the best of buckeye connections

i have so much catching up to do on this blog, yet i just have to share something that happened in the store today. for me, it is one of those moments that just cannot be explained. coincidence perhaps. divine intervention. star alignment. small world happenstances. 6 degrees of separation. it is one incredible feeling however you want to define it.

the story really goes back to september 27, 2008. sarah and i attended our first ohio state football game together. just us girls. as you can see from this picture, our seats are pretty darn close to the field. you can thank sarah for that. her 18th birthday gift was an endowed scholarship in her name that will go to a master level candidate in the college of social work each year studying in the field of developmental disabilities. the wonderful person who helped us put it all together is jen from the osu development office.

back to 9/27/08. after getting our picture taken, we went for a walk. then we found a place to park sarah's wheelchair so we could people gaze. it's just fun to watch the thousands and thousands of scarlet and gray tee-shirts, jerseys, and sweatshirts gathering in the stadium. after awhile it becomes a blur, there are so many fans sporting the team colors.

i was sitting in somewhat of a daze, when i notice a woman walk by wearing the most stunning piece of buckeye apparel i had ever seen. i unlocked the wheels of sarah's chair and got up to follow her so i could study the detail better. and then i found a piece of paper to quickly sketch the design. i still carry it with me everyday.

the body of the jacket was a beautiful silverish gray silk shantung. down the left side was a row of very small quilted blocks in various shades of red cotton.

the back had a large quilted block o in the same red cottons with the infamous buckeye leaves in green and a few brown three dimensional buckeyes sewn on. i could not stop thinking about that jacket the entire game. once back in cleveland, i decided i had to make that jacket and set out to find the supplies i needed. and that is when i discovered the quilt stores i had often frequented in my earlier quilting days were closed. so i temporarily gave up on the project.
.

spring forward to 2010 and lo and behold, sarah and i are opening our own fabric and quilt store. one night we went through the moda website and pulled off all the red, gray and black fabrics we could find. we just knew one day we would have a display of scarlet and gray quilts. a fiber tribute to our beloved buckeyes.

fast forward to today. august 24, 2010 at approximately 11:30 am. a customer brings to the counter the bolt of red marble and the bolt of gray marble now in our store but not yet positioned together. hmm...looks like a familiar color combination. an onlooker asks what she is going to make. the customer replys, "i make buckeye quilts." "oh really," says jen from the osu development office (who just happens to be visiting us in the store today). "i work at ohio state," jen states. and then the customer tells us of her website, i quilt scarlet and gray dot blogspot dot com.
.

i was speechless. dumbfounded. in shock really. i still can't get over that jen was in the store at the exact moment this customer came shopping. his mysterious ways sure lead to wonderful connections.
.

later in the day i went to http://www.iquiltscarletandgray.blogspot.com/. AMAZING!!!! Simply amazing. i have a new friend. one equally obsessed with the buckeyes and with scarlet and gray fabric!!! it doesn't get any better than that.

.

thank you so much for coming in today darlene. and thank you jen for driving all the way from columbus to observe first hand the social power of a fabric house and sewcial lounge.