An interesting statistic: The Villages is the largest retirement community in the U.S.
As we're passing time until next week when we close on our new house in The Villages, in between bouts of shopping we're visiting some of the 1,900 activity groups and clubs available to residents.
Tuesday evening was the monthly meeting of the Quilting Guild of The Villages. The guild has 732 members that attend 13 different weekly quilting groups! Even though summertime attendance is lower, the turnout was a great. I was the only guest. But I was put at a table with seven other quilters who immediately felt like friends. Such nice women!
We played the dice game "Right, Left, Center." Everyone starts with five pieces of fabric. The last person to end up with fabric, after everyone else is out, wins the pile that has accumulated in the center "pot."
Do I think these gals are nice because I happened to win these 30 strips of 2-1/2" wide fabric? I've promised I will use them in my WIP Picket Fence quilt, which will now be made king-size for the new bed that's been ordered.
For handwork, I've been embroidering these, and thinking of my Iowa friends in Hope Quilters.
Hope Quilters is making 115 altar cloths for the 115 new churches being build in Ghana by Lutheran Church of Hope. My embroideries, each about 8" X 8", are meant for two sides of an altar cloth. They're stitched with #5 DMC pearl cotton and then pencil-colored gray along the edge of each dove.
That little piece of fabric with the stitchery is what I used to give me cues for choosing thread colors. The fabric is a wonderfully vibrant, large-scale print that came from Ghana, I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of this design worked into a finished altar cloth. Hope Quilters will let me know if the size is right before I embroider more of them to mail back to Iowa.
Wednesday was my hunk's 60th birthday. A real milestone birthday, I'd say. Pray tell me... what do you get for a fella who, on his birthday, ordered a Maytag "Centennial", High Efficiency, 3.6 cubic foot washer and 7 cubic foot dryer? And, he's getting all new furniture, picking out a 46" LED HGTV, and ordering a golf cart?! Right. I didn't get him anything.
Though, I sure felt bad that we weren't near family or longtime friends who would have helped him celebrate. They did remember him with phone calls and emails.
Happily, a very nice couple from Minneapolis, who we'd met in The Villages last December, suggested we meet for dinner. The four of us ate here, at the Cane Garden Country Club. Then, they invited us to their home for a glass of Florida wine. What a lovely way to spend an evening! Yay! We're making friends!
Tomorrow, we're picking colors and ordering our golf cart which will take three to four weeks to be built. We have to choose the car color, the seat and awning print, and a color for the drop-down canvas sides that zip close for driving in inclement weather. Just like picking out white furniture, this new-to-Florida gal wants Florida colors! The new-to-Florida guy agrees! We're thinking of colors along the lines of these.
You'd think I'd be having a fabulous time picking out all these things, but gosh, there's a lot of pressure when you know it's what you have to live with for at least the next ten years! I'm looking forward to the end of important decision-making, and the beginning of full time play. Linda
Once upon a time Jerry and I bought a "spec" house and had to pick out carpet and tile and paint and cabinets and...I hated it! It was too much pressure for me knowing that I would have to live with it even if I hated it after it was in. It's hard enough when you're updating to pick out one new thing! blessings, marlene
ReplyDeleteLoved hearing about your update - something new almost every day!
ReplyDeleteIts so fun hearing about your adventures in your new locale and soon to be home. Your stitching is just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHi Linda, I know the pressure, when we were moving to St.Louis we considered a new house but I only had 24 hr in which to choose everything and we just went back to buying a house already finished.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful place to live and with all those quilt clubs and guilt you will be having so much fun.
Blessings Sandra
What fun you're having! Choosing beautiful things for your new home, eating out and making friends as you do wherever you go. Is there no end to your luck too - fancy you winning those strips of fabric which will always be a reminder of your new friends in your Picket Fence quilt.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are fitting right in. That is a big guild. I am sure you will have a good time with those ladies.
ReplyDeleteWell, I would have suggested orange, but that might seem just a teensy too hot. Cool watery colors are a good choice! I'm so glad you are making friends already.
ReplyDeleteLinda, so happy for you and Dan as I read about your new home. It looks wondeful.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!
Patty Paul