Visit to Castlemaine

I've been quilting these two blocks - Elizabeth Cummins Block 26 and Maria Criswell Block 29.  I have two thirds of the quilting finished on the Chester Criswell quilt.  I was hoping to finish before the end of the year but that's not going to happen.

We traveled to our son and daughter-in-law's home a few weeks ago.  We only visit once or twice a year but we used a long weekend to stay a few days. 

Fortunately for me their house is near Castlemaine, an old gold mining town between Bendigo and Ballarat.  The Castlemaine area has old buildings and trains.

Castlemaine has a lot of nice shops but my favourite is Threadbear. Threadbear stocks a wide range of reproduction fabric; I've done a workshop with Di Ford Hall at Castlemaine too.

I bought some nice things to play with.

I also had a conversation with another quilter at the shop.  I don't usually strike up conversations with strangers, but quilters aren't really strangers - strange maybe, but not strangers.  I gave her one of my new postcards.

I later discovered this stranger's name was Robyn because when I arrived home there was an email waiting for me.

I met and spoke with you briefly when shopping for material in Threadbear on Monday and you gave me your card.  When you mentioned the Chester Criswell quilt it seemed familiar to me and on returning home I looked up your website.  I realized I had previously read about the blocks on a blog. I am so in awe of your history and that you retain the original 1852 wedding quilt with all the signatures. ... I now wish I had asked more questions of you.

How nice!  It was so lovely that someone had made that extra effort to get in touch - it made my day. Thank you Robyn for taking the time to write and all the best with your Baltimore blocks.