From Quiltropolis to Metropolis

My ambition as a teenager in Houston was to go to New York City, study fashion design at F.I.T., and become a famous fashion designer. Well-meaning people talked me out of that dream, and at age twenty-one I wound up in Madison County, Iowa. Winterset, the county seat, had a population of 3600 at the time.

Fifteen years later, a quilt finally got me to The Big Apple.

Lady Liberty Medallion, 72 by 72 inches, 100% cotton, hand quilted, designed and made by me, was the Iowa winner in the Great American Quilt Contest celebrating the 100th birthday of the Statue of Liberty. My quilt was displayed with the other state winners at the New York Exhibition Pier.

My career in the quilt world involved many trips to New York in the 1990s. I called several times a year on magazine advertisers, mostly fabric companies that catered to quilters.

Nowadays I go to New York for fun, mainly to visit my oldest, Hannah, who landed there in 2000 after graduating from the University of Iowa with degrees in journalism and human sexuality studies.

Hannah Fons, left, yours truly, right, the skyline of Lower Manhattan behind us, on my birthday in 2022. We were enjoying a cruise on a schooner in the Hudson River, the boat captained by a family friend.

I’m just back from a week out East, where Hannah and I tromped around Brooklyn and parts of Manhattan. I absorbed all the urban-ness I could.

This postcard lives on my daughter Hannah’s Brooklyn (Bushwick) refrigerator. I snapped its photo on the balcony of her apartment.

At the Brooklyn Museum, I looked at shiny, sparkly things. Solid Gold, part of the museum’s 200th anniversary celebration, featured over 500 pieces, many of them from the world of fashion.

I wore my usual silver to the exhibition of golden things.

I met up on Saturday with some quilt world besties for brunch at Fiorello’s, across the street from Lincoln Center, followed by a matinee of The Blood Quilt, a play by Pulitzer Prize winner Katori Hall. We all thought the story compelling, the performances superb, the set and staging beautiful.

Left, from left: yours truly; Pam Weeks, curator, New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA; Paula Nadelstern, prize-winning quilter extraordinaire; Meg Cox, writer, reporter, producer of "The Quilt Journalist Tells All." Right: the bar at the Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center, where the signature drink for The Blood Quilt was The Blazing Star.

On my last day in the city, I met a friend for a wonderful lunch in the Wall Street area (he paid, what a nice guy), then made my way north to Chelsea, walking many blocks in my Stuart Weitzman boots.

Signs mean business on Wall Street, but they thank you for understanding.

At Chelsea Market (huzzah) you can take your libations outside.

At a Chelsea Market kiosk, I purchased gifts for the friends who would soon help handle traffic flow at my home during the Winterset Christmas Tour of Homes, an event benefitting a worthy local charity.

“You know these are for Hanukah,” the kiosk lady at Li-Lac Chocolates (chocolatier since 1923) said. I did not know that, but I decided the golden treasure chests filled with foil-wrapped chocolate coins were perfect for my Winterset friends.

This chocolate Chest of Chanukah Gelt is an attractive gold treasure box filled with milk chocolate gold Chanukah coins and tied with a blue ribbon. It's a perfect gift to hand out at any Chanukah celebration. Gluten Free. Kosher Certified.

Hannah, born in Winterset at Madison County Memorial Hospital in 1975, is a true New Yorker now, but because of her Midwest upbringing, she stands on solid ground.

Pencil sketch by James Graham, made in 1975, the year Hannah was born.

A print of my father’s sketch of the Madison County courthouse hangs in Hannah’s home in Brooklyn, the beams of light streaming from the dome, in gold, her own enhancement.

I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, a group of over 60 journalists and authors writing from and about the great state of Iowa. Access all of us here.