Busy Beach Days!

This is Betsey and Mari who along with Priscilla and Sue turned my kitchen counter into our cutting and ironing area.
The first few days at the beach were filled with shopping! Priscilla and I methodically checked out every fabric shop listed in the Wilmington phone book. These included three shops that were primarily home decorating fabrics and two that were unabashedly quilt shops. The three home dec shops were:

Mill Outlet Village (really nice shop with rugs and some discounted fabrics as well as some quilt fabrics), Discount Fabrics (lots of phoney suede really cheap), Fabric Solutions which had even more of the phoney suede in awesome colors. We then hit Summer Breeze which was a very well stocked quilt shop that was also a Bernina dealership. We bought lots there. Then on to Fran's Sewing Circle which was a quilt shop but did contain other dress fabrics as well with some beautiful silks. It doubles as a Viking dealership. The Wilmington shops all got A ratings from us! When we ran out of shops in Wilmington, we went to Jacksonville (NC) and Charleston, SC!

This shot is of Betsey modelling her new purse that she made from fabric purchased at The Cotton Patch in Jacksonville, a shop that was recommended by two club members who had been there. They were right on! We all bought purse patterns there as well as fabric!





I had made up little purse kits before leaving home, mixing one marbled fabric with two matching hand dyed fabrics from my stash. We did a round robin so that everyone got five picks. We then proceeded to make purses from them. This is
Sue and Betsey from Albany along with yours truly!

These are the finished purses. Of course Betsey overachieved and made another from the scraps she had left over! She also made a wallet and you can see the other purse she is modelling.

This was Priscilla and I at a wonderful riverside restaurant in Wilmington -- Riverboat Landing. They have the best salad ever -- the Riverboat salad -- mixed greens, dried cranberries, walnuts, mandarin oranges and then this wonderful white balsamic vinegar dressing -- yum, yum.
Of course, Mari and I had to make sure that Sue and Betsey experienced the same food so we were back two days later for lunch. This time we sat on the balconies overlooking the river -- very cool.


Mari initiated us to the joys of Costco where she has a membership. This was the HUGE key lime pie we purchased which four women can finish off in record time! Too bad you left too soon Priscilla!