Discovery of Gold

Metal Sculpture
Metal Sculpture

I was not at the quilt retreat with my CQFA peeps this weekend. 🙁  I was off in the Gold Country with my darling husband. He had a Native Sons event and wanted me to come along. We arrived around 2:30 and wandered the town after checking into the National Hotel, a historic hotel with a bathroom in the bedroom! The toilet had its own space, which was good.

DH saw the above sculpture as we walked around, which reminded me of the sculpture I saw in Toronto in 2005 when I was there for work.

The main drag (think small town main street) was really, really busy on Saturday and cars kept driving by as the Natives were gathering on the stairs of the National Hotel to recreate a photo taken in the last century. It was an issue, because the photographer was set up in the middle of the street!

The main street has a lot of empty shops, which is sad, but the rest are filled with antique and vintage items. The prices are really good. I saw 4-5 really beautiful cake plates. There is a FANTASTIC candy shop on the main street. It has a lot of old fashioned types of candy, a soda fountain, a cooler with drinks I haven’t seen in years, like Bubble Up. I bought a chocolate fizzy drink in a bottle. It was yummy!

They have a small section of hobby materials as well. Most of the time, though, I spent smiling at the members and their wives and being a nice supportive wife.

Jackson tile
Jackson tile

As you know, I also like tile. I saw a great bit of tile at the entrance to one of the shops that would be a wonderful quilt border. I wasn’t quite tall enough to get the full repeat, but you get idea. Who will be the first one to make it into a quilt border?

I am back on the idea of doing and embroidered quilt of California land marks to raise funds for the Native Sons Cleft Palette effort. I spent some time collecting  images, not to copy, but to use as inspiration, if I ever do it.

Author: Jaye

Quiltmaker who enjoys writing and frozen chocolate covered bananas.