For me, it was the occasion for the unveiling of the Opportunity Quilt for the 2013 quilt show. When I was asked to come up with the quilt for next year, I was the victim of not being able to say, "no." However, it was one of those things in life that definitely turns lemons into lemonade. While I was stewing within myself for being a gutless wonder, a fellow guild member approached me to offer the assistance of her art group for the project. (I wonder if she heard my big sigh of relief?) This has been a difficult year in so many ways and. all of a sudden, there was a lightness that wasn't there before.
To make a long story short, the Out-Of-The-Boxers stepped up to the plate in a BIG way. I provided the basic form for the quilt and the idea (all things Western North Carolina) and they jumped in with additional content and willing hands. It truly was a group project and much better for it. For me personally, it was major. At the end, they invited me to join the group and I feel that my feet have landed on some pretty solid ground after wobbling around looking for a place to share my quilting life. (Right now, I'm drinking a BIG glass of lemonade!)
The name of our quilt is Delectable Mountains and the tickets will be on sale very soon. A member of our guild, Noreen Goard did the longarm quilting and she took particular pains to choose motifs that also reflected Western North Carolina flora and fauna.
An additional note about the Christmas dinner: The Ammons Sisters put on a program in which one sister told stories of growing up in the mountains with little or no material possessions and her sister drew the stories has she told them. I really loved listening to the stories. For some reason, I have always connected with the spirit of these mountains that I now call home and stories told by people who have been here for generations give depth and breadth to the experience. It made me think about how stories impact our lives. Years ago, when we lived in Saluda, we visited an abandoned stone bridge--called Poinsett Bridge--in the Greenville Water Shed. It was still mostly there and had a keystone type of construction. At one time, it was a route from Greenville, SC to Asheville, NC.
Not too long after we visited that bridge, I came across a book of short stories by Robert Morgan called The Mountains Won't Remember Us. In that book was a story about the building of the Poinsett Bridge which focused on the character of one of the stonemasons. It vividly portrayed what his life must have been like in those hard-scrapple days of mountain living. No, he probably wasn't a real person; however, it forever changed my perspective of that bridge. It no longer was just a beautiful artifact but, rather, was a real bridge built by real people who lived a life of scarcity and brutally hard work. Stories can bring us as much truth as history books--just in a different way. Precise facts don't always matter if these stories lead us to a new appreciation of the people who came before.
Sometimes it makes me wonder who will share OUR stories with future generations.
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