Chilly Tuesday

Temps are only in the sixties today, but will return to the eighties by Thursday. It's a good day to catch up on things inside the house.

I took the finished triangles for my Dear Jane quilt along to Florida hoping to get them stitched into rows. There was some time for sewing on the plane, in the airport, in the hotel room and in the gyms. The triangles are all hand stitched and I'm joining them by hand, also. My third row of triangles is almost together now. The photo shows it on the back of the couch by the tiger that DS, Mike bought for me. I have one final row to assemble and then the four border rows are ready to be sewn to the center squares. I've been working on this quilt on and off (a lot off) since 1998. It may be that the time is right for me to finish it.

We arrived in Orlando, FL last Wednesday and stopped in Lakeland to see Joker Marchant Stadium and the Patchwork Pig on our way to St. Petersburg. My purchases were two new books at the quilt shop, Quilts of Virginia and Unraveling the History of Quilts & Slavery by BarbarA Brackman. This shop had loads of Jo Morton fabrics, which I love, but I didn't get any.













Our next stop was St. Petersburg where we proudly wore our orange, Detroit Tigers t-shirts to the Tampa Bay/Detroit ballgame at Tropicana Field that evening. Sadly, we didn't win, but we were seated with so many other Tiger fans that we really had a fun evening.

Thursday morning we drove to Clearwater and Dunedin to visit Country Quilts 'n Bears and Rainbows End. The latter is the largest quilt shop in Florida. My time was limited there, but it was an amazing shop. In Clearwater, I bought a few Japanese fabrics, a Jo Morton red, and a spool of King Tut quilting thread. All three shops were full of tempting bolts and patterns, etc. I had to remember that we were flying home and space was limited in the suitcase. And besides, I'm supposed to be using up my fabrics! Jim is always very patient while I check out the shops. He comes prepared with his laptop and often finds a coffee shop to sit down and wait.






Sunday's alarm clock rudely rang at 5:00a.m. after which our day was spent in Orlando International, Dulles, and finally O'Hare airports before arriving at MBS and thankfully home around 8:00p.m. This was only the second time I have been to Florida, but I hope to go back. There was so much history in St. Augustine. I did visit the Fountain of Youth and am still waiting...