Sunday, June 30, 2019

#alaac19 post-conference: Stashbusters!

Grace, Marianne, me
I've known Marianne, Grace, and Barbara for years through the Stashbusters Yahoo group.  I met them in person for the first time on Wednesday after my Mt. Vernon tour.  Marianne lives just a couple of miles from the estate.  Barbara and Grace drove through suburban and city traffic from Maryland.

Marianne provided lunch. We chatted.  We saw Marianne's stash ("the size of Montana").  We chatted.  Barbara and Grace were not about to drive home in rush hour traffic so Marianne ordered dinner and we chatted some more.  It was such fun!
Barbara, Marianne, me 




Grace's blog is City Mouse Quilter
and
Barbara's blog is Stash Overflow




#alaac19 post-conference: Mt. Vernon

Mt. Vernon is well-equipped to deal with hundreds of visitors every day.  Timed-entry tickets are for the twenty-minute house tour but you can spend as much time as you'd like seeing the grounds.  I didn't allow enough time to see the orientation movie before my 9:40 ticket and I had to hustle to get in line -- but fortunately they let me in with the 9:30 ticket holders just ahead of a group of twenty high school kids.  

Photography is not allowed inside the house. It would slow down the traffic flow!  

The grounds are magnificent.  The gardens are lush.  (Quince and apples in the kitchen garden.)  Washington considered himself foremost a farmer.  Mt. Vernon plantation consisted of five farms and woodlands.  His father built the original house in 1734 and Washington added two wings.  He and Martha had many houseguests in his post-presidential years.  

The outbuildings have been restored -- kitchen, stable, smokehouse, greenhouse, slave quarters.

My dad joked about George Birthington's Washday.  I have now seen George Birthington's Wash House. 


The Washington family vault was vandalized by souvenir-hunters.  George and Martha were removed and re-interred in an elaborate and much more secure tomb.







Restoration is ongoing.  This is the original siding -- not stone but wood milled to look like stone.  The last stripping and repainting was in 1980. 







I visited Mt. Vernon in 1974. Since then there have been many advances in archaeology and preservation techniques.  What is most notable is the cultural sensitivity and recognition of the enslaved people whose work made life on the plantation possible.  The museum has an excellent exhibit about the Washingtons and their slaves. Though they were relatively benevolent (both George and Martha wanted to free all of them),  the fact remains that they were still slaves. 










#alaac19 post-conference: Manassas

On Tuesday, June 25, I went to visit Pat at the hospital. I returned to the hotel, checked out, and went to the airport to pick up a rental. car.  Destination:   Manassas Battlefield National Park.  GPS kept routing me on I-66 but that is EZ Pass only and I did not have EZ Pass in the rental car. I know that every interstate highway has a parallel U.S. highway--in this case, US 29. It took a few mis-turns to get there, but I did.

I was in time to see the orientation film and to take a ranger-led walking tour.  I didn't take time to visit the site of Second Manassas (1862) which was a mile down the road. [It turned out I had plenty of time, but I didn't know that.]









Two wounded soldiers carved their names into the floor at the Stone House.







General Stonewall Jackson and me.




Detail of the Stone House.   




#alaac19: the quilts

The ALA Biblioquilters have been making quilts since 2001 to benefit the Hoy Scholarship Fund.

This year's display was front and center of the convention center. 

[They have not updated the sign. It says 15 years, but this is the 19th year.]






The silent auction proceeds this year:
$5350  -- the best ever!
There were many compliments.  The conference exhibits manager said the local workers who set up the show even commented: "These are great blankets!" :)







Several of us managed to coordinate schedules for a meet up photo.


Tonya auditions blocks for a 2020 quilt.


Who needs hanging sleeves when there are heavy-duty clamps? 

#alaac19 report

It's been nine years since the ALA Annual Conference was held in Washington.  I looked back in my records:  of the 33 Annuals I've attended since 1984 four have been in Washington.  (I've also been to Washington for three ALA Midwinter Meetings, several legislative days, and WHCLIS -- and three AAUW national conventions.)

Pat and I arrived on Wednesday, June 19. We had time to see the Phillips Collection   that afternoon.  (Two Chicagoans raised on the Art Institute found the Renoir right away.)

The Freedom to Read Foundation met all day Thursday. I've been the liaison to FTRF  from United for Libraries for five years or so. It's a great assignment.

After the Legacy Society lunch on Friday Pat and I went to the National Portrait Gallery .   We enjoyed several of the galleries -- and then everything changed.

 We were hustling along the mezzanine level of one wing.  Pat tripped over an electrical cord (it was taped down; she just stepped wrong), twisted and fell. Hard.  The museum personnel and security guards were great. The DCFD paramedics were great.  The ambulance took us to George Washington University Hospital. We were in the ER for five hours -- x-ray determined broken hip, MRI determined no concussion -- finally a room was available for her.

I went to see her to take her suitcase and before I left. (Annoyingly, the flowers that I ordered on behalf of the Retired Members Round Table were never delivered.) Pat  was in the hospital until Tuesday when she was released to a rehab facility in DC.  It will be two or three weeks until they deem it safe for her to fly (or be driven) home to Chicago.  Her brother is her next of kin and he and his family will arrange for that stage.  DC-area library friends have visited and will provide on-site assistance.

Meanwhile, the conference continued!  In addition to committee meetings I went to five book-and-author sessions.  Here I am with Karine Jean-Pierre whose memoir will be published this fall.  (I told her that my husband is one of her biggest fans. She signed a copy of the book to him "with love and respect." He was thrilled. :))


 The Freedom to Read Foundation celebrated its 50th anniversary with a gala reception on Saturday evening.
I used the fREADom banner I made last month in my ad in the program book.




Americans and the Holocaust is the new exhibit at the National Holocaust Museum .  I got an invitation to an after-hours special showing. (They're offering grants to libraries for a touring version.) Americans were well aware of the Nazi persecution but the Federal executive and legislative branches severely limited the number of Jews allowed to emigrate. 















I saw two long-time friends.
I've known Lorene since 1972 -- library school at Mizzou. She's been director of the Beatrice, NE, public library for 42 years. Not retired yet!


In 1981 my husband hired Bob to be government documents librarian at Pittsburg State University.  Bob was appointed dean of the library in 1985. He retired about eight years ago and stayed in Pittsburg though he travels extensively.




Here's a shot of the exhibit floor. 












I shipped five boxes of book and swag.  
They were in the front hall when I got home.

Next post:  quilts and post-conference adventures!














Monday, June 17, 2019

Weekly update: RSC, Block Lotto, and daisies

The AAUW summer luncheon was Tuesday.  There's a silent auction and a 50/50 cash raffle, too.  I donated several canvas tote bags (library conference souvenirs), some miscellaneous treasures and book, and two quilts.  The proceeds raised $959 for our STEM scholarships given to graduating senior girls.  (Adding this week's revenue to the money on hand mean that we have three scholarships funded for 2020!) 

The first-ever multi-club Rotary presidential installation was on Saturday at the historic Genesee Theater in downtown Waukegan.   Six area clubs participated, including ours (Illinois Beach Sunrise). After the event there was a behind-the-scenes tour.



















 # # # # # # # # # #
Here are six "vee" blocks for the June Block Lotto. They're paper-pieced.






I went ahead and made pinwheel blocks out of the remaining colors in the 2019 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   Here are 92 in black, pink, and purple.  They are now in a box with the previous colors -- red, green, yellow, turquoise, orange, light blue, and dark blue -- 310 6" pinwheels.  I consider them seeds for any number of quilts. Stay tuned!







One of my P.E.O.chapter sisters is moving out of state later in the summer. I made this runner as a going-away gift on behalf of all the chapter.  (P.E.O.'s flower is the marguerite, or daisy.)  The pattern is by Ann Weber and was published in McCall's, June, 2009. (Started Friday, finished Sunday!)














I fussy-cut the centers of the small flowers.

Linking up with
Oh Scrap!
Love Laugh Quilt
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward




Happy Father's Day!
Back to college, 1971. 
This essay will tell you all about pocket protectors like those my dad always used.