Holiday Quilting Bee and Race Riot

I am still alive. I’ve just been working on Christmas stuff that I can’t talk about! There are mostly finished project, roving and yarn bits exploding out of every corner of my house. Suffice to say, it’ll be about three more weeks before I can post pictures!


Mr. Bee is counting down the days until he is done with college! He has exactly three, count ‘em three, more classes before he’s done. His last class is the evening of the 14th he has taken the 15th off to celebrate by staying home and doing exactly what he wants to do all day! It’s been 4.5 years of homework, books and teacher’s dirty looks. He’s ready to veg on the couch for a couple of days and he deserves it. I'm am so proud of him.


I went with Mrs. M., as her guest, to her quilt guild’s Christmas party a couple of nights ago. The speaker was a wonderful woman named Katie who spoke at length about Underground Railroad quilts. It was a wonderful presentation and she had beautiful quilts. The buffet dinner was yummy and we got free fabric and a quilted bookmark as a gift. Everything was a huge success…except for what I’ve taken to calling ‘the race riot’ in the middle of the meeting. Katie is African American and of course the Underground Railroad Quilts were used by African Americans and a large part of the presentation centered on the fact that African Americans were, and continue to be, treated with malice and prejudice. I think the melee that happened came from a pure place. I think the ladies, the majority of whom were elderly with a little sprinkle of dementia, and nary a one in the room African American herself, were outraged at the stories Katie told about racial mistreatment, and in an effort to assure her that she wouldn’t get that kind of thing from them, they somehow managed to get themselves into this wild hair tangle about who went to a segregated high school and who didn’t and which towns were prejudice and which weren’t. It went on and on and got louder and rowdier and NO ONE stopped it. The ones that weren’t arguing and sniping with each other were shaking their heads, rolling their eyes and giving the others dirty looks. God love Katie. She just skimmed through her notes quietly and waited the 10 minutes for it slow down to a simmer and then continued on with her presentation. I was at once embarrassed for Katie and for the ladies that, I believe, were trying their hardest yet failing miserably, and being highly amused at the spectacle of it all. I think that if it were a younger group there would have been fisticuffs! Older and they would have been slinging their canes at each other! The party was really nice though in an ‘aside from that Mrs. Lincoln how did you like the play’ kinda way and Katie assured the group that she wasn’t offended in the least. I am greatful that Mrs. M asked me because I would have been sad if I hadn’t heard Katie speak. She is a remarkable and talented woman. And I always have fun with Mrs. M. (who was as appalled as I was by the whole thing). I’m sure it will be the most memorable party I attend this holiday season!