My Purchases on Vacation

We are home now. Here are the pictures of what I purchased while on vacation.

Fat quarters from many shops.

Princess fabric for my princess granddaughter.

A cute wallhanging pattern.

Two cute baby quilt panels with backing, border and binding.

Another wallhanging - it is going to hang near my front door.

Our continuing vacation

To continue our vacation story: On Tuesday we relaxed at the resort. In the afternoon we checked out a really nice quilt shop in eastern Orlando.  

On Wednesday, we went to Disney Hollywood. We spent 6 hours there seeing everything we wanted to see.  There was a little show put on by 3 guys on the main street of Disney Hollywood and they brought me into it by saying I was one of their night-school teachers and asked me some rhetorical questions to support some of their statements.  It was fun to watch.  Wednesday was a little warmer than Monday but still comfortable since there was a breeze.

On Thursday, we drove to a large quilt shop (although it was more like a fabricland) with over 9,000 bolts.  It was in Rockledge, near Cocoa Beach - a little over an hour east of Orlando.  They did have some nice quick kits at a good cost. They consisted of a panel, backing and binding. I purchased 2 of these kits.

Friday we drove to a nice quilt shop in northeastern Orlando and then onto a Hobby Lobby.  I picked up a few fat quarters at the quilt shop.  Each day was getting warmer than the previous day so by the time we left for home on Saturday the temp was 34 C.

On the way home we stopped at 2 quilt shops in Ocala within a few miles of each other. Then we drove to a Fabric Art & Quilt Shop in Lake City. I didn't buy anything at any of these 3 shops. I think I might be just a little overwhelmed with all of the fabric available. With the fabric I have at home, I decided to show restraint in purchasing more. Tomorrow is Sunday so no quilt shops will be open so it is straight driving from Marietta (northern suburb of Atlanta) to north Cincinnati (so that we get past the Cincinnati rush hour traffic when we leave there Monday morning.) 

  

Our Trip

On Fri we drove to Chattanooga where we tried to find two quilt shops only to discover that both were no longer in business. Then we went up the Incline RR to the top of Lookout Mtn. It is 1 mile long and the steepest in the world. At the top were great views of Chattanooga  although on this day it was foggy so we could see only about 10 miles. From there we went to the Reflection Riding in the Arboretum which was touted as a driving loop of flowers and ponds but it was very short with very little in bloom. Since we only spent a few minutes there Stan decided he wanted to see the Chattanooga Hotel because it was a former RR depot with rooms in rail cars and there was also a huge model RR display there; it was indeed an interesting place. Then we crossed into GA and visited a quilt shop that we learned had been devastated by a tornado a year ago. Sew Bee It had a wonderful selection of fabrics and the staff there were very friendly. An hour south we visited another quilt shop (Tiny Stitches) in Marietta a N suburb of Atlanta. This shop had an eclectic mix of fabrics and Kaffe Fassett fabrics. From there we drove to Dublin GA.

On Sat we drove to Jekyll Island and walked in the Atlantic Ocean; really nice beaches there, but not much of anything else unless you golf or like old southern buildings. From there we drove all the way to our Kissimmee timeshare.

On Sun we relaxed and in the evening went to Al Capone's dinner theatre. The buffet was good and the show OK and good for some laughs; it wasn't worth the $55 per person full price but we ordered via the internet which is 1/2 price. We ordered our tickets that morning and the place was only about 1/2 full.

Mon we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom; it was a great time of year to go as the weather was beautiful (28C partly cloudy with a good breeze) and most of our waits were only about 15 minutes. It's been 14 years since we've been but we were rather disappointed this time; many of the rides were very short and the price steep - $90 per person. However, Stan became famous at the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor as he was up on the screen playing a part that had him appear about 6 times doing various things.


More to follow.

Florida Bound

We are Florida bound. We left home yesterday.  We made a stop in Sarnia so that I could check out some wallet purses and I ended up buying one. I will post pictures later. From there we drove across the border and the border guard asked us if we were going to the quilt show. Hmmm how did he know I was a quilter?
After this we stopped at Sew Elegant to purchase 3 passports for the upcoming stash dash in Michigan. We were given a pin and we will collect charms to attach to this pin as we go to the different shops. This is in June and I am going with Helen and Janet - should be lots of fun.
We drove straight to Dry Ridge, Kentucky and spent the night there.
Today, we left Dry Ridge and drove to the Red River Gorge. This included driving through a 100 metre long tunnel that was 12 feet high and 12 feet wide - barely room for our car.  We hiked to three natural rock arches - very neat. We then drove to Cumberland Falls which is in southern Kentucky. It is the most voluminous falls east of the Mississippi and south of Niagara Falls. Very impressive!
We stayed the night in Knoxville, Tennessee. 
I haven't made it to any quilt shops yet - :-( However tomorrow we are going to 2 of them. I am looking forward to it.


Linda

Elmira and Quilter's Nine Patch

Today Janet, Helen and I met up at Janet's house at 9 a.m. It was quite foggy when we were leaving Janet's but it would take more than fog to keep us quilters from driving through it to get to a quilt shop destination. Helen drove to Elmira to Quilter's Nine Patch and the Crossroads restaurant. Quilter's Nine Patch is an amazing quilt shop. They have an excellent selection of reproduction and other fabrics.  They also have a lot of pre-cut kits.  It was a hard decision - which kits we would buy and what we would get the next time we come back.

We had the buffet for lunch at Crossroads which is attached to the quilt shop. There were lots of choices of salads, meats, veggies and desserts. What a yummy place to eat!

Upon leaving, we decided that we would have to make another trip to this wonderful place.

We went to 2 other quilt shops but Quilter's Nine Patch was the winner of the day. 

Happy Sewing

Linda

My Best Friend

Today is a very sad day. I used to fly to Kelowna to visit a very special friend once or twice a year. However, Bonnie L-W was diagnosed with lung cancer and liver cancer in September of 2011. She was given chemotherapy treatments which messed up her mind. Her platelet count was too low to have the last 2 treatments and she was my friend again (her thoughts were clear). We had really good chats for a couple of weeks.

Last week she was admitted to hospice for care. Her body was shutting down. The hospice people were very good to her and her family. Her kids (now young adults) were with her when she passed away (they held her hands while she went to sleep). She passed away peacefully.

Her pain is gone and her family's pain has begun. I just pray that the Lord will comfort them through this very difficult time. Bonnie L-W was a very vibrant Christian lady.

A new phase has begun in her family's life.

Linda

UFO's

I was reading Bonnie Hunter's blog earlier today. She used the above picture to start off her post and the essence of it is to stick to one kind of project at a time.

We all have UFO's and quilts that we want to make and sometimes we become overwhelmed with the number of projects that need to be finished. She was saying that she likes to work on one project until completion.

I have way too many UFO's to count (or that I want to admit to) and so I have decided to pick one at a time and work on it until it is a quilt top, wallhanging or table runner etc. Then it will be time to pick the next UFO and continue through the year and hopefully see some progress with finished projects. The project will then go into another pile to be quilted.

I also like the idea of having one kind of project at a time. That would mean one machine piecing project, hand piecing (I am piecing hexies), redwork, and one project to be longarmed. 

In the evenings I like to have projects to do in front of the TV. I can do hand piecing and redwork but I also like to intersperse with knitting, cross stitching and crocheting. This keeps life interesting.

Anyway, be sure and read Bonnie's blog for some other tips and comments.

If you feel like commenting on my blog, I would love to hear from you.

Happy stitching,
Linda