Dunedin Delights

If you’re in the Dunedin, FL area (near Tampa), there is a nice quilt show at the Dunedin Fine Art Center until August 9th. The exhibit is called Sawtooth: New Quilts from an Old Favorite, organized by the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY. As the title says, each quilt is inspired by the traditional sawtooth block. The show was quite diverse, with whimsical fish, bursting fireworks, a look down the rabbit hole, and florals. Another favorite was the gecko quilt that can be seen here (at least until their web site is updated.) Unfortunately I didn’t write down the info for the quilt below, but it was very eye-catching as you can see. The detail below is from a different quilt. It caught my eye because of the way the various thread colors and stitching patterns created additional imagery of glowing suns without actually piecing the sawtooth shapes. In addition to the main exhibit another bonus was a display of auction quilts and small journal quilts by a local guild, the Innovative Quilters (be sure to go all the way into the classroom area to see them all.) Naturally we had to stop around the corner at Rainbow’s End. As far as I can tell, it is indeed the largest quilt shop in Florida, with three rooms stuffed with bolts, over 20,000 according to their site. As well as a large choice of batiks, Asian styles, 30's prints, flannels, and other typical quilt fabrics, there’s a large Christmas section, a nice group of metallic wovens, and many large scale prints (below)... definitely something for everyone.The downtown is very cute, with shops strung along a meandering Main Street only a block or two away from the water. We were fortunate to arrive early (11ish) at Café Alfresco, which fills up fast due to their yummy offerings. This storefront looked inviting.Here’s a closer look at the turquoise crocheted bag. It has beads, braided handles, and strips of fabric woven into the crocheted stitches. Very summery. Hope you enjoyed this mini-tour!