A Snowy Evening with Mark Lipinski

Last Friday night, a local guild hosted a lecture (followed by a Saturday class) with Mark Lipinski. I had been planning for months to go to this lecture. Arranged my schedule, made sure hubby would be home to deal with the children etc. The lecture was about 25 miles from home. For the 7:00 lecture, I planned to leave early, around 5:30, grab some coffee along the way and get there early for social hour.

At 3:00, it started snowing. Hard. I turned on the weather and the meteorologist kept proclaiming "FLURRIES". The snow was coming down quickly, and it was accumulating on the roads. This was our first snow of the year...we'd had about
1/4" of ice few days before, but of course everyone forgets how to drive during the first snowfall of the year. DH said, GO NOW at 4:50. I was in the car and on my way by 5:00. Two hours to the lecture, 25 miles to go. No sweat. Or so I thought.

Luckily, I was in the Subaru, so I had no driving issues besides all the idiots on the road. HOWEVER, these 'flurries' turned into only 1 1/2" of snow, but the roads were slushy and icy, there were lots of spinouts and such. All in all, it took my until 7:10 to arrive at the lecture. Sure, I probably should have turned around and gone home, but by 6:15 the snow had stopped, so I figured the roads could only get better, I might as well soldier on. I made a phone call and found out that lecture was NOT cancelled.

When I arrived at 7:10, Mark was still not there. Apparently he had left New Jersey at 1:00 for the 2 1/2 hour drive, so that he would arrive early. HA! He was still on the way and would do the lecture or reschedule if the guild ladies would prefer that. Since a fair number of people were there already, it was decided that they woudl wait fo him to arrive. Mark finally arrived about 8:00 or 8:15. He hadn't shaved, showered or eaten, but hey, we quilters must perservere, so he gave the lecture.

More than two hours later, we had seen dozens and dozens of quilts. This was THE BEST lecture I have ever been to (until this point, I would have said John Flynn's was the best I had ever attended, but Mark is WAY funnier than John). I laughed so hard I thought I might pee my pants. Mark showed us his fabulous quilts, shared a lot of stories about his magazine and we all hd a great time. He brought so many quilts, I can't imagine how he stuffed them into his car! I took a ton of pictures, but I'm not going to post them on my blog because he asked us not to, and I am going to respet that. I do think that I can show the picture that shows just how many quilts there were: 10 of these huge bags (from the dollar store, I have some of these bags and they are fabulous, btw!).


For Mark's post about his visit, read his blog on his website.