Wednesday, March 23, 2011

On to Dunedin

Before leaving Ft. Myers we celebrated my 69th birthday.  My 'big' present is the Kindle I am holding in the photo, and the Mango Mango drink was a nice present also.



I put together a ZigZag center for a baby quilt before we left.  The fabric was a pile of similar left-overs I grabbed before leaving home and some muslin.


We have moved on to Dunedin, the spring training home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and the nearest town to beautiful Honeymoon beach.  The sand is white white and fine grained.  And there is a section set aside as a "Pet Beach".  No cats in evidence.




I have put the borders on the ZigZag quilt, after a visit to The Rainbow's End [quilt shop] for the bright border.  I used up all the remaining scraps for the backing.  However, actually QUILTING the top will wait until I get home. The "harp" of the Feather Weight machine is too small for quilting.



And here is a better shot of what we can see from the balcony: palm trees, Gulf water, islands, a white egret.  Occasionally private fishing boats go by and kayaks.  No manatees so far.




For lunch today we drove 20 minutes north to Tarpon Springs for a Greek lunch and a look at the sponge boats in their harbor.  The tan sponges are hanging on rope lines on the boat [to dry?].

We also spent about ten minutes inside the Greek Orthodox cathedral of St. Nicolas.  Big Greek community here!


Charlie's friend is arriving today for four ball games in four days with Charlie.  I'm going to just one, and will continue my sewing projects while the men are out in the bright sun for three hours at a time.

Sara

Gratitudes:
Interesting restaurant food for dinners
Reading Sandra Schneider's "Written That You May Believe"
Three days off from men's basketball

Friday, March 18, 2011

Fort Meyers

At the La Quinta motel for seven nights, so I set up my sewing area and had quickly made enough HSTs that I needed to sit in the doorway and cut off the extra corners, holding the waste basket between my legs to catch them.

We have been to two difference beaches in the mornings.  This beach goes along the road to the Sanibel Island causeway.  We find a place to settle in the shade, if possible, after a walk along the beach and we do some reading and gazing at the water and human activity.



Every other day there is a baseball game for at least one of us.

Here's Charlie outside the Twins' stadium.  There were lots of Minnesotans there and a few Mets fans as well. The "stars" played through the 6th inning and after the rookies were rotated onto the field a lot of the fans began to leave.

C is off to a Red Sox game on his own this afternoon and I have a new idea for using up scraps of pastel fabrics.

Sara

Gratitudes:
We are both happy with our chosen activities
Lovely salad and fish for lunch
warm air and light breezes!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Peacocks and surf

On our way south we spent a morning wandering around in Cochtaw County, Alabama looking for the places where Charlie had been 40 years ago registering voters during Holy Week.

This may be one of he Baptist churches where meetings were held.



This is the right TOWN.  When Charlie went into this Post Office the woman behind he counter said she remembered "those people" from when she was 7 years old.  She had followed C's friend Margot around while she lived there for a whole year working on the project.  Pretty amazing that the only person he had a chance to talk with remembered that long ago!


We stayed for two nights on Florida's "Forgotten Coast", the coast of Florida's panhandle.  We awoke in our cabin at the Sportsmen's Resort to find a peacock perched on our deck rail.


We drove around St. George's Island, enjoying the State Park at the eastern end for $6.  It was a gray day and quite windy.  Not many people out at the beach, but the campground was nearly full with enormous RVs from the north.

From there we visited Charlie's brother and sister-in-law in Jacksonville for two nights.

Now we are in Fort Myers for a week of warmth and three Spring Training baseball games.  Charlie has gone this afternoon to see he Twins and the Mets(?).  I am setting up the Featherweight sewing machine and an ironing station to play with some tropical fabric.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Moving Ash Wednesday and 1st Sunday of Lent services in strange to us places
Sunshine and warmth
La Quinta will let us leave our dog in the room when we go out

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Kindle Cover


My new Kindle seemed to be crying out for a quilted cover.

I had a bit of this dirt-defying Robert Kaufmann print and simply quilted along the edges of the brown stripes, added a velcro closing flap to hold it shut, and "voila" it is made.

And even with the cover on it fits in to my smallish purse!  Very convenient for our trip to and from Florida.  I have downloaded Hillenbrand's "Unbroken" as a first treat.

Back to organizing clothes, sewing, knitting for the vacation!

Sara

Gratitudes:

We have the health for this trip
We have the time for this trip
We have the money for this trip

Friday, March 4, 2011

Orchid still blooming



First bloom was on January 8, and here she is on March 4. There are still a couple of buds on the right side that will swell up and bloom later, while we are in Florida.  I wonder how many will remain when we return.


I packed up four quilts and took them over to Margaret's Hope Chest this afternoon.  I know they can find someone who needs some warmth during March, no reason to wait until later when we come back.


Sara

Gratitudes:

Read a whole book on my Kindle
Woke up this morning feeling fine [eye injection yesterday]
Learning things at my first township Parks Committee meeting

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll completely finished

Finished the binding and the washing and drying of this quilt.


On the living room floor.


On the kitchen wall.

Corner border.

Quilting on pieced block.

Quilting on strip block, outline and star.


Back.


On the bed!  


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Yeah!
Now I can start getting ready for three weeks away.


Sara

Gratitudes:

Exercise class gets my hips loosened
Very easy to work with Catherine, my long-arm quilter
Refrigerator is getting cleared out 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

RRCB back from quilter

So now I am trimming it and making the binding ready for application.




Catherine quilted a nice "swirly" thing in the pieced blocks.



And she put 5-pointed uneven stars in the strip-pieced blocks.

I am always astounded at how much better a quilt top looks once it is quilted!

I hope to get this one on the bed for a "sleep under" before we leave for Florida.
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Another task I finished so I can put them in the mail are the DOTTED blocks [to go with the STRIPED blocks].  I tried some gently curved piecing.  These are for Victoria at Bumble Beans.



Sara

Gratitudes:

Early birthday present of a Kindle
Seeing the Roll, Roll Cotton Boll quilt again
Early birthday supper with friends