Would you believe I went to a quilting museum?  The International Quilt Study Center and Museum, in Lincoln, Nebraska.  The building is supposed to represent the layers in a quilt, the bricks in the walls are in quilting patterns, and even the landscaping is arranged in quilt-like patterns.

A long time ago, quilts were made from scrap cloth that the owner was reluctant to throw out.  Cloth was expensive, and one didn’t want to waste it.  So these everyday, ordinary scraps were turned into something useful, even beautiful.  After cloth became more affordable, fancier quilts were made with new material and colorful imaginative patterns.

I have decided we all are quilt makers.  Our personalities are composed of thousands of scraps, memories, of life events.  Some we are stuck with, but for the most part we choose which scraps we want to feature prominently and which we choose to downplay. Our choices, whether we do it consciously or not, color our lives.

So here are some quilts…

The first one told me this museum would be more interesting than I’d been afraid it might be.  It was made entirely of pencils!  New, old, long, short, fancy, plain, ordinary and beautiful.  Fun to look at and maybe adds to my view of everyone’s life being a quilt…

I’ve always liked these mosaic type images inside images, and here it is in a quilt.

After a few modern quilts, as above, most were from the mid 1800’s.

In the early 1800’s they started using Cadmium as a dye for cloth, making the bright orange color very popular for quilters.  These “Cheddar Quilts” featured lots of bright oranges, and were bolder and more interesting than had been possible with the vegetable dyes previously available. They were all the rage until the 1870’s when synthetic dyes made other vibrant colors available.  Cherryl particularly liked the one below, circa 1890, a pattern called “Around the World”

There were also little quilts for doll beds…

In the 1800’s many quilt makers were women, who did not have the right to vote, and expressed their political views in their quiltings.

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On our morning walk, Cherryl and I saw a garage door open revealing an interesting old car.  The owner was cleaning the gutters of his house, so I asked him to tell me about his car.  Cherryl knew what was going to take place, and decided to continue with her exercise walk while I exercised my ability to talk cars with perfect strangers.  He told me it was a 1940 Buick Super, straight 8, all original except for a new paint job.  It was bought new by his wife’s grandfather, and has been in the family since then.  Beautiful!

Another museum that is more in tune with my usual interests is the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed.  If you don’t like pictures of beautiful or interesting or rare old cars you might as well skip over the next bit…

The first area had lots of what I called midget racers and dirt track cars.  Many of these were from the 40’s or 50’s… I’m not so interested in them, so you don’t get too many pictures.  But they were beautifully presented!

A lot of amazing engines on display…

Now we got to the good stuff!  The Corvette and I share a birthday, so I have a special bond with them… So this is one as old as I am!

The more well seasoned of my readers may remember the name Hedy Lamarr.  I knew she was a gorgeous actress from the 50’s, but didn’t know that much about her.  She was born in Austria, and married a Nazi sympathizer who sold armaments to Hitler.  She grew to hate the Nazis and Hitler and her husband, divorced and moved to the states.  She was very brainy as well as beautiful, and she and another guy created a torpedo guidance system that was used by our navy.

More relevant to this museum, she purchased a 1958 Cadillac Sixty Special from a dealer in Hollywood, coincidentally the same day that Clark Gable bought one.  Her car is displayed here in perfect condition.

Many land speed record cars are displayed here, including this “World’s Fastest Flathead”

Three cars from wacky designer Ed “Big Daddy” Roth… He drew and actually built many bizarre vehicles in the 60’s, mostly in the “Rat Fink” genre.  Below is the Boothill Express, probably the fastest hearse ever developed. (But doubtfully ever used)

This little bug replica is all engine!  Yes, those are dual superchargers stacked on top of a huge V8.  I could not find a place for a driver… maybe the world’s fastest remote controlled car??

I love the Tucker.  It was Preston Tucker’s attempt to create a very innovative car in competition with Detroit’s big three.  It was supposed to have a flat 6 rear mounted  aircraft engine, 4 wheel independent suspension, disc brakes, seat belts and padded dashboards.  These were all way ahead of the times in 1948. The cars are probably most remembered for the central headlight that turned with the steering wheel to light the way around corners.  Tucker couldn’t manage to produce the cars on time and within budget, and folded having only produced 50 cars. So here is a very nice, and rare, car.

Now we get to what is probably my favorite car of all time.  Duesenberg.  Made by a couple of German brothers in the United States, they were among the most advanced, most elegant, most powerful, most sophisticated and most expensive cars in the world.  Ok, Rolls Royce were pretty cool too, but the “Doozy” was in a class by itself.  Most were sold as chassis only, with custom coachwork added by a separate company.  This meant it would be almost impossible for anyone to have a Duesenberg just like yours. So here is a 1930 Duesenberg.  When it was new, it probably sold for between $13,000 and $19,000.  When the average American income was under $1,300 per year, that was a lot of money! That would be over $700,000 today!  (I’ve seen some valued at 2-3 Million dollars now!) But what an imposing, magnificent car!

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In addition to the quilt and car museums, I took a few pictures of Union College.  Our daughters both attended here, and I love this school.  I’m a little late for peak fall colors, but the area still looks good.

The Clocktower is the focal point of the campus:

Nearby is a life sized sculpture of Jesus, who is the real focal point of the college.

On one corner of the campus is a Carnegie Library building. Between 1883 and 1929 wealthy philanthropist Andrew Carnegie created more that 2,500 public libraries in over a dozen countries.  About 2/3 of these were in the United States.  He was very interested in helping communities help themselves, so he required their help in locating and staffing these libraries.  The architecture was always beautiful, and the buildings themselves inspired an investment in learning.  Broad doors reached by an significant stairway represented elevating knowledge available to all.  Lincoln’s Carnegie Library  building is now used for some college offices.

Today was a visitation day at Union College, and my brother-in-law Steve got out the 1967 VW bus that acts as somewhat like a Union Mascot.  He does most of the photography for the college, and he loves the beautifully restored bus.  After the visiting high school seniors were photographed in front of the bus, they went for a little tour of old downtown Lincoln.  Six students rode with us in the bus.

The Haymarket area of Downtown Lincoln is picturesque and trendy.  I had a mango smoothie in a cute place called The Mill:

Fun decorations included model airplanes above and a rusted old Vespa in the window:

Here is R2D2 during his younger days as a barista…

The old Union Station has been revamped and has an old steam locomotive outside.