SISTERS #2

We're home now from our great trip to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. So much inspiration!

With a week full of classes held just prior to Saturday's show, there definitely was incredible talent present with all of the outstanding teachers on site. On show day, we really enjoyed the large tent just for displaying teachers' works. It was early morning and the sun was shining brightly behind one wall of quilts. Every seam allowance was shining through. We even could see some of the backing pop through on a few of the quilts. For me, it was an amazing display!

Yes most of the lines seen here are seam allowances, only seen because of the sunlight. Quirky but I loved it!

SISTERS OUTDOOR QUILT SHOW

It's the largest outdoor quilt show in the world they say.

We spent the weekend here in the local campground and enjoyed this amazing quilt event. We missed the classes but now know to sign up next year. By the end of the day we were energized by the creativity, and overwhelmed by all that was to be seen. Amazing!

POETRY AND CLOTH

Lovely show at the Rogue Gallery in downtown Medford tonight. Fiber artists - you should be proud!

ITS IN THE DETAILS

The patterns and designs in clothing from Latin America represent individual villages/origins. Here is a sun motif typical of Chichicastenango in Guatemala. I used the book "Threads of Identity: Maya Costume of the 1960's in Highland Guatemala" by Patricia B. Altman and Caroline D. West as a reference.

RELAXATION

Last weekend we went camping at Union Creek. There is nothing more relaxing than swinging in the hammock with a good book, the sun filtering through the canopy of trees.

PATRIOTIC DYEING

My friend Kathy wanted to make some 4th of July tee shirts for her grandkids in Virginia. They really turned out great!

XICO

My annual "Sisters of the Castor Bean" trip took us to the state of Veracruz this year, located on the eastern seaboard of Mexico, on the Gulf coast. One of the many highlights was visiting the Magic Town (Pueblo Magico) of Xico (HEE-coe). Located in the central part of the state, it is home to a month long celebration in July featuring the festival of Maria Magdalena.

 



The local church, dedicated to Maria Magdalena, is flanked at the entrance with a beautiful archway of natural flowers and plants, now dried with age. It is made anew every July to grace the entrance where a statue of Maria is carried through town. Our guide informed us that in these daily processions, she wears a different dress every day, and has been doing so since 1898.

 

The statue that is carried through town is your typical upright, hands-in-prayer mode Virgin Mary, but the statue at the altar was much different and quite surprising. Here we found a lounging Maria Magdalena, as she had a reputation of being a repentant prostitute or loose woman. This was my first experience of a reclining Mary.

Our guide suggested we see if the Dress Museum was open. We had no idea there was such a thing. When we entered the building and saw row upon row of the dresses that Maria has worn over the years, we were awestruck. Of course many of the early ones have gone by the wayside, but we saw many from mid century and of course all of them from recent years. Let's see....31 days in July times 117 years of the festival equals 3,627 dresses. That is one well-dressed ex-prostitute!

All of the dresses were beautifully made and a few were hand-painted. We were so curious as to who the seamstresses were, how they were chosen, etc., but that wasn't included.  Regardless, it was an amazing display!

Down the street was the Muso del Danzante Xiqueno. This featured another prominent part of the July festival...the masked clowns and costumes that are dancing through the streets each day.

We also happened to come upon a mask making class there, with children and adults carving and painting wooden masks, big and small.

Xico was a definite treat and maybe someday I'll win the lottery and spend the month of July in this lively town!