Reunion Dinner Cruise Picture!

Forgot to post this last week I was so excited about all the lobster and quilt shops,LOL!

The Beach-And More Lobster!

We drove about 20 minutes to Hamurock Beach Friday morning, what a lovely spot. Our family has connections with the family that owns the cottage in this fabulous location!

The setting is like something out of a movie set, I kept expecting to see Robert Redford [The Great Gatsby] or some one like that to appear on the scene, but no, it was just our family!

These are my very happy sandy feet after a long walk on an almost deserted beach.

I really miss the ocean, having been landlocked for so long. Maybe the owners would trade a week at the beach for a week in the Colorado mountains.............

DH and I look pretty happy don't we?!

We ate lunch in Brantrock, shrimp BLT's, and at the next table sat Joey Kramer, "Aerosmith" drummer and his wife! That may mean more to some than others, LOL, depending on your vintage and musical preferences. After a little internet exploration I discovered that "Arthur and Pat's" restaurant just happens to be Joey's favorite.

The white Mercedes in front of the restaurant is Joey's, and there you have our only claim to fame, eating in the same place at the same time as this famous musician!

Do not ask me what he was eating I couldn't tell and didn't want to look nosy and starstruck!

On the drive home we spotted this unusual fence, vintage doors re-purposed to good use, they are so unusual and a charming addition to the landscape that I had to have a picture.
This is the house to which the fence belongs, and I thought that it too deserved a plug.

That same night we feasted on seafood, shrimp for starters,

Lobsters [third time in a week for me]......

yummy scallops seared in a little olive oil and roasted garlic,

and lest you think it was an unbalanced meal there was corn on the cob and salad, but after all that ocean fare I had no room for anything like that!

And a great bottle of red doesn't hurt.........

, Saturday evening and we are back in AZ. to triple digit temperatures, so on Tuesday I will be off to CO. for a week -ten days with hopes that AZ will have cooled off a bit before I return.

New England Visit

Such a treat to finally meet face to face with a long time online friend, Janet- Lee Santeusanio, award winning quilter and co- founder extraordinaire of the hugely successful Machine Quilter's Exposition. Her home and studio , Woodland Manor, are situated in the stunning surroundings of Hampton Falls, MA. and after a visit there we ate lunch at JL's favorite seafood place, delicious, of course I had to have a lobster!

From there DH and I drove on to Lake Winnepesaukee where we made a stop at Keepsake Quilting.

Bought a few little gifts for friends [can't show those!] and this fabric pack BJ asked me to get- it was the brightest I could find BJ! But to be honest my experience there was quite underwhelming, not at all what I had expected. It's a well set up store but no more so than others I have seen and the "help", well they mostly seemed to be doing their best to ignore me, not friendly IMHO. So, I wouldn't suggest a big trek out of your way to see it, no bargains to be had there.

We stayed the night in a delightful spot on the Lake......

watching this lovely sunset before feasting on a salmon dinner!

This morning we drove to Kennebunkport Maine, because DH said that for once he wanted to eat Maine lobster in Maine!

So we did!

I guess the Clam Shack is fairly famous, it's right on the bridge at Kennebunkport.

The dedicated cook in me found this autographed cook book for a souvenir. We wandered around the quaint town, it's definitely touristy!

From there we visited the Waldo Emerson Historic Inn and the tiny quilt shop situated in the Carriage House.........

where I purchased this blueberry fabric, had to have it you know, Maine is so famous for it's wild blueberries. They have a tiny selection of fabrics, mostly 30's I thought, and a few notions, but mostly completed quilt items for sale. I think they cater predominantly to the quilters on retreat at the Inn.

We turned south then to return to MA, making one more stop in ME on the way for Knight's Quilt Shop in Cape Neddick- that turned out to be my favorite of the trip.

Here I found some tools, Chaco markers and refills etc that I had not been able to find elsewhere, along with this handy needle keeper, a very strong magnet that is made from natural wood. I chose the Purple Heart one, I love the color of the wood.

This shop features a charity project sponsored by former First Lady Barbara Bush, quilts for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

I forgot to take a picture of the exterior of the shop but you can easily find it on the web here.

Oh, one more purchase, for our four legged little friend, all natural dog treats with cranberries! Can't go home without something for the Button dog!

And, I must not fail to mention the patience of my DH with my quilt store visits, very considerate of him to indulge my passion for quilt related stores!

The Twin's Quilts

Delivered!

In The Garden

Puddle Jumper

OK this is absolutely the last top to be completely quilted before our visit to New England.

It's Andee's mystery "Puddle Jumper", quilted with freehand Baptist Fan. BF I find works really well for traditional quilts especially scrappy ones with lots of small pieces, it seems to unify the design of the quilt top. This one reminds me of the Bonnie Hunter mysteries, many little bitty blocks!

I like the color scheme, it looks very masculine.

Next up is Claudia's hand embroidered nursery rhyme quilt, not sure how long it will take but certainly more than the time left before our trip!

Catching Up

Between quality time with the baby Matthew, three trips to Algodones to the dentist [400 miles round trip each time] a session with the local A-1 rep to adjust my long arm machine and some actual quilting, I haven't had time to blog about it all!

I have another of Andee's quilts to show- that Andee is a prolific quilter and since she had a bit of a shopping spree at the Shop Hop on Saturday no doubt she will be turning out even more quilts!

I think this one looks very Provence-like, the colors are quite lovely.

It's custom quilted with the spineless longarm feathers and graceful swirls and gentle curves.

Aren't the fabrics beautiful?

I have one more quilt on the LA that I plan to finish before we leave Thursday- we are flying to Boston for DH's 50th. HS reunion[ he's an old guy you know, LOL!]

Quilts Of Valor

I am linking up with Finished for Friday and Lush friday.

Two more QOV's. Bernina Connection keeps providing me with tops to quilt for the Wounded Warriors program. I love this pattern I don't think I have seen it before, it's really pretty.

It's a great idea for using up those 2" strips in your stash collection, but I guess you could use any width of strip. I think it would work totally random scrappy too. I don't have a name for the pattern as I didn't piece it, anyone else know?

The view from the back!

The second, quilted with freehand square spiral.

Now they go back to BC for binding and labels.

Labor Done For Labor Day!

My labor on these two quilts is done so I am celebrating that for Labor Day. Now I need to slip in another QOV between the other tops waiting for quilting.

These are both from Andee, this one is her eleventh? I think, little Schnibbles, one more to go!

This close up shows the Line Dancing quilting in each block.

The backing is quite different making it reversible.

The second is her Flying Geese quilt..........

with a coordinating backing.