Chomping at the bit...

Being away from home without my sewing machine -- what can I say? It is a patience-builder, at least. However, there are quilt shops! Yesterday we went to two, and one of them is still whispering to me, "Come back, come back..."

The shop is Sunshine Sewing Company in Margate, FL, near Fort Lauderdale. It is tucked away into a business park and almost invisible. Without a big WE ARE OPEN sign on the door, we might have missed it. However, Fay Nicoll knows her stuff. I asked for "geraniums" and she took me to five places in her humongous collection (at least 12,000 bolts) and found exactly what I wanted in the "end of the bolt" section. 

Some of this I bought in other shops, and I did buy other pieces, but love this set and am eager to get home and sew! I also bought some quilt books and another Patsy Thompson DVD.

We have to go home early (as in Monday) because one of our kids got a long-awaited call for repair surgery on a very painful shoulder. While it is 80 degrees here and below freezing there, we are okay with that.

Thwarted for a day or two

My sewing plans for this month away from home have been altered (pun intended). The person who offered his condo will be in it until tomorrow, instead of leaving yesterday as originally planned. Car problems. So my sewing machine is there, but we are still in a lovely hotel. DH is golfing and I am writing and emailing and walking and thinking a great deal about finishing UFOs and starting new projects. 

I brought one UFO with me. It will likely be called Crazy Jane because I've so assessed myself for wanting to do this. When I made my Dear Jane quilt, I didn't do the traditional pattern. Instead, I added plain blocks and left off the triangles. When I was told I could not be a Dear Jane goddess unless I did all the blocks, I went to work on a plan to use them in a second quilt. My design is the top picture, and the progress is shown in the next one. Note that I laid the wide border strip of triangles close to the center in the photo, but it will need a plain border between the two, as shown in the drawing because it does not fit exactly (at least to my recall). 

This project is all that I brought with me and do not expect to finish it, but at least make a few more of those complicated triangle blocks. Who knows, it might be more fun than I anticipate. One thing that I am enjoying is 70+ weather, no wind and the Barnes and Noble book store across the street! Oh, and my hubby first spied a wonderful quilt shop in Carefree and was signaling to turn before I even spotted it. He even came in and had a good look around before opening his book in front of the in-store fireplace (more heat so not needed but nice anyway).

Only one quilt shop so far!

Scotland is noted for woolens. There are many shops with everything from basic yarns to finished cashmere, but I've only spotted one show with quilting cotton. They didn't have much of a selection, so I left my money in my handbag (they call wallets purses here). Instead, I spotted this yarn in a sale bin and thought it might be good for embellishment on landscape quilts. The shop owner told me that some shops are just starting to have quilting classes.

We did see several pottery shops. The one that caught my eye most quickly was this one in Dunkelden (sp?). Since we cannot take pottery home without some risk, we didn't go inside.

Except for Friday, the weather has been excellent. On Friday all the clouds over Great Britain emptied their load. It was very wet. The other days have been sunny, so much so that I got a sunburn on Saturday.

My husband is golfing. He did Gleneagles Thursday and is at a city course in Edinburgh today. There are 500+ golf courses here!

Our time here for the Homecoming/Gathering of the Clans has been fabulous. On Saturday night we joined my clan (Leslie) and nearly 200 other clans, 6000 of us, for a march from Holyrod Palace up the Royal Mile on cobblestones to Edinburgh Castle. The streets were absolutely packed with people cheering as their own clan went by. In some places we could only walk three abreast, as there were so many people. Only in Scotland do people of all sizes and ages show up by the thousands to celebrate their families!

It was emotional too. I felt so proud to have Scottish blood in my veins. At the castle we were treated to an historical presentation showing the tenacity and inventive spirit of the Scots. One who represented a recent generation born elsewhere said that even though he was born an Aussie, he was Scottish through and through. My father was not born here, nor me, but I feel the same way.

Tomorrow we go north where my family roots are, and we might look for a gravestone or two. I'd love to find some living relatives but the chances are very slim. I don't have enough information and my great aunt married a Reid, one of the most common names in this Psalm 23 country.

We were at Crief Friday morning (no rain there) and it is so beautiful. I didn't take enough pictures but hope to post some after we go back through there at the end of next week. And I will keep looking for quilt shops!

Updates

We are on holidays for two weeks, starting tomorrow. I was hoping to post another finish before we left, but life happens. I have a flower pounding one done and the second one is close. Back soon...

Can you guess where we are going?