A Trip to the Big City

We drove up to Indianapolis on Friday afternoon so that we could be there for the start of our daughter's race early Saturday morning. She was running a 15K. The picture above shows what downtown Indy looked like at mid-morning. Gray, rainy, and generally yucky!

I need to explain that runners like my daughter find racing conditions like these pretty good, although I imagine they could have done without the rain. Her times were pretty good, so she was fairly pleased with herself. We were able to watch the start of the race from our warm, dry hotel across the street--so mom and dad were also fairly pleased with themselves!

We spent the rest of the day visiting the Indiana State Museum, which was pretty interesting. You start in the basement looking at rocks and fossils and end up on the third floor looking at artifacts from the recent past. We were accompanied by seemingly thousands of boy scouts who enthusiastically toured all the exhibits with many harried looking scout leaders and moms in tow. They really got into the rocks and fossils and the interactive exhibits.

We walked just a few blocks downtown for dinner and then checked out a blues club called the Slippery Noodle, an Indianapolis landmark. The building dates from 1850 (really, really ancient in Indiana), and it is the oldest bar continually in operation in the state. If you are interested, you can read more about it here. My husband and I both love listening to the blues, but we don't have much opportunity to see live music so we had a great time.

Um, yes, I do realize that this is supposed to be a QUILT blog, so there will be a little bit of quilting content.

I looked all over, but I couldn't find any explanation of this quilt other than a tag calling it a baby quilt. It looked to be in excellent condition, so it couldn't have been used too much. I was struck by the vibrant colors--pink, orange, and red. They wouldn't have been my first choice (and I wonder if the lady who sewed it back in the 1800's even had a choice), but they really work, don't they? The stuff in front is pottery shards from a dig somewhere in the state.


This last picture is of a stained glass window hanging in the restaurant of the museum. I seem to take a lot of pictures like this--call it inspiration. I wouldn't think of copying this design (there was no sign or explanation of the artist), but I like the way the colors work and I like the graphics.




I find myself taking lots of pictures of doorways, woodwork, and wall friezes, looking for quilting ideas. It's the geometry, I guess.