Slow Sunday

Not much going on sewing wise the past week-this is what I was working on last time BJ came to sew[last weekend] a pieced backing for the pink and brown quilt and there it is, incomplete! I didn't sew another stitch on it.

During the week I managed to get our new summer bed quilt LA'd, pulled it off the machine Friday night, and well, there it lies ready for binding! With luck I may get this quilt bound and on my bed before BJ and I leave for the San Juan quilt retreat Thursday in CO., another GF road trip.

I do sort of have an excuse; little boy got that really nasty intestinal virus he was so sick- and then his mommy got it and then Daddy and then, you guessed it, Grandmother was laid out with it!

I am in bed all day today, still feeling achy and weak, not wanting food, but by this evening I am also bored and I think about ready for some Early Grey tea with toast and Vegemite, the quintessential Aussie cure-all!

Liebster Blog

 Thanks to my friend and fellow quilter/blogger Andee over at The Modern Diary  my blog has been honored with the Liebster Blog award, a recognition for inspiring blogs with less than 200 followers and I am honored to be considered.

In turn then I am able to pass the award to some blogs that I enjoy, and I am choosing;

1-Miri at Milk and Honey Quilts

2-Farmlady at Over Good Ground

3-Heather at Books And Quilts
5-Corina at CW Quilts

Now I need to go notify the recipients!

Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge

Last year I participated in an Ugly Fabric Quilt Challenge that involves the swapping of two yards of your ugliest fabrics with another quilter, then making a quilt with whatever you receive. It can indeed be a challenge as you can see when I had to transform these fabrics


into a quilt!

Suzanne  [coloradolady.blogspot.com] is hosting another of these swaps/challenges and has created a blog solely for this purpose here.

Mini Quilt Exhibit

The public library in Bridgewater MA, has been hosting a small display of quilts in their gallery.

The other day grt niece and I strolled the mile to the town center, "E" on her bicycle with backpack prepared to check out some new books.

While we were there we took the opportunity to wander through the exhibit, and below are some pics of our favorites with their creator's names.

This one has a total of five panels what would you call that?!

BJ would like the title of this one!

This looks like windows, doesn't it? Clever use of these fabrics.

Nice triptych. There were several in this design.

I love the blue used here, it's the quintessential Japanese indigo. I bought some when I was in Japan and used them in a quilt.

Another interesting triptych.

Very simply graphic.

Somehow I lost the info on this quilt, apologies to the designer.

There was quite a bit of thread painting on this one.

A "pieceful" scene!

Lots of applique and embellishing in these, the quilters in this group use an eclectic mix of techniques. 

Last Full Day In Boston

So we spent a little more time at the beach in the beautiful weather, quite unseasonable for this part of the world at this time of year. Everyone is telling us that this is more like June or July so we have been very fortunate.Young grt. niece accompanied us, a welcome break from her sibling who spent the day with his Dad, while their Mom [a Boston attorney] worked from home. Parents all know how that is when siblings spend too much time together such as during spring break! 

We were gathering "pretty rocks" for her collection, here there are plenty from which to choose!

We walked along the beach for some distance, I prefer to paddle at the edge of the waves, I love the cold salty water on my feet.........

 but the beach here is very rocky so I got behind from walking so slowly.

A few hardy souls were actually surfing, younger folks, including these two adventuresome girls, though I did notice their stay in the ocean was quite brief!

As I stood on the porch I was imagining myself at my machine quilting away with this beautiful scene before me, sigh........... that would be my dream!

On the way back we stopped at a quilt shop in Middleboro  MA, "Pieceful Quilters", where I chatted with a friendly lady while DH went next door for a haircut!  Meanwhile I found a small bag of scraps for my very scrappy quilter friend BJ.

We finished the evening with a barbecue and s’mores around the fire pit but I forgot to take pics I was having too much fun,LOL.

Quilting Gallery

I just posted a pic of son's Dragon quilt on the Quilting Gallery, a weekly quilt show contest with a different theme each week.

This week it is "Just Squares and Rectangles", and JW's quilt fits the criteria. I made it for him in 2002 .

Unfortunately I could only show one pic and you can't see the dragon quilted on it so I am posting a couple of close ups here.

It shows a little only on the backing, it's a few years ago and my quilt photography has improved since then.

The backing is ten yards of Hoffman black and red dragon batik.

This is a drawing of the dragon, done by oldest DS which I then enlarged to about three feet.

If you like it, voting begins Friday, you can vote for it at:

http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/04/20/quilts-squares-rectangles/

And thanks for your vote! If I could I'd be out kissing babies, LOL!

Hummarock Beach And A Seafood Feast

Since we first planned this visit I said " I want to go to the beach"! Being an Aussie and living much of my Aus. time on the coast, I do so miss the ocean. Of course my favorite ocean is the Pacific, but the northern Atlantic beaches suit me fine too!

Sunday we drove to Hummarock Beach where friends of the family have a cottage. Although it's closed up, still we are able to sit on the porch and have our picnic with the waves rolling in.

This is a pic. taken there last visit......

and a few from this time.

It turned out to be a perfect day for flying kites which the twins did very successfully. Their kites were waaay up there.

It was Button's first visit to the beach.

She made a new friend, Rory the Westie.

And had her first encounter with a live lobster!

On the way home we stopped by Thomas Reading Herring Run Park, saw a few very weary herrings!

You can't come here and not load up on fresh seafood and we purchased our favorites from a seafood market! Last night was feasting time- first, fresh shucked oysters that were eaten before any photos could be taken!

Oh my, Button's acquaintances!

The very delectable sea scallops, butter and garlic additions made them so very irresistible

Last, some clams, great niece's favorite.

DH and nephew Scott were gifted with luxury box seats for the Red Sox game Saturday afternoon, and here is the pictorial proof. The Sox won so it was a serendipitous event!

Kathleen and I met the guys after the game for a great meal at the Legal Seafood Test Kitchen. We had a long wait, due to a Bruins game as well as the Sox and all the visitors in town for today's Boston Marathon.

I am having a little withdrawal from my sewing/quilting machines and occupying my hands knitting. Not a lot to show yet so I will wait until there is more progress to post any pics.

The weather here in Boston is unbelievably warm, totally unseasonable so I was not really prepared for such warmth clothing wise, had to stop at Costco and buy lighter weight pants.

It feels more like AZ weather actually.

P.S. Providence RI

Couldn't resist taking a few pics of an exhibit we saw while at the RI Convention Center, a display of imaginative canned goods to benefit a drive to raise awareness of hunger, sponsored by some of these companies.

The first to catch my eye was the CANgry Birds, because of Matthew's love of the Angry Birds game.

I think he will recognize them, don't you?

This one is built with PBJ and honey.

The cutest tugboat

Giant cupcake

A bulldozer for great nephew.

Giant corn with of course canned corn

We are in New England, there had to be something from the sea, right?