It is so much fun to meet up with people I have only met previously online.
I didn’t know it until I traveled to the Sarasota area last month (to teach at the Venice Guild) and this month, but there is a very large Mennonite and Amish community there. For dinner, my host took me to dinner at Der Dutchman, a local restaurant that features Amish food. It was wonderful!
Bicycles are a common way for them to get around town:
We made a stop at Alma Sue’s Quilts, a fabulous quilt shop.
Several quilt frames were set up inside the shop, and Mennonite ladies were hand quilting. Gorgeous!
Within the past few years, I have discovered that my Brubaker ancestors (Bruppacher) were Swiss Mennonites who came to America about 1710, and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Maybe I got some of my love of quilting from them!
My hosts’ cat is a Bengal (a hybrid breed of domestic cat that result from crossing a domestic feline with an Asian Leopard Cat)! She is lovely, very orange and tiger-y looking:
Somehow, I didn’t get any photos of my Peacock Feather class students; argh! Here are photos from Tuesday’s November Leaves” class where we painted and stitched Tyvek, then melted it and quilted.
Here’s another wonderful online friend, Angie Knowles, whom I met in person for the first time:
We also melted some of the leftover Tyvek bits:
When class was over, it was time for some R&R. We went out to dinner at a river-side restaurant, where I had a delicious fish sandwich:
This is a tree outside the restaurant, where some beautiful black birds (crows?) had gathered:
And then my hosts drove me to Siesta Key beach in time for sunset. The sand there is very fine and very white. I didn't even realize when I was taking this shot that I had captured two Mennonite women and their little boy:
Here is the sun going …
… gone!
Brightly painted lifeguard stations:
Me with my host, Pam:
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| Photo by Gerry Zeck |
Seagull tracks:
Sunset silhouette:
Me taking photographs of the sunset:
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| Photo by Gerry Zeck |
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