Trip to Nebraska!

We traveled to Nebraska at the beginning of the month.  The pig barns were empty.  The weather was decent.  We had cousins to visit, AND there was a two day track meet at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln!  (WARNING:  I downloaded 74 photos, so sit back and get ready for a lengthy one.)

So first, a cute photo............

This is Sophie.  We stayed at cousins' in Bennington on Thursday and Saturday (Friday night was a hotel in Lincoln) and Sophie was a joy!

But let's just give the track meet update first.  It was 2 days (heptathlon) of sitting on the hardest bleachers (stadium seats not allowed, or food, or drinks, only clear bags...........very limited and expensive concession stand...........not planning to return to the University of Nebraska!).  

But our track star did well after sitting out for a couple of weeks with a heal injury.  He got a PR in the 60, shot put, and reached new heights in the pole vault 15' 5".  Of course, he topped that a week later in South Dakota going 15'7".  And at Nebraska, he increased his overall point total while placing third in the largest field he has competed in.  That also made him second all time on UNI's heptathlon list.  Of course, he was upset that he didn't do better.  And this past Friday, he won the high jump at Iowa and set the meet record there.  Oh, if only he could do better!

So he's off to Loyola in Chicago this next weekend for the conference championships.  He'll be doing the heptathlon again (7 events), and the coach has also put him in a few other things to help get more points........... high jump, long jump, pole vault, and triple jump.  That's a lot of jumping in 2 days.

Now on to the rest of the trip.  As we were driving up, I mentioned that I had always heard about a really cute quilt shop in Rock Port, Quilter's Boutique.  It was small, but very nice and the owner was very pleasant.  I picked up one pattern (something to read at the track meet).  Here is the only picture I took..........

Well, of course I used the restroom while I was there.  I loved this sink made from the old treadle base.

Since the track meet wasn't scheduled to begin until noon on Friday, we took advantage of the opportunity to see a couple of museums.  The International Quilt Museum is in Lincoln.  David did his own reconnaissance work before the trip and discovered that the Larsen Tractor Test & Power Museum is also there.  We only had a couple of hours and fortunately the museums were about a block and a half apart, so we decided to divide and conquer.  Obviously, I chose the tractor museum - NOT!  I dropped David off and then drove to the quilt museum.  A bus load of 4th graders were in the parking lot, so I scooted on in and they rushed me through to look at the quilts.  

There 2 main exhibits.  The first was in honor of black history month.  It was mostly art quilts (not necessarily what I consider quilts).  I did enjoy four that featured the Tuskegee Airmen.  There were also 2 large quilts spread out on horizontal displays.

There were 2 of these, made by the same person.  They were three dimensional.............

As the docent came through with a small group of 4th graders, I heard that the green was made first and weighed about 25 pounds.  She made the purple after that and put the pieces even closer together, so it weighs 50 pounds.  There is no batting in them either.

Those were my only photos from that exhibit.  The next exhibit featured water.  

All of these quilts were owned by Mr. Walsh who had commissioned several of them.  I'm going to admit that I didn't understand several of them, but I took lots of photos and hopefully the descriptions will help.

So I took this close up of Wisconsin Wetlands to show how the pieces overlapped to form the quilt.  

This one is called Florida Surf.  The quilting was what interested me on this one.  I stared at it for quite awhile and kept finding different things in it.  There are some close ups below.

And here is Cod...........

And Forest Flowing............I liked the reflections in this one.

And this one, called Money Over Monet was very interesting..............

And a close up...........

And here is the back of the quilt............

And Surf Swimmers...............

Close up............

Now this quilt I got to hear the docent talk about to the 4th graders (I was trying not to appear to be stalking them).  She told them that she had helped hang the quilt and it made a sound just like paper rustling.  Apparently it was made by photocopying images and painting them.

And by this time, I was wondering if they even had any actual quilts in the museum.  I can appreciate the artistry, but let's face it, these aren't really quilts.

The next 2 were in the stairwells, and while appearing more like the quilts I was used to, they were made of wood!

I did find a small display of more traditional quilts (actually made from fabric) in the alcove by the elevators.  The display featured quilts using solid black fabric.  None were very large and some were quite small.  Note my hand on the wall (NOT touching the quilt) to provide scope of size..........also, I don't want to appear too critical, but the quality of some of these left me wondering.  There were threads hanging off them, and some still had the chalk marks on them for the hand quilting.  Not the museum quality I was expecting.......
 

You can see the chalk I was talking about above..........

See the threads in the photo above.............

Neither of these were very big, so I don't know that would have taken much time to clean them up a bit.  

You can see my fingertips above...........I question how it took 2 years to make something this small.

So, at this point I was wondering if there were any traditional quilts ANYWHERE!  A nice docent sent me up to the Hall on the top floor.  Now let me say here that when she said Hall, I was thinking like in the Clue game, a large room with lots of quilts on the walls...........but it was literally a HALLWAY, and not a large one, so most of these photos will be angled as I couldn't stand squarely back away from them.  The display featured flowers and gardens.

So, after this, I headed down to browse the gift shop and wait for David.  I discovered another small room with a special display from one artist.  I took a photo of the one I liked the best.  They were all Kaleidescope quilts.

And I heard the docent (not stalking, just listening!) telling the 4th graders that the artist had undergone cancer treatments and had to wear a mask.  She requested to keep the mask after her treatments and made this "art" with it.

And that ends my photos from the International Quilt Museum.  I have to say that I think David was more impressed with the tractor testing museum than I was with the quilt museum.  

So at the conclusion of our first day at the track meet, we had to take Carter out for pasta to carb up for the next day.  I snuck a picture of the guy who took our orders and delivered our food because I didn't think anyone would believe me if I tried to describe it.

He had a bounce to his step, so the hair-ography that happened when he delivered our food was truly amazing.  So, let's end this long-winded post with a better photo...........

Sophie displaying her sadness at our departure on Sunday morning.

Christi