Saturday,
March 15, 2003
Pretty, pretty fabric
First off, happy 32nd birthday to my brother Michael, and good luck with the career, hon -- I know you're going to be killer.
Next, as today was going to be my only time to get to the Dallas Quilt Celebration, I sucked it up (hey, what are spots dancing in front of my eyes compared to seeing pretty quilts and buying fabric?) and headed down to the Dallas Market Hall to sign up with the Quilting Guide of Dallas again and ogle the merchandise.
Had a bit of an interesting experience first, though -- I was on I-35 south right before the 635 junction when I heard a beep. I look to my left, and some guy with dark hair and a goatee in a red pickup truck with black and white cowhide seat covers is waving at me in a "Yes, HELLO, where have you been" fashion. Confused, I wave back, and he gets in front of me and starts pointing towards the exit for 635 W.
Now, I haven't touched his car, and I know all four tires are okay. Moreover, I don't know this guy, and I'm not stupid. Either he thinks he knows me and thinks I'm supposed to be following him, or he's trying to get me off the highway. In either case, I'm not going for it, so I wave bye-bye. He keeps pointing at the exit until we pass it, then throws up his hand. I speed up, get in front of him and hotfoot it along the highway. Eventually he catches up and waves to get my attention again. I mouth, "Who ARE you?" at him, and he shrugs in incomprehension. Then, the piece de la resistance -- he crooks his finger at me and makes gesturing motions.
No fucking way, buddy. By this time we're just about at the 35-181 split -- I'm in the 35 lane, he's in the 181 lane. I slow down long enough to make sure he's ahead of me and locked into the lane -- last thing I saw, he was peering behind his truck in confusion as he headed towards Irving and I swung east for downtown. I should've gotten his plates, but traffic was kinda busy and I was more concerned with keeping a nice healthy distance between us. It could've been an honest case of mistaken identity on his part (and if it is he probably feels like a moron right now), but I wasn't about to risk it.
And yes, I checked my car afterwards -- nothing was wrong. Dunno what he was trying to do, but it didn't work.
Anyway, after that little adventure, I get to the market and wander around in Stash Heaven for about two hours, buying pretty green fabric from a multitude of stalls. Well, I was also there for altruistic reasons, you see, as I had to start working on Miss Meredith's baby quilt (don't worry, Jeff -- I'll wash it before I give it to her). The quilt, by the way, is going to be extremely cool as a result of this trip -- Jeff requested one in shades of green, and mentioned that they'd done Merry's room in a starry sky design and that her first and middle names mean "Happy Dragon." While I was at the Celebration I got an opportunity to make a log cabin block (all the blocks made at the Celebration would be sewn together into quilts for the Ronald McDonald House), and all of a sudden I had a brainstorm for Merry's quilt.
Let's just say
it's going to be extremely original -- I just have to check out some clipart
and plot out some appliqué. Heh, heh, heh.