Fall in Wisconsin

Friday was a busy teaching day at the Museum, spending time demonstrating and doing hands-on sessions with the APQS Lenni. There was a mini field trip outside to discuss a student's piece based on the old stone walls of the barn and working out how to create quilted texture. There was a select audience for my evening lecture since it was a crucial game for the Milwaukee based baseball team, The Brewers, The opening evening of local Artists' Gallery Tours and also German Fest. However, in the enthusiastic audience, was an online longarmer friend called Colleen who drove over in her Smart Car with a jar of fresh peach jam.

On Saturday there was a "Bling My Quilt" class interspersed with some more longarm demonstrations. There were many visitors to the museum that day including a Facebook friend who had come all the way from South of Chicago just to meet me! The weather was incredibly and unseasonably warm, even in the evening so we enjoyed a grilled steak from the barbecue before settling down to watch the local American football team, the Green Bay Packers battle it out with the Atlanta Falcons.

I had my Artist's Reception on Sunday afternoon and entertained a troupe of keen Girl Scouts who were delighted to experiment with the longarm in contrast to their other hand stitching projects. There were visitors from The Netherlands who were in the area visiting relatives who had read about the museum and Yurt exhibition in American Quilter Magazine. It was great to meet APQS dealers Dave and Jane Bentheimer-Brown from Randolph, WI who brought quilting goodies for me to take home. After a long day meeting and greeting, Terri and I went to a Mexican Restaurant and enjoyed a large frozen lime Margarita before watching The Brewers and Packers in action once more.

Since Terri was working at her "real" job I went back to spend my last few days in Cedarburg with Norma. Despite battling to fit everything into my one suitcase with a 23kg limit, I went on a trip to "Ivana Trunk's" antiques consignment and came away with an authentic looking Amish quilt for $35... We were on a mission to find a toy raccoon for Fenella and searched in vain at various thrift stores and toy shops.  On the way back we stopped to take photos of some imaginative Hallowe'en displays and we called in to visit friends of Norma who live on a farm with a beautiful red barn that was built in 1848. During the evening a neighbour from across the street asked if her 8 year old son could come over and sweep up leaves as they did not have any trees in their yard. His reward would be to jump in the huge piles. I gave them a hand with a broom as it was so easy to sweep up such dry leaves. It seemed like such an idyllic all-American evening in suburbia as we could hear the marching band practising at the local high school football field two blocks away.

Tuesday was my last full day in the USA and Norma took me into Milwaukee to visit the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Museum. We had an interesting tour around a terrific industrial building and the company's history was very well documented with artefacts and interactive displays. There was even an opportunity to sit on some real bikes to have photos taken. Afterwards we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum which is situated in the most incredible building that was designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. The entire structure of the building was formed by huge white wishbones and had magnificent bow windows overlooking Lake Michigan where sailing boats were skimming across the bay. My gift shop purchase was a rubber tablemat that looked like it would make a rather interesting quilt stencil. On our way out of town we stopped at a toy and gift emporium called "Winkies" where I finally found a raccoon hand puppet which will have to travel in my handbag!