Save Old Places
A quilt, a testimonial, and a five-letter word I can't finish
river brick (n.) — a brick pulled from a river and wondered about. Where it was made. What it built. How it ended up in the water. Who touched it last.
The Ruins Quilt has found its home.
This is the 2026 Ruins Quilt on the bed of its new owner, Lynn Adamo. Lynn won the quilt in our raffle and wrote to tell me it arrived. “Oh boy, is it magnificent,” she said. “I still can’t believe my luck.”
If you missed the Ruins Quilt story, you can catch up here, A Tale of Two Quilts.
And I have it on good authority that the quiltmakers will indeed be making quilt #2, this time on purpose and to match The Stone Quilt mosaic. Stay tuned…
Our first pairing of fabric and tesserae was an accident. This next one will be on purpose. Just imagine how much fun Roz and Jim will be having, tracking down patterns to match the stone. The bright doors, the geometric lines. A quiltmakers ultimate challenge.
Save Old Places
Amy Gartley bought two historic buildings in Uniontown. She turned one into The 1848 House, a B&B inside a building that’s been standing since thirteen years before the Civil War. She opened an art studio next door called Apple Atcha Studio. (say it out loud. I love that name). She made shirts that say SAVE OLD PLACES and sells them. Three simple words in a simple font. I need to get myself one.
I put Amy in my field guide, Your Grandfather Worked Here, because she’s exactly the kind of person the book is about. A young business owner in Fayette County who looked at two old buildings and turned them into a life.
She sent me this:
As a young girl always in touch with her creative side, I often was told, “oh, you’ll move to a big city one day”, as if that’s where those artists go. I attempted a few routes in my life that would’ve pointed me in that direction and, well, they all failed. Thankfully, the Universe has my back & knows exactly where I’ll feel fueled to follow my joy… and, it’s here. It’s Fayette County PA, it’s my home.
If you’re close to me, you’ve heard me talk about the work of local mosaic artist, Rachel Sager. I was immediately inspired by her & her work when I met her at a Pennsylvania’s art educators conference. She too, is an Appalachian daughter of a blue collar Appalachian Dad. Her roots were planted long ago and are embedded deep. Knowing her story helped me recognize & define my own role as an artist in a small town.
In the Laurel Highlands, we are surrounded by natural divine artistry & many remnants of the past…. So where does that leave a space for creators who feel connected to both? Right in between.
If you haven’t toured The Ruins in Whitsett that say both, “Your Grandfather worked here” & “Artists worked here”, go. Rachel’s field guide has put into words what her friendship has helped inspire, the work that I am doing just down the creek.
— Amy Gartley, Artistic Designer, Co-Owner of The 1848
Right in between. That’s where Amy and I work. Between what was and what’s next.
Follow her gorgeous posts: @theuniontown1848
Your Grandfather Worked Here: A Field Guide for Disappearing Places is available now. [$22, digital, from The Ruins Press.]
B.R.I.C.K.
And now, an update on last week’s town council meeting about the Perryopolis bricks. Yes, the defining characteristic of our little town center, the bricks my great-grandfather helped lay, the bricks my grandmother stood on as she said to the bulldozer, “You’ll have to go through me.” The very brick story I chose to place as the closing chapter of my saving old places book, those historic bricks will indeed be torn out and replaced with a facsimile of stamped concrete meant to look like them.
I got my minute to talk, I said my piece. The council is now listening to my proposals for what to do with thousands of old homeless bricks full of potential.
So now I pivot. If you can’t save the old thing, you tell its story. And I need your help with one important detail. The Ruins first acronym and a newly begun project for our cathedral to coal.
B.R.I.C.K.
Bricks. Returned. Into. ____. ____.
The last two letters are resisting me. Either Clay or Coal for the C. I lean towards Clay due to the raw material that makes a brick. But the last letter, K, is eluding me. Keeping worked for a bit but its not quite right. Erika mentioned the other day that the letter K is odd in that old, beautiful words rarely start with K. Is that true?
More details on B.R.I.C.K. as it develops.
Thank you for being here with me as I keep digging.
Some days with a hammer, some days with a shovel. And some days with a pen.
Breaks my heart they are tearing up the bricks. Am currently in Italy with the stone walk ways that have lasted forever and I thought about their longevity (and the longevity of bricks) compared to concrete. Sigh…
bricks returned into clay knowledge