We went on a sail this afternoon with the group and while we didn’t snorkel, we did enjoy swimming in the sea … and when we got back, we relaxed on the beach…

…. and watched the sunset!

Our first time visiting … the resort is beautiful and we had fun meeting up with Keith’s work friends and coworkers!

The pool view …

The beach views…

And our dinner was right on the beach tonight.

Mom has arrived safely at home and I’m on my way back to Tampa this afternoon. It’s a long day (we left the house at 5:45am) but well worth it to have had a long visit with Mom in Tampa!

Mom and I were looking at some of my quilt books yesterday when we got home from the quilt show and she found another quilt she wanted to make so we pulled fabric from my stash and I’ve cut all the brights already for her. If we have time tomorrow I’ll cut the black but it will be a busy day – her last one here before she leaves to go home. The Lantern pattern from my book is also a free pattern found here.

There are slight differences, the free pattern has a border and maybe a different number of blocks but it’s the same quilt.

While I was cutting, Mom assembled a little doll quilt for me. I couldn’t stand to waste the leftover ends of the strip sets from my Windmill quilt.

Several people asked about the iron/steamer we bought at the quilt show. I need to correct myself – it is NOT an iron. I tested it out today pressing all the fat quarters for Mom’s quilt. At first I thought I’d wasted my money but once I realized that I needed to just glide it over the fabric and not press down, it worked much better. It won’t replace my iron for piecing but it’s great for pressing fabric in preparation for cutting a quilt and I think it will be nice for pressing tops before loading them on the longarm.

I use the library for my audiobooks that I listen to while knitting but since I share my Kindle library with Mom I still purchase my ebooks. Plus, there are some authors that I don’t want to wait for the ebook to become available on the library site!

I love my Kindle and while I have a house full of quilt, knitting, crafting, travel, and cookbooks, I read fiction and history on my Kindle. It really, really irks me when I see a book at Amazon where the paperback book is less expensive than the Kindle book … and because I’m a Prime member, I could even get the paperback delivered at no extra charge in two days. How is it possible that the Kindle book costs more?!!

I’m too lazy to write book reviews but I do keep a list of books I’ve read on Goodreads. I appreciate however when others (VickiW and Carol) write book reviews on their blog.

Gail had written to tell me about a quilt show here in Tampa and when I looked it up, I found it was one of the Mancuso shows at the convention center which is just down the street from us so we decided if Mom was up to it, we would go over briefly to check it out.

It wasn’t too crowded which was nice. Like other Mancuso shows, I find it’s heavily skewed toward art quilts but we found some quilts that appealed to us. We also had a few purchases, I subscribed to a couple magazines – I’d let all my magazine subscriptions lapse years ago but I’m willing to give them another shot at inspiring me. We also saw a demonstration of a steam iron and both ended up buying one. While I wouldn’t use it for piecing regular blocks, it will work great pressing yardage or scraps when I’m starting a quilt and I think it will be great for a final pressing of a top before quilting too. Who knows, I might even use it on my clothes!

Even though I’m on “no buy” I did buy a bundle of 1 yard pieces that came with a free pattern – it had a cute dinosaur print and I’m going to make one more attempt to make a quilt for Caleb – apparently he prefers blankets that feel really soft like fleece ones so I’ll back this one in Minky and see if he approves!