was mostly by myself and didn't have to cook a meal, or wash dishes or take anyone anywhere. It was my time and I loved it! Seeing all the wonderful, unique and varied styles of quilts was a real inspiration. It is hard to believe that a quilt can be and mean so many things. I saw quilts from 200 years old to ones I know were probably finished the night before some of the events were hung. (Isn't that always the way it happens?) The quiltmakers from all these events and shops were a talented and special group of women and men, and I am thankful that I am a part of this vast universe called quilting.

©2003 Dori Hawks

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