The beautiful Maine summer weather is here at last. My sewing room gets too hot to work in during the summer months, but so far I have been able to cool things down enough to get some sewing time in. Since my dear daughter moved out last October I can bring my sewing machine downstairs now. I've been reluctant to do that because I have everything at my fingertips upstairs and do I really want to move all of that gear downstairs? No, I don't think so, at least until now. And truth be told, I don't really want to take over her old room. However, I think by next weekend I will have made a start on the (temporary) move.
I bought a new table and chairs recently at Country Farm Furniture in Bath. I really like that store, three floors of beautiful furniture and the people are very friendly and helpful. I put the old table in my daughter's room so I have a nice big table for sewing and cutting.
Did you go on the Spring into Summer Shop Hop? I went with two friends. We went one wet Saturday. First stop: Quiltessentials in Auburn. Yummy food and the shop has expanded with lots of new fabrics. All three of us bought a funky new yarn to knit scarves.
Next stop was lunch at Cole Farms and then on to Calico Basket in Windham, always worthwhile visiting that shop. I bought fabric, surprise! Our last shop for the day was Cottonweeds in Freeport. Such a lovely shop. See what I won? Scissors! I got a call from Cottonweeds a couple of weeks after the shop hop and was told I had won a consolation prize which I picked up the following weekend. These scissors are made to cut slippery fabrics easily and they really work well.
On Sunday I visited the last three shops by myself: Marriner's Compass in Bath, Alewives in Damariscotta Mills, and Mainely Sewing in Nobleboro. From there I drove to Rockland to visit a dear friend and her mother and granddaughter. It was a wonderful weekend.
We've been making pizza! Yum! My side has pesto and sliced tomatoes. DH's pepperonis are sliding into mine, don't you think? Delicious.
We had a big wind and rain storm one night and it knocked over the birdfeeder. I looked for animal tracks in the dirt, but there were none, so it must have been a strong wind!
On Father's Day we hopped on the Gold Wing and rode up Route 17 to Coos Canyon.
I'm an angel! hee hee
There is a rock and gem shop across the street from Coos Canyon. You can buy gold prospecting supplies there and Maine tourmaline. These "wings" are amethyst geods. Pretty spectacular.
Please disregard the helmet hair.
From Coos Canyon we headed further up the road to this scenic outlook called Height of Land. It overlooks Mooselookmeguntic Lake. It was such a spectacular day. So clear we could probably see 100 miles.
At last some quilting content! I made this piece a number of years ago. As I was searching about for my next project it occurred to me to finish something I had already started. I know, what a concept. This piece is 48 inches square. Ignore the little green heart, that has been removed.
I played around with with this piece in EQ7 and added borders. I printed out the final arrangement, big enough for a queen size bed and took it with me on the shop hop. My friend Donna helped me pick out the green border fabric and another red fabric. I bought those at the Calico Basket.
My plan was to have the green six inch border then the Broken Dishes block with all the red triangles on the inside like this. However, I designed a 12 inch block and it just looked too big. So I made six inch blocks and added the Flying Geese units. I used the same red fabric in the center of the 12 inch corner block that is in the tips of the big stars in the original center piece. Lucky I had enough left, eh?
Much of the cream color background fabric is from a collection I bought from Marsha McCloskey when she was here earlier this spring. I used almost all of it and just love it.
Love those Flying Geese!
I may put another narrow border around the outside but I will have to see how much fabric I have left.
Until next time...enjoy summer!
