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November 2, 2010

Thread City and the Frog Bridge

On the way home from the Ivoryton Retreat we always stop at the Quilter's Dream in  Willimantic Connecticut. It's a wonderful shop with a very nice selection of fabrics. This time we let Gladys (gps) lead the way. We found that her way brought us a very scenic and faster route.  Back in the day, Willimantic was known as "Thread City."  I stole  borrowed this from Thread City.com

"For well over 100 years, Willimantic, Connecticut was known worldwide as the Thread City. In 1854 the Willimantic Linen Company started manufacturing high quality three and six cord cotton thread. This was around the same time as the domestic sewing machine was gaining popularity.
The Willimantic Linen Company imported a special raw cotton from the Indian Ocean Islands, known for its natural lubricants and tensile strength -- it didn't snap or become knotted in the sewing machine.
The Willimantic cotton mills were fitted with hundreds of humidifiers to ingeniously recreate the damp atmospheric cotton spinning conditions found in the valleys and dales of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The drier New England air had not been condusive to the efficient spinning of cotton thread. But now America no longer had to import cotton thread from England -- a trade then dominated by Britain's Coats Cotton Company. The Singer Sewing Machine and Willimantic cotton thread made the perfect partnership.
It also host this:



The infamous Frog Bridge

According to folk lore: one night the good citizens of Willimantic heard incredibly loud screeching,  causing many of them to run out into the night with their guns ready to defend themselves from an unnamed menace. The next morning they found scores of dead frogs who had apparently fought to the death over the few remaining puddles resulting from the drought of 1754. Well folks that's the story of Willimantic Connecticut.

November 1, 2010

Retreat Pics

Some pictures of the retreat in Ivoryton Connecticut. Pat Delaney taught a class on a New York Beauty.  She is an award winning quilter and has been published in Quilters News letter and all of her quilting is done on a domestic machine.  I took a machine quilting class from her in April at MQX and learned a lot, she helped me get over my fear of machine quilting. 

Pat quilting her quilt on Sunday after Saturday's class.

 Pat's trunk show

 This is the quilt she taught us


 Annette's Beauty

My sister's Judy's block
My siggy quilt with borders and ready to be quilted.
I'm not overly thrilled with the quality of pictures, I really want another camera a dslr would be nice.
I took the class but didn't take pictures of my block, I'll add it to my list of things to do.  I'll share some more about the retreat over the next few days.