Out on the town

The "Clan of the Inner Child" met this weekend for another round of festivity and fun. This time we stayed local.

The first stop was the Festival of Trees to see the tree decorated by members of our local quilt guild, Seaside Piecemakers. Three members of the "Clan" were heavily involved in this project, so the rest of us wanted to see what they'd been doing.

They had chosen a Victorian theme and had created a luscious looking confection of ribbon embroidery, lace, feathers and all of the other dainty goodies synonymous with the Victorian era. It is lovely.

Evidently the judges thought so too -- it was awarded the "Best of Show" ribbon!

Needless to say, those involved in the project were ever so slightly pleased with the outcome of their efforts. When pictures of the tree are available, they will be posted.

After lunch, we started on a project of our own -- a blue and white Trip Around the World quilt to be raffled to help a local family.

Fueled by sweet tea, chocolate, brownies, chips and dip, we finished the top in a few hours (some of us finishing more than others -- there are those of us who would so not make it in a sewing factory!). Many hands do make light work.

In the beginning . . .

How did the "inner child quilters" find each other?

I think it was the natural draw of discovering others who were equally "mature", "serious" and dedicated to "calm" and "order".

What began as a couple of us carpooling to the quilt show in Orlando has evolved into a "burb" full of women having a rolling party on the way to the QuiltFest of Jacksonville.

When the "quiltmobile" starts rolling, the fun begins. I won't say that we get more than a little rowdy, but one teen daughter wanted to know if her mother could move to less noisy spot so she could hear her on the cell phone. "Mom" explained that sitting on the roof at 75 mph would be difficult, and the wind and road noise would be louder than we were. (Perhaps a slight exaggeration on her part.)

In addition to quilt shows, we have also participated in various shop hops, visiting numerous quilt shops throughout the state. We've even had a couple of shop hops of our own.

We also enjoy an on-line shop hop. While it doesn't present the fun of all of us being together, it does have the advantage of visiting quilt shops in your pjs! And, we can compare all of the interesting new stuff we find online. (Like this -- Wrights SideWinder™bobbin winder.)

Our next "event" will be a charity quilt -- our first project together. While "Inner Child" is not a guild or a circle (more of an amoeba, actually), we thought it would be a wonderful idea to do something to contribute positively to our community. It also gives us another reason to have and all day party!