Sarasota, Tonya, Gwen & Me!

The trip to Florida was too fast, too furious....but we got a lot done together, plus the bonus of talking, laughing, eating fun places, visiting quilt shops, getting LOST....all those fun things you can't do by email and phone alone. Sometimes you just have to GO even if you can't take a whole week to fit it all in!

There are more pics I wish I could have taken. The first night we were dying for Indian food, but the place was closed...so we ended up at a tiny Mexican place instead. Little did I know it was "Serenade" night..they had a great guy playing guitar and singing. WONDERFUL! I had to tip him $10 he was so good. Needless to say, he sang for us more than once :c) The whole place broke into song when he played and sang "Guantanamera"

Tuesday was THE DAY. Somehow Tonya had fanagled us the whole day with Gwen Marston & her friend Betty who is hosting Gwen while Gwen is teaching in Florida. We weren't able to schedule classes with her, but the one on one time was so much better!

We showed her our quilts, especially ones with Tonya's lettering technqiues. She loved them! She really went nuts over Tonyas....it was so fun to see!

We ended up all going out to lunch at this (can you believe it?) AMISH ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET. In Florida. In the land of Margaritaville...we were at an honest to goodness Amish place. I felt like I was in Lancaster County! It's not for the light hearted mind you. We were trying to figure out why the "Lighter Side" part of the menu listed homemade noodles OVER mashed potatoes! *LOL* We all agreed that "lighter side" must refer to the COLOR or VALUE of the dish being served...*hehehe*


Next door to the restaurant was a quilt shop. Now this is the funny part...In walks this lady with a cross stitch kit quilt under one arm. I was talking to Gwen about yardage sizes she usually finds herself buying,and this lady butts in and tells Gwen (not knowing who she is of course) that if she were a TRUE QUILTER...she would buy a yard more than she thinks she needs. I about wet myself..*howling* Gwen of course, just smiled at the lady in an "Is that so?" manner and proceeded to buy one yard cuts of the fabrics she had stacked up. What a riot!

I did some damage too...I bought some 2 yard cuts, thinking I might want something for borders or setting triangles, but I really limited my purchases. I STILL feel like I have way too much and there is so little I need.

Tonya and I BOTH had brought our "out of print" Liberated Quilting books for Gwen to sign, and that was such a treat.

Yesterday was SO full....we went to the beach! It was gorgeous, you just can't believe how nice it was. The sand is the whitest sand I've ever seen. It's quartz so it doesn't get hot on your feet. The water is the most gorgeous aquamarine...

Next to the beach was a little park area, and there happened to be an "art in the park" thing going on, so we wandered booths and I found a couple trinkets to bring home with me as souvenirs.

On our way to the park from the beach, there was an Amish family headed to the beach just like everyone else,blankets and baskets of food, barefoot children in toe. It was so refreshing to see! Also, kind of out of place,but I am so glad they take the time to enjoy the beauty too. I'm sure the ladies are glad to have the black hose off their legs and some sun on their faces,healthy complexions all around! Tonya took some pics of me with them in the background, trying not to get pics of them directly..hopefully she will post the rest in the next few days. My camera screen was so reflective it was hard to see WHAT I was taking pics of in all that sunshine.

One more quilt shop, lunch...and back to the airport. We crammed as much as we could into almost 3 days full!