Quilt Show Drama

MAJOR drama at the quilt show yesterday.

Perhaps you've heard about the drought in Texas that's been going on for the last 6-9 months? Well, this weekend the heavens decided to open up...to the tune of about 9 inches of rain in downtown Dallas over Saturday and Sunday. And 5 of those inches fell between 1 and 4 on Sunday afternoon.

Unfortunately, Market Hall sits in a depression right next to the freeway. About 1:00 I noticed about 1-1/2' of water in one lane on the street next to the hall. I figured there was drainage problems because of concrete barriers on either side of the lane. At about 1:45, both lanes were under water and cars were stranded all the way down to the freeway service road. At this time, cars were STILL trying to forge the stream. What part of "your headlights are under water - that's not a good thing" do these bozos not understand? By 2:30, water was creeping up the property towards the access door nearest that street. By 3:00, water was at the door, the southern parking lot next to the freeway was under 3 feet of water, half of the northern parking lot was under water, and the 2 major access freeways into downtown were closed. I called Russ who was coming to help me load up and told him there was only one way to get here and he better leave the house then. By 4:00, the other vendors were pitching a fit about how they were going to get out of the hall and the show staff were encouraging guests to stick around until the police could figure out how to get us out. It was major drama all afternoon - and I was too wrapped up in it to take pictures!

Russ did make it in okay - being a distribution (route) manager for a major dairy in Dallas helped him know which roads would be passable. The show staff did a great job organizing us to get out (we got to drive our cars into an adjacent hall) on such short notice. All in all it worked out fine, but it sure made me glad we have tall cars. One of my customers' brand new car was flooded in the parking lot. We got out relatively quickly and unscathed. I'm real glad it's over.

I did manage to take some pictures of quilts that appealed to me - I'll be posting them over the next few days.


This one is for Bonnie. This quilt takes pieced trees to a whole 'nother level.....














This quilt is an interpretation of Piece O' Cake's "Everyday Best" pattern. I liked this quilt the minute I saw the original and Becky Goldsmith is holding a workshop on this quilt at the McKinney guild in June. I'm think I'm going to take the workshop - for nothing else than to harrass Becky. I might even learn something - LOL!










Here's one for the traditionalists out there. The piecing was perfection and it was hand quilted spectacularly. I'll never make one, so I thought I'd treasure the photo instead.



That's all from me tonight - I've got a tired-on and I'm ready to go home.

Susan