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Monday, September 19, 2011

Scenes from Holton!

What a busy week and weekend. I suppose it’s nothing new. This is the way we roll! I go go go go go and when night falls, I crash and sleep hard, and get up and do it all over again. Sure beats the alternative, doesn’t it?

We had a great visit with DH's cousin and her hubby, we chatted for 5 hours about EVERYTHING. Boy, don't we sound like a bunch of old fogies reminscing?! Wait --- I guess we ARE! Anne is also a long arm quilter, so we had lots in common to talk about. They were visiting from Washington state, visiting her son and his family in Charlotte, and will be heading back to Washington state in a few weeks.

The only quilting that got done last night was one section of binding with my feet up in the recliner in the evening before I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and headed to bed. But even one section is progress, right?

This morning I was going through some of my pictures of my trip to Kansas last week…I never keep ALL the pics on my camera, I transfer them over to my big storage thing here, just in case I lose the camera, or it crashes, etc. Those memories are precious! I start each trip new with an empty camera.

I saw a bunch of street scene pics that I took as I walked around the courthouse square during my lunch break!

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Welcome to Mayberry Holton Kansas! I just loved this little town. Unlike a lot of small towns, most of the businesses downtown HAVE businesses in them! Businesses of all variety. There was a yarn shop, and everything! One of the gas-station mini marts on the corner said it made it’s own fresh donuts daily --- I never got down there, I was side tracked by Marilyn’s cinnamon rolls, but I can imagine the “regulars” stopping in for coffee and donuts before starting their day.

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The “OTHER” side of the square. See that center tan building? That’s where our workshop was! Here I’m standing on the lawn of the courthouse….Quilts on the Square is at the far right on the corner of the brick building.

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This is the “END” of Quilts on the Square --- I love that old Levi’s logo! It used to be the Lutz department store. Do you see that brickwork?? It was like they had put quilters cables into the brick work….

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This me shooting UP at it! I also think you can see the “flower” shaped bolts at the bottom of the picture. Those are the ones that Mary painted inside to actually LOOK like flowers in this post HERE.

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This was the old State Bank of Holton!

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Another view with wonderful brick work. I loved that bay window! What’s fun is all the cobblestone bricks that still line all the streets around the square.

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See the cobbles? And you know about my love of old Post Offices! This is a GREAT one!

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More street scene! I love those arched windows on the right. When I was a teen, it was my dream to go to college, and live in an apartment ABOVE a shop. That never happened, but if it had, THIS is the kind of building I would have loved to live!

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Look at these beautiful windows! They just don’t build like this anymore, do they?

When I checked into my hotel on Thursday afternoon, I had a couple of hours before it was time to go to dinner. The drizzle rain had stopped, and I took my legs on a power walk around the neighborhood just off the square. I probably missed the BEST Victorian houses, but I still got an eye full.

Can you tell that small towns are where my heart is? We’ve lived in several. I still live in a small town. So small it doesn’t even HAVE a courthouse square…..but they just built a new city hall, and it is too big, too bright, too modern for my liking!

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I also loved all the colors of the flowers everywhere you turned down town!

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Aren’t these colors just vibrant? Reds, greens, pinks, oranges, white ---

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And what is Kansas with out a bit of sunflower yellow!

It’s a packing day. I’ve got to swap out a few quilts from the trunkshow bags and replace them with the workshop quilts we are doing in Cordova Alaska this week! I’ll be off in the morning! I’m checking the temps, and what is crazy is that the temps aren’t going to be much different than what I’ve had at the tail end of Kansas, and here in NC over the past couple days. Mid 50s. I can do that! I’m ready for that! Bring on the snuggly hoodie weather!

Happy Monday!

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:50 AM EDT

    Have a safe and wonderful trip to Alaska.
    See you in a few weeks in Maine.
    Maryella

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  2. My sister-in-law understands about losing a camera since she left hers in a restaurant last week after a day of picture taking. I suggest that even though you are backing them up on a portable drive that you put them at least 2 places. Drives fail too. When I worked for the government we had to have all the photos of the testing we did stored in 3 places. A printed version, a computer drive in one building and a computer drive in another building. I also dumped each set of test photos to a CD. Of course as I tell you this I will also tell you that I had a laptop and all the back up cards for my camera stolen when I was in San Francisco in 2009 and lost pictures of about 7 quilts completely.

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  3. Love that small town feel! And cobblestone streets, too! Wonderful. I must say, that is a big post office for such a small place!

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  4. Your quilts are so well traveled. Imagine the travelogue they could tell - the places they've been - the people they've seen. I hope I can see some of them in person one of these days.
    Linda in Southern Illinois

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  5. We live close to the county seat. It is so small that the courthouse square has THREE sides...

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  6. I could move Holton right now, I have always wanted to live in a small town. I live in Orlando now, yeck, only good thing is I have several quilt stores to shop from.
    I met a lady at one of my favorite ones friday night PJ party sew-in, she had just returned from your cruise you did. Then I get my email from Maryjo's today and it mentions Cheddar cheese fabric, I knew it was you she was talking about!! I just love that store!!

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  7. Hi, I just love those old, faded, painted adverts. There's lots of groovy ones to look at, just google "ghost signs" to see them. But beware looking for them whilst travelling can become addictive!

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  8. Love those glimpses of small town life...seems just like home!! Rest, Bonnie, Rest!!!

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  9. http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php/blog_id/4117/archive_date/201108

    This is a link to the quilt shows blog and a video Rob Appell did on the hard cases he uses to ship his quilts. I thought you might be interested as the cases had wheels and might make travelling easier for you. Apparently these type of cases are designed for golf clubs. Happy travelling!

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  10. I wouldn't want to keep up with your schedule but I sure do enjoy reading about all the places you go and the workshops you teach. Have a great trip to Alaska.

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  11. Oh, my! One of those houses looks like the one my aunt used to live in! I wonder if it's the same one. I have no idea what her address was back then, so I'll never know!

    Words can not express how much I enjoyed *your* Holton visit! (I do remember being in one of Holton's department stores--just don't remember if it was the Lutz!)

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