I'm at the Gulf of Mexico hence the question mark after "Winter." Don and I have wanted to be "snowbirds" for many years now and we decided 2013 was the year to give it a try. We chose to come to Gulf Shores, AL, and it's been a great vacation so far. We'll be here for the entire month of February before returning to the cold and snow of Wisconsin.
We've been having a lot of cloudy and rainy weather so far but the other day, it was sunny although a bit chilly. I took off for the beach and got a few snaps to share. This is the boardwalk leading from the parking area to the beach. The most beautiful white sand beach, stretching on forever. Lots of beach houses like the one on the right, all up on stilts, I suppose to protect against hurricane flooding. In Wisconsin, everyone has a basement under the house, so these look rather foreign to me.
When I arrived at the beach I saw a person fishing. No more than a few yards away was this handsome fella, watching and waiting for a tidbit. I chatted with this lady's husband who was walking the dogs on the beach and he said this Great Blue Heron was seen a lot on the beach, not the least bit shy of people at all. The next day, Don and I took a walk through the Bon Secour Nature Refuge nearby and again, a GBH came very near to us as we walked along the beach. Maybe it's the same one?
Since I knew Don would be spending a lot of time on the gulf course, I brought my sewing machine and quilting things along to work on while he played. Isn't that always the case: Women "work" while men "play!" Just kidding, "working" on a quilt is play for me and I think for most of us, right?
Anyway, Don was an avid runner before his knee gave out on him. He ran many marathons and smaller races all over the upper Midwest. Years ago, I took his marathon T shirts and made a wall hanging for him that he kept in his office at school until he retired and now it's hanging in the exercise room at home. He saved all his T shirts from the shorter races and has wanted me to make him a T shirt quilt for the bed. Before we left home to come here, he selected 25 shirts and I fused the fronts to interfacing so I could assemble the top while I was here. I finished it the other day and here it is. Don absolutely loves it and that makes me feel glad. I've not got enough fabric to make a border and the binding so he decided to forgo the border. Since it's a T shirt quilt I'll simply tie it when I get home and get the binding on it so he can sleep under it as soon as possible.
The other project I've been working on while here is this "tessellating star" quilt which will be donated to the school auction in June. I decided that this year I'll have this baby finished way ahead of time so I don't have to rush to get it done at the same time as the gardening work makes demands on me. For the first time, the Wisconsin Shop Hop had fabric designed especially for it. I bought a jelly roll of 2.5 inch strips and some yardage for the border and this is what I got.
I decided at the end to make a pieced border and I like how it gives the quilt a bit of an extra touch. When I get home, I'll quilt it on my machine in a simple meandering design and call it good.
Today I begin working on the 3rd of the 4 kits I brought with me. This next project is a new quilt for my son which has been promised to him for several years. I made all the blocks at home and simply have to assemble the top.
So, my vacation to the Land of Sunshine has been filled with interesting things to do and lots of good quilting as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment