10/07/2008

Alongside the Stories in Jonesboro



An enterprising guy hung some enticing goodies on his front porch on the Main Street in Jonesboro. His location between the Creekside Tent and the 2nd Avenue Tent was heavily trafficed and I saw many hands reaching up to check a price tag or finger the fabrics. I spotted a brightly colored and beautiful silk long-sleeved over-shirt with a very nice price tag. I tried it on but - oops - a couple of sizes too small - the shirt not me. Since I have given up buying things I need to shrink to - he hung it back on the railing. When I walked by an hour later - it was gone. Someone else's lucky find.



I could not take my eyes off this altered jacket collar worn by the woman sitting in front of me in the Courthouse Tent on Sunday Morning.
"Did you do that?" Mary from Wisconsin was delighted to tell me how she selected the buttons, anchored them with Elmer's Glue, and sewed them on with her sewing machine. Now, that sewing machine bit is a feat to ponder. She let me take a picture so that I would not forget how to do it myself.
Just you wait. I have several jackets from the Concord, NC Salvation Army Store that will have a new life after their button treatment.

It is hard to quit Jonesboro for another year but I had better - as I need to get to my packing. Tomorrow morning Jim and I fly to Nashville and then drive to Paducah, KY for the Grand Rivers Storytelling Festival this week-end. I am excited about telling stories with Michael Reno Harrell - but I am also eager for my first visit to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. I love stories but quilts run them a close second.

But then why not - quilts are full of stories, aren't they?

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