Quilting and other Things

At the beginning of June, Karen and I went to two quilt shows one Saturday.  The second was held in the Sharon Temple in Sharon Ontario near Newmarket.  The temple and out buildings are a National Historic Site and one of those hidden treasures that are close to home that we often don't see.  I loved seeing the quilts that were on display but I need to make another trip back to see the temple without the quilts.  The stairway up to the loft really caught my attention.  The temple was built in 1832 and used by the Children of Peace (broke away from the Quakers).  Interestingly it was not used every Sunday.  The times it was used were in conjunction with fund raising to support their work with the poor. The website is  http://www.sharontemple.ca/ Also on the site are some other buildings including the home of the Architect, a study and a cook house.  The Architects home was open for a visit and had some quilts on beds that belong...

After Fort Henry, we headed over to Morrisburg to visit Upper Canada Village.  I remember visiting the village one year during a family camping trip and I think I was there once since then.  The mills were all running but in the 19th century they wouldn't have all run at the same time.  The saw mill would work in the spring cutting up lumber for the coming building season.  About the time the cutting was done it was time for shearing and the woolen mill would take over.  Then in the fall when the wheat was harvested, the flour mill would start up.  By each using their own particular time, they could share the mill pond. In the saw mill, these pieces where save up on a rafter.  I saw two owls.  The gentleman said ET is in there too. Bags of flour waiting to go to the bakery or the store. The mill stones came from Europe in pieces as ballast.  Once re-assembled, the miller had to make all the grove lines and little notches to hel...

On August 7 Dad, Karen and I headed out on a vacation.  We came home with more than 3,000 photos, and memories of a really good trip -- about 4,000 km for Karen and I and almost 5000 for Dad.  These are some of my favorite photos.  The first two stops were a boat cruise of the 1000 Islands and Fort Henry. The 1000 Islands cruise took us around the island for Boldt Castle (begun in the early 1900's by George C. Boldt (Waldorf Astoria) for his wife Louise.  She died suddenly and construction was stopped) but we didn't stop to explore the castle.  A passport is required to visit since its in the US.  The Gananoque boats visiting the island check the passport before leaving the dock.   Boldt Castle The "castle" next door St Lawrence and 1000 Islands Soaring off the stern The next day we went to visit Fort Henry -- I kept calling it Old Fort Henry as that's the name I remember for it but in all t...

During the trip to the UK last year, I made a very brief visit to the British Museum to see a six of the History of World in 100 Objects.  All of these are very creative objects -- the details in the reindeer using stone tools, the ornamentation and similarity in patterns across the backgrounds.  I see lots of quilting patterns in those details. The first on my list was a pair of swimming reindeer carved from mammoth tusks during the last ice age. The next was to see the Benin Plaques .  The museum has a wonderful collection of these.  The one in the History of the world shows the King of Benin in Nigeria with some Europeans in the background. TVO showed a series last year about the Lost Kingdoms of Africa and one of them was about the Benin Plaques. The third was the Lewis Chessmen  carved from Walrus Ivory and Whale bones.  The fourth was the Chinese Bronze Bells  called a Bo Bell.  The fifth was ...