Busy January: Florida

 My January at the hair salon was busy with bridal shows. As far as quilting, I have been working on a foundation pieced quilt sized 53 x 53 and it was very complicated in the piecing and the machine quilting I chose was plentiful. I have finished it and am blocking it as I blog and will do some minimal embellishments on it. As soon as it is finished I can post the photo of it. Then Last Monday I had the chance to visit a friend who winters in Winter Haven FL. She has been asking me for a few years now and I took her up on her offer. Granted this has been an easy winter in Upper Michigan but a chance to wear summer clothes, flip flops and enjoy the 70-80 degree weather was not to be passed up!! I found that Winter Haven had a quilt shop called Heart Felt and it was the biggest quilt shop I have ever seen outside of Mill House Quilts in Waunakee WI. Visual overload and very hard to choose fabric that I could still carry on the plane home. I was inspired to make one of my mermaid quilts for my friend Jan, who invited me,  in the colors she was decorating her FL home-beiges, tans, light blues and peachy pink. I will make the fused applique in a tan color dark enough to see it but light enough to stay with the color scheme. I found some fabrics for this quilt and some sea shell beads for embellishments.

This large doll called "Grandma" greets people as they enter the store. The owner told the story of how the former owner made the doll and the new owner had her in storage for a while. The shop carries a line of purse and tote patterns called Easy Peasy and the pattern designer made a pattern for a walker holder. She asked if she could bling the walker for a trade show and that's how "Grandma" has been ever since. Very colorful, eye catching and funny!

So I managed to hit 3 quilt shops in the area, visit a botanical garden, enjoy the Florida sun and eat some great regional food.