Pennington Days and Quilts

How really sweet and pretty is this quilt?! 
This past weekend we took the day off to drive up to Pennington, NJ to enjoy for the first time their annual Pennington Days.  This festival has been going on for about 36 years, but this was our first time attending.  It will not be our last....we really enjoyed it.  Cannot begin to tell you how many vendors were lined up along a number of streets....and the houses along the way!!!!  I'm not sure about the history of the town, but I would bet you could Google it to see some of the beautiful buildings there.  We've driven by so many, many times, not realizing what we were missing.
While in town, well, really, the main reason for going, we went to the Hopewell Valley Quilters Quilt Show.
The quilt above was the first we saw as we began our tour, and I fell in love with it.  Enlarge it, if you will, to see the beautiful hand work and the many tiny little buttons applied.  So dear.

Next up, this stunner...Amitola's Gift....front and back, it was really a beauty.

Then this lovely work...all those stripped fabrics?  Ties!  Tons of mens ties.

Gorgeous applique.

 Utilizing wedge ruler.

And then we beheld this entry!  Hand done entirely....it easily got our votes for best of show.

Hand sewn and hand beaded entry....just love it!  Spider and all.

 The quilt show theme was Circles.  Many of the entries represented that theme....nicely, we thought.

 This quilt, representing the pebbles under the water of a creek was beautiful in its own right, but hung in the window, with the light shining through, WOW!

This one is entitled Weeds.  One of the weeds, apparently being poison ivy!

Again, if you can enlarge this one, you'll enjoy the delicacy of the "snow dyed" fabrics and the gentle butterflies.

It was a great little show, we so enjoyed it.  The Hopewell Valley Quilt Guild is about 30 years old, and an informal group which meets days and evenings at the Hopewell Township branch of the Mercer Co. Library.  They tell me all are welcome...no dues!

Mothers' Day

Mother's Day.....Mothers' Day....any way you slice it, it's a tough day to face once you've lost your mother, and/or all the people who have been like a mother to you.  Or it is for me, anyway. 
It just doesn't seem like it's a day for me.  It was a day for her - for them.  I loved sending them cards, little gifts, to show my love for them.
But now it's for me.  And it makes me sad. 
I want them back.
Nevertheless, my hubby and my kids do things that make me smile, even through the occasional tears, and I have to wonder....did my mom, my aunts, my grandmothers feel the same way?  I never noticed.  But they, too, had lost their mothers...and I'm sure they felt the loss on Mother's Day as well.  I just wasn't noticing.
This year Hubby gave me roses...on the hoof...so to speak...a rose bush that should continue to bring beauty into my life for a long time to come....just as he does.  His love is all encompassing...never ending...and it is my strength.

 

 

 Our oldest son and his wife invited us to dinner - he cooked a New Orleans style trout dinner and they gave me beautiful tulips.  I found I actually like trout very much when it's made his way and there are not a million tiny bones lurking.  We had a wonderful visit with them.

 

 

 Earlier in the day our youngest son and his two children came to bring me this cheery geranium and lots of hugs and kisses.  How can you be blue with that kind of attention?

And in the mailbox the day before, I found a package from our middle son, his wife and daughter.  It held a pair of pjs that gave every indication they (or she, maybe!) pay attention...I'm really particular about my pjs and these are exactly right.
So maybe my Mothers are gone on, and maybe they have left a crater sized hole in my heart, but I have very special folks still here who have their own places in my heart, and who show their love in very real ways.
I'm a pretty lucky orphan!  And blessed beyond measure.