Perkins Dry Goods

Lots of things have been happening around here. The big news is the new look. I hope you like it! Now my blog and website work together as a team, thanks to Gloria, Derry and Andrew and Gloderworks. I still have some fine tuning to do, but for the most part I think things are looking really good.

We just returned from Spring Break, which was wonderful. The trip to Virginia and Washington, D.C. combined the best of both worlds. The monuments and historical floral and fauna is overwhelming.

The first part of the trip was to Charlottesville, VA. Home of the University of Virginia and my college roommate Barb (on the right). What a beautiful day it was and our visit to Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson was fabulous.

Here is the view of the Washington monument as seen from the (top of the steps) at the Lincoln Memorial.

There is a story for every monument in the area. Now, this obelisk shaped monument was designed by Robert Mills and by law, no other building in Washington, D.C. can be taller. Construction began in 1848, and stopped in 1856 when funds ran low. Work began again in 1876 and the monument was completed, opening to the public in 1888. It is truly spectacular.

The quilty part of the trip was made possible by my friend Pam Matthews who drove me over 130 miles across the Virginia countryside to quilt shops! We visited the Jinny Beyer Studio, Web Fabrics and Treasures from The Heart pictured here. What a lovely day!

Every year my family makes a trip to southern Calfornia at Spring Break to visit family.  We live in Minnesota, and you must understand what a treat it is to abandon the gray skies and melting snow for glorious California sunshine.  I try to visit local quilt shops to say hello and this year I was able to go to Quilt Ventura and catch up with Joey Strait, the shop owner. Check out the website:  http://www.quiltventura.com.  Quilt Ventura has been open for five years now and is going strong.  There is more fabric in this shop than you could imagine and lots of interesting notions and patterns too.  Joey has a wide variety of fabrics.  Everything from batiks to asian designs to florals and civil war reproductions.  If you are in the area, it’s worth a trip.  Besides, Joey is great and her staff is fabulous.