As I mentioned yesterday my Sweetie and I took a mini-vacation flying into Jacksonville Tuesday. We spent a little time exploring the area. My sweetie looked for and found a quilt shop or two but I limited it to one shop in St. Augustine and one shop on the way to Americus. It’s hard to place that limit however this trip was about us and our memory rather than just me. That trip to Americus brought back so many visual memories and the most special of all – those places where we fell in love. We still love each other so much.
Jacksonville has a lot of bridges. This one caught my attention as we drove. Someday I’d love to make a quilt like this, as I write several ideas are wandering through my head. I’m thinking of braiding a mile or so of metallic to create the definition of the wires. I took 5 or 6 photos to get this shot and when I do make something of this it will be edited so that the car isn’t in it.
We visited the Jacksonville Zoo and I’ll share more about that on another day. I’ll say now if you ever get the chance to visit this Zoo, take it. It’s really beautiful.
St. Augustine is rich in history that does take a few days or a few trips to really cover. This is one town that I would have loved more than one day. The tour companies offer trolleys that drop off and pick up about every 15 to 20 minutes and cover much of the town. Sites are within easy walking distance. We’d both like to go back and visit for a few days. The wind whipped making the day rather bracing so we got off the trolley to walk down St. George and get a sweatshirt for me.
We visited the Oldest Wood School House. It’s dark, cold and can you imagine having a floor like this? We learned something about the Dunce cap as well. It wasn’t placed on a students head because they were stupid it was placed because the child needed to spend time learning something. It kind of reminds me of an article in that my sister shared about a style of teaching/learning where a struggling student is brought to the blackboard to work out a problem and is encouraged by the rest of the class and the teacher along the way. People need to be encouraged, quilters need to be encouraged to think through the process. As we work through the process we’ll see how the process works for us. This thinking through the process and problem solving will spill over into other areas.
Because the stair case is not in great shape we weren’t able to go upstairs. There’s a mirro at the top allowing a visitor to see what family life was like for the teacher. The light made it challenging to get the reflection in the mirror. Because I’m shorter I had to try and get the shot at a different angle than my sweetie so I’m much lower on the stair case. I got the shot of the spinning wheel that I wanted.
We found some beautiful wrought iron. Oh my how I love wrought iron work. The wrought iron work did not disappoint here either. There are a couple of things about wrought iron work that captures my attention. Obviously the artistry and detail work that went into creating the chair or archway ornamentation. These pieces were meant to last and last they do with some care.
I like the way that the artistry of the wrought iron translates to quilting design both as applique and stitching designs.
Happy Quilting!
Teri
