Teaching in sunny Sarasota

I just got back from teaching at the Friendship Knot Quilters Guild of Sarasota. We did “Peacock Feather” on Feb. 18, and I presented my “Point, Click, Quilt!” lecture that evening.  Yesterday, we did “November Leaves.” Here I am before my presentation with Facebook friend and blog buddy Sharon Bourque, who was visiting from Canada:

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 …

… going …

 

 

… gone!

Brightly painted lifeguard stations:

Me with my host, Pam:

Photo by Gerry Zeck

The beach is incredibly wide compared to our North Carolina barrier islands:

Seagull tracks:

Sunset silhouette:

Me taking photographs of the sunset:

Photo by Gerry Zeck

Thanks, Friendship Knot Quilters; It was wonderful!