Passing Time on Peace River (Wauchula, FL)

I thought I should post something soon before someone thinks we have lost our way through the humid haze of Florida.  We are not lost.  We are just trying to survive the heat wave that has been breaking Florida's record this past month.  It is certainly hot here!  It is a little more than what I had wished for.... I know, I know...be careful of what you wish for!  Then again, I wasn't asking for a hot summer just a warm sunny dry winter.  After three wet winters, I felt we were due a warmer winter and I am still looking forward to this winter in Key West.

In the meantime, we are dealing with the heat wave by getting out early before the temperatures rise.  When it gets into the 90s with a heat index of 100+ with humidity, it is very hard to stay enthused about taking a walk around the park.  We do get a break from the heat in the late afternoons or early evenings with some terrific thunderstorms that shake our rig and a quick dump of ice cold rain.

Still, I have no complaints.  I prefer this over our freezing winds and rains where I had to wear layers just to take the garbage out to the dumpster.  We have made it a habit of spending about a half hour to an hour sitting outdoors with the cats in the shade before surrendering to our air conditioned motorhome to cool off.  Even the cats are getting use to the idea of going out several times a day for short periods of time.  So, now it feels like there is always someone begging to go outdoors....all day long.

suspended bridge

The photos here are from Paynes Creek Historic State Park.  We walked a few of the nature trails and visited a few of the historic sites.  There wasn't a whole lot left to the old trading post or fort.  I liked crossing the suspended bridge and seeing some different textured plants like the mushrooms below.

On The Cutting Board

I finished my first Hawaiian block with echo quilting.  I started out marking the background with a water soluble pen.  With this humidity, it was disappearing before I got around to the third turtle.  The air erasable disappeared even faster.

I decided to quilt the block without guide lines and I am quite happy with how well the echo quilting came out.  I thought for sure I would be all over the place.  Now, I need to decide what to do with my first Hawaiian applique....I think I'm going to keep it and make it into a pillow cover.  Granted it does not match our interior southwest decor theme, but we do have teal and that's a good match.  We need some new pillow covers.  My old ones are looking a frazzled and faded.  Hmmm, I'm thinking there are some new pillow projects in my near future.

I also started working on my quilt tops.  I plan to give a few to charity and a couple of them will be listed on Etsy.  I'm hoping to get all the quilt tops done before we get to Key West.

Well, I better get started on making binding for these three quilts.

Happy Quilting!