Today we're having Florida's equivalent of a snow day...except way less fun: a hurricane day. School's been cancelled for the day, though thankfully, we're not expecting to see much more than gusty winds and rain in my area, so I'm hunkered down with my munchkin for an uneventful kind of day at the house. Hopefully there will be some sewing in the forecast :) In spite having to stock up my hurricane supplies (also known as my stash of Oreos, Ritz crackers, bread, peanut butter and bottles of water), I had a really great weekend, thanks to a fun field trip with a quilty friend.

On Saturday, I met up with a Tampa MQG friend, Katie, who blogs and podcasts at Katie's Quilting Corner. We had plans to meet up in historic Ybor City to visit the Tampa Upcycle shop. Tampa Upcycle is a materials exchange, for artists, crafters, sewists and the like, and we were both super excited to bring in some old supplies and see what they had. Unfortunately for us, they didn't open as scheduled, but fortunately we came up with an awesome backup plan.

Our area has a new quilt shop, Inspire! Quilting and Sewing, located in Plant City. Normally, that would be nearly an hour long drive from my house, but Tampa Upcycle just happened to be halfway between my house and the shop, so the drive was nice and short.

I've never really visited Plant City before, but the historic downtown area was really gorgeous. We parked near an adorable antique shop that drew me in when I spotted a gorgeous old Cinderella sewing machine in the window. The shop interior didn't disappoint either, it was filled with interesting old pieces that were fun to look at.



The new quilt shop was just beautiful, inside and out. I'm oh-so-glad that we drove out there! Inspire! is owned by Lynn and Lisa, two sisters who share a love of quilting. While they are currently open for business Monday through Saturday, their grand opening will be held next month on September 22nd, complete with some great sales as well as refreshments and music all day.


Inspire! Quilting and Sewing has all of the fabrics for the Dear Stella QuiltCon challenge, the entire Madrona Road collection by the uber-talented Violet Craft on the way, as well as boatloads of my favorite thread, Aurifil 50 wt! I tried to restrain myself, and just picked up a fun Dear Stella Squiggles print to use as backing for my Swirling Medallion quilt. The shop was really a great place to visit, and I definitely plan to go back again soon. If you're in the area, I highly recommend them! Not only were there tons of beautiful fabrics and things to see, but the staff was super friendly and helpful. Thanks for exceeding every expectation I could have had, Lynn, Lisa, and Amber!