This past week I had the pleasure of lecturing and teaching at The Gathering in Nashua, NH. It was a pleasure for me to be there to help celebrate their 20th Anniversary. I taught the first year of The Gathering and my how it has grown. Marie Geary and Jeanne Glenfield started this show and ran it for many years. We lost Jeanne last year to cancer but her daughters have taken over the reigns and are doing a super job…….They even managed big smiles at the Opening Night Banquet. The room overflowed with well wishers and Jean’s daughters grabbed a small nearby table to eat. Not sure what the “sign” was for, but it was not for our event. We all did have a chuckle about reading it very carefully. Jeanne, I am sure, is looking down from above so proud of her daughters and their labor of love and carrying on a legacy.
There was a special exhibit of Jeanne’s quilts. The quilt above is called, My Lancaster Tribute. I enjoyed looking at the wonderful exhibit of all her quilts and reading the descriptions.
This quilt caught my eye! It is called Mini Big Quilt by Caroline Murphy. I even recognized some of the blocks from my books in this quilt. It has 49 mini quilts using 16 2″ squares and has over 14,000 pieces…..that is a labor of love.
I live in New Hampshire were we are treated to beautiful fall foliage. This quilt made by Patricia A. Bruno and is called Autumn Birches II. Just stunning and great depth.
I’m not usually a “pink” quilt person, but the award winning quilt was just stunning! I usually take photos of the labels so I can tell later who made it. Oooops. I forgot to get this label.

This red and white award winning quilt is another show stopper. I did get a close-up of the workmanship in this quilt. The quilting was just amazing.
Isn’t it funny how a quilter is often asked how long it took to make a quilt? I imagine lots of hours went into the quilting and piecing of this red and white quilt, but I don’t imagine the quilter was counting them. She was just enjoying the process.
Life in Holly Ridge made by Nancy Prince was another amazing artistic quilt. Nancy wrote that there were 50,000 yards of thread and 5 million stitches used to create the thread painting design.

I stood there and studied the details in this quilt for quite some time. Her grandchildren are the merchants in the town. I would imagine that anyone who can create that much detail in one quilt considered it a labor of love.

I came home from The Gathering feeling filled up with the priviledge of seeing so many labors of love.
All the best,
Carol

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