Quilt Shops to Colorado

We have been on the road for almost a week now and I haven't posted. But I don't think many would be interested in hearing about the dozen quilt shops we have stopped at while traveling. I had a couple of favorites, Appletree Quilting in Columbia, Missouri and

Uniquely Yours in Salina, Kansas. 

These two shops stood out with friendly service and lovely offerings. As I am following the Row by Row trail this year in my quilt shop visits, it is interesting to see the approaches the various shops are using in the designs of the patterns and in their kits. These two shops have great instructions. And their designs are nice too. 

We made it to Colorado  and will be spending the next week here. 

Super Quilt Seminar in Delaware

The photo is of me with Ricky Tims at the Ricky Tims Super Quilt Seminar I attended this last week end. The beautiful quilts in the background are his quilts. He is extremely talented and a great teacher! He is also a terrific musician and performed on Friday evening for all the attendees and guests. My spouse loved the concert! 

Ricky's co-presenter was Alex Anderson! Her book on starting to quilt was my first quilting book. I look at it when I need to review how to do things correctly. The photo below is one I managed to get with her. 

Mike took me to the seminar and then went off on his own to visit a car museum. On the first evening I met him in the bar after class. He and Al, a man sitting at the bar, were having a great old time. Diane, Al's wife, came over right after I got there. She is a terrific quilter with her own quilting book coming out soon. She and I sat together the next couple of days. She was not the only quilter I met. I kept telling her she looked like Alex Anderson. Here is a photo of them. Judge for yourself. 

I learned all kinds of techniques and was able to see both Ricky's and Alex's quilts up close. What a treat! The photo immediately below is Alex's quilt and the other is one of Ricky's photo quilts. Just wow! 

Here is a close up of the center of his award winning Rhapsody quilt. I think it will be a long time before I reach this level. Ricky says we can all do this. Right?!!! 

Easter Walk on the Patuxent Branch Trail

As we travel we try to find nice hikes or paths to take in the areas we visit. We forgot that we have so many nice paths in our own area of the country. Today we decided to take an Easter afternoon walk, so I looked for a place nearby. We drove over to the Patuxent Branch Trail, only a few miles from home. We took the 4 mile round trip from Guilford Road to Lake Elkhorn. 

I was admiring the ground cover that seemed to be everywhere in the floodplain forest the path generally follows. It was mostly just green, but in a few areas the blooms were starting to appear.  

When we got home I looked at the Maryland wildflower guide, but did not find the flower. I expanded my search and discovered that this plant's common name is Lesser Celandine and is considered invasive in this area, as it displaces the native wildflowers. 

It was still a nice walk on a warm day - finally! This has been a cold winter. 

Morning, Noon and Night Quilt

 

I have been quilting for the last month and finally finished the queen sized quilt I promised my daughter for Christmas. I used Atkinson's "Morning, Noon and Night" pattern to make the quilt. It is frightening how long it takes to finish a quilt. This is the largest one I have made in my first year of quilting. 

I spent a full day at my local quilt shop (Prints Charming) using the long arm to quilt the top and back. I used circular quilting, as the quilt itself has rectangular blocks. Here is a close up of part of the quilting. 

The colors I used follow the original pattern fairly closely, although I used some black and purple, too. I also bound the quilt with purple, as my daughter and her boyfriend both love Ravens colors. I sure hope they like the quilt. 

Here is the quilt in its new home on its new bed. I am sure it will be used well. 

Traveling Home

While I try to blog about our primary stops and the places we visit, I usually don't post about our driving days. So I decided to talk a bit about the things we do getting from place to place. The cat photo is of a Siamese named Sweet Blue. I met her in one of the quilt shops I stopped at on the road. My spouse very generously stops when I find an interesting quilt shop entry in my Quilters' Travel Companion. Some of the entries lead to strange shops, but more often to lovely places with friendly people. That was the case this afternoon. Rachel's Quilt Patch in Staunton, Virginia, is a real quilter's home. 

The view is from my window last evening at our friends' home in northern North Carolina. They graciously hosted us and fed us fantastically! I love the hobby (cooking) that she has taken up in her retirement. 

The other night we stayed at an rv park in Lexington, SC. The host there directed us to a restaurant nearby for dinner. This is not a place we would have found on our own, as it was located in a house in a neighborhood, not in a commercial area. The name, Vegetable Medley, gave me pause. It turns out that it was a real Southern buffet with pulled pork, great fried chicken, and vegetable dishes that made me eat too much! The locals filled the place as soon as it opened for dinner. 

We will arrive home soon. We are going back to cold weather. Oh well, I guess I will get some quilting done. 

Cocoa Beach

We stopped in Cocoa Beach to visit with our friends DruAnne and Dave. We arrived in time to watch the Super Bowl. In spite of that inauspicious start to our visit, we had a terrific time! We had dinner at the local must go to spot, Coconuts. 

The highlight had to be our nature walk at the Viera Wetlands, a reclaimed marsh. We saw a huge variety of birds and lots of alligators. Some of my favorites were the great egrets, the blue herons, and the Sandhill cranes that I spotted as we were walking back to the car. Mike and I have decided that this was our nature trip to Florida. It has been spectacular! 

Sandhill cranes

Great Egret

Blue Heron

Another alligator. Almost becoming humdrum. Not! 

Orlando

We spent the last few days with our friends the Frames in Orlando. We were so busy that I did not get to posting. We played games and went to a neat state park - Blue Springs State Park - where the manatees come in the winter to stay warm. Manatees need to maintain their body temperature at 70 degrees or so to survive. The day we were there they had a current count of 400+ residents in the waterways. It was fascinating to  see them. 

On Friday we took an airboat ride with Marsh Landing Adventures to see alligators and birds. We were in the headwaters to the Florida Everglades. I did not know that the Everglades originated this far north. We saw Big John and many more gators. Olivia, a mother protecting her young, did not like us getting too close. 

We saw lots of birds, too, including the short-tailed hawk, an endangered bird. I caught him taking off from a tree. 

I also learned that the snowy egret is one of the alligators biggest predators, as they eat young gators almost as quickly as they hatch. 

Our airboat captain, Scott, was a very entertaining tour guide! 

We visited a neat farmers market and Downtown Kissemee, a throw back to the sixties. And we let the guys win all the games we played. Next time the women get to win.