Hey Everyone, welcome back to Coffee Talk Saturday.
So today we took a drive in the country – not unusual for us seeing how we live in the country. This drive took us up to Tiny Township to see the Georgian Bay Quilters quilt show. It was held in the Tiny Township community hall which we decided was in a very odd place for a community hall. It seemed like it was in the middle of no where but then again it was close to an airport. Maybe they get lots of high powered business men flying in on their corporate jets. I don’t really think so but it sounded good.
The quilt show was well subscribed and the ladies of the Georgian Bay Quilter’s guild certainly have some talent in their guild with many wonderful quilts on display. They also have some talented baker’s in their guild as well. The chocolate cake was to die for. We had a lovely cup of coffee with friends talking about quilts and upcoming classes.
On the way home we stopped at our friends Andrea and Hannu’s house which is an old one room school house complete with boys and girls entrances built in 1909. The house was converted back in the 60’s to a house by a teacher who lacked a bit of finishing finesse but to me the whole place is full of charm and character. Slowly our friends are fixing it up and changing things.
Being a one room schoolhouse in the classic Ontario style it has huge, to-die-for, soaring ceilings. The first habitational occupant put a second floor in over the back half of the school house. Rather than supporting it with posts and beams or stick building, he chose to hang it from the roof on steel rods. Kinda clever, imparts a whole lotta charm and really brings new meaning to the term “suspended floors”!
Being a schoolhouse though, it has really high windows. I suppose this was to let in lots of natural light while keeping distractions to a minimum – there’s NO way any kids are sitting at their desks and daydreaming out the windows in this school. And while this is really very quaint, it means the second floor cuts right across the windows so you can’t open the windows to upstairs.
This is definitely a house of projects! Last summer Hannu spent a fair few weeks pulling the old roof off, re-insulating and cladding the main roof. Right now he’s pulling apart the living room and loft bedroom. Relatives of theirs cut down some big white pine trees to build a house and Hannu has turned the trees into these gorgeous 2″ thick flooring planks that he’s using to replank. Awesome.
Every school has to have a piano right? So Hannu and Andrea picked up a working player piano with a stack of scrolls. Pretty cool stuff.
Michael’s mind was racing at a mile a minute thinking about what a great space this would make for portraits. Long shooting distances coupled with soaring headspace to accommodate even the largest of lights and background sets. I of course was thinking boy I could hang my Purely Canadian quilt in here no problem.
Back to reality here I am at home with my 8 foot ceilings.
Happy Quilting!
Ps…… sorry no photos, we had the camera but I had no idea this was what I would be writing about so we didn’t take any photos – next time.
