Farewell dear friend...Ramona

This afternoon I went to see a special traditional quilt show hosted by the Heart of Ohio Quilters in the field house on the grounds of the Bryn Du Mansion in Granville. The featured artist had been my friend for the 23 years we have lived in Licking county. We were members of a small and intimate quilting group that met once a month in our homes to share our latest designs and explorations. Rae and I went to the pilgrimage of all pilgrimages to Paducah,KY to see their annual quilt exhibit and she was my bunk mate for our visit. I remembering the laughter as we tried to sleep in the small motel room shared with two others quilters and Virginia hated air conditioning and wanted to sleep with the room door open for the night. We were both assured we would have some evil quilt monster sneak into our room and kidnap us and our loot we had collected in the days we were exploring the big quilt brouhaha of a show. Now I have never made it to Houston but this event was memorable and enough crowds to last me a lifetime. Rae was a gift of a friend and she worked on the traditional baby quilt for my first grand daughter Maya Rose. Now Maye is ten years old and I remember wrapping her up in the love made quilt just for her. Rae and Hal were married in 1951 and for the last 58 years they have totally devoted to each other and their five children. Three boys and two girls ... a legacy of nineteen gran children to carry on her life and memory for generations to to come. I will miss you dear friend and remember your gentle way of living and the soft smile that greeted you when she walked into the room.

I played for the first time on a long arm machine quilting machine from a shop in Zanesville. I was curious and asked of anyone ever "drew" portraits onto their quilts with this incredible invention. The woman in charge of the booth, Martha handed over the two fisted control guide and off I went. Now these incredible machines cost almost 10.000 dollars and I was wishing I could buy and win the lottery so I could move of these babies into my studio upstairs. I will never really leave my hand quilting and embellishments but I do believe I could make some pretty interesting design pieces in variegated threads and then hand paint them into a transparent composition to be embellished in an infinite number of ways. Oh what FUN!!! I would like to make an appointment and visit their home store and try out the smaller version of the same machine. They make a donation to a domestic violence shelter for fund raising and signed and dated this small donation to be auction off for much needed funds needed for operation. All in all I had another day that was a gift in time... many people worked to make this event a social and educational experience to build onto for years to come. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart