This and That

Things are busy!

On Friday, I met Mrs. G., Quiltkeemosabe, and Quilt Teacher at the Asheville Quilt Show at The NC Arboretum. The quilts were beautiful, of course. Here's a detail from one commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway...probably my favorite quilt there.

Walking though the gardens to another building, I became obsessed with these Concord grapes. They remind me of my grandfather. He had all kinds of grapes in his backyard but these were the best...and the hardest to get our hands on.

This weekend we got to go to Lake Lure. It was beautiful and very nice. We stayed at Rumbling Bald Resort because that was where Dave's meetings were. I would love to go back and stay at the old inn...you know the one from Dirty Dancing. One of the guys kept breaking into song all weekend - "Well, I Had the Time of My Life". It was hysterical. It felt very much like the hoidy-toidy feeling in the movie. I was a fish out of water - though I tried...Here's what Saturday was like for me - get up late - meet another surveyor's wife for breakfast at the clubhouse - have a facial at 11:00 - pick up lunch at the pro shop - have a massage at 1:00.

Oh yeah, I tried. I could live like that.

On Saturday afternoon, though, we hiked up Chimney Rock which wasn't as hard I thought it would be...but it was hot!

With help from my friends I've been cutting out a million Andinkra symbols for the 14 quilts we're doing for the DJembe Project. I had a cutting frenzy a few days ago and left the scraps by my chair. Shelby decided they looked like a good nest so now I can't bear to move them.

Work is nuts. I've got 2 grant proposals due tomorrow so it's been a few long days. Yesterday, though I got to visit Charlotte Hawkins Brown which is finally under construction!

I did get a quilt finished last night though! It's a sample for Sew Original and it was so fun to FINISH something!

Thank You, Dr. Brown!

A few posts back, I told you about the incredible Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown and the opportunity for our firm to play a part in bringing the campus she began back to life. We found out today that we won the project! Yay!

Do You Know About Dr. Brown?

I remember driving by this odd assortment of buildings on Highway 70 on my way to NC State twenty-five (oh please...that can't be right, can it?) years ago. Out there in the middle of nowhere between Greensboro and Burlington was what looked like a campus of some sort. It was abandoned, the windows on the big old buildings boarded up and the paint peeling off the cottages by the road. I was told it was a black school. That's it. That's all. Keep driving.

Well, we don't go down Highway 70 anymore to get to Raleigh. We fly down the highway, barely noticing the blur of the brown highway sign noting the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Memorial. I've thought about it, but never stopped to take a look again. We're always flying by too fast, late for another meeting somewhere else.



Well, as luck would have it, work gave me an opportunity to revisit this vague memory and learn a little bit about this mysterious place. NC Department of Cultural Resources is working hard to breathe new life into this campus, the Palmer Memorial Institute. I got a chance a couple of weeks ago to walk around the campus, browse through the architectural renovation plans for several of the buildings and walk through Dr. Brown's home, which is staged exactly as is was when Dr. Brown lived there in the 1940's.



I love old buildings. I find them fascinating and just for this, I would love the opportunity to be a part of the renovation of this campus. But... when I think of what this woman did and when she did it, I am humbled.



Think of this...



It's 1901.
You're a teacher in rural North Carolina.
The powers that be decide to close the school where you work.
You decide to open your own school.
In 1902, you open the doors.
You are female.
You are African American.
You are 18 years old.

Can you imagine the determination?
I hope our little team wins this job. Our part will be small in the grand scheme of things but it will be exciting to be a part of the revitalization of this campus. If we don't win it, I am grateful for the opportunity to stop flying down I-40 and drive down Highway 70 once again; this time stopping to walk through the old mysterious buildings...walking through a place where a dream came true.

Learn more about Dr. Brown and Palmer Memorial Institute here.