Well our last full day on the Cape was Tuesday- and didn’t it have to rain!.  As a matter of fact we had quite a thunder and lightning storm during the night.  So we spent a quiet day getting the camper ready for the trip home on Wednesday.

We decided to treat ourselves to one more dinner out at a restaurant in town, Winslow’s Tavern.  We enjoyed dining outside on the terrace  (thankfully the weather cleared up after 4pm).  Our  delicious meal began with appetizers of Gorgonzola stuffed figs for me and Wellfleet oysters for Tom.  We don’t normally have an appetizer, but this just seemed the thing to do to end our vacation.  For our entrees I had baked cod and Tom had lobster.  To end the meal,  we shared an apple tart with vanilla ice cream.

On the way home we stopped by Sturbridge Village and toured the houses in the center of the complex that we hadn’t seen on our first visit the week before.   We saw some more handiwork.

Whole Cloth Quilt

Needlework Sampler

In addition, I was able to finish my  Tumbling Leaves quilt top.  This is  the third in the series of Fat Quarter Quilts that we’re working on as a guild project.  Luckily I’m able to needle-turn applique while riding in the car.  It certainly makes the drive  seem to go a lot faster.

Now I’m trying to decide just how to quilt it.

We’re finally here!  Cape Cod that is.  We’ll be celebrating our 45th Anniversary this Saturday and this is a trip long over due.  We were headed to the Cape for our honeymoon, but had to cancel when Tom lost his wallet two days into the trip.  Wanting to make this milestone anniversary special, we decided that we should finally get to the Cape.

Pastoral Scene at Sturbridge Village

On our way to the campground at the Upper Cape, we stopped at Old Sturbridge Village. It’s a recreation of a 1790-1840 New England village.  I was surprised that not only quilts but woven blankets normally covered the beds. We’ll probably stop again on the way back home as we only got to see about half of the 59 buildings.  We crossed the Cape Cod Canal on the Bourne Bridge.

Bourne Bridge

The width of the canal in 616 feet where the bridge crosses over it.  That’s a canal?
Of course I brought along some quilting projects.

Sunflower positioned on Falling Leaves background

The third in the series of fat quarter quilts is supposed to be finished in September.  I pieced the background before we left and am now working on the applique pieces.  The sunflower will be appliqued first.

To end the day we went to the ocean side of the island to get a view the night sky.

Night Sky at Marconi Beach

We’ll be heading to North Carolina in a couple of hours and are getting a good sendoff from upstate New York – Right now it’s snowing – Go Figure!  It is April 27th after all.

I’ll be visiting my son and his family for the week while Tom attends a photo seminar nearby.  My son says that it will be sunny and in the 70′s or 80′s during the day, cooling down to 50′s at night – Can’t ask for anything better than that!

I have a number of quilt projects to finish while we’re away:

• binding on three table runners
• binding on my second small wall-hanging for the guild’s silent auction
• binding for the ALS quilt
• applique on the Celtic applique table topper and
• applique on the Simply Charming fat quarter quilt

Don’t think I’ll run out of things to do!

Earlier this week, I had lunch with two good quilting friends (Lisa & Mae) to celebrate Christmas.  We look forward to seeing what each of us has put together for our annual gift exchange.  Of course one of our favorite things to do is shop hop and we’re always on the lookout for things that each of us would like.  Lisa’s favorites themes are penguins and patriotic, Mae’s are gingerbread men, and mine are hummingbirds and cardinals.

I made each of them a candle mat along with a few trinkets including a gingerbread pattern for Mae and a “quilt sayings” panel for Lisa.

Mae's Candle Mat

Lisa's Candle Mat

They both (unknowingly) added to my cardinal collection.   My house is pretty small, but I’ll have to find room for these.

In addition, the fat quarter collection is happy, bright colors.  Quite a change from what I normally choose.  Can’t wait to see them in a quilt.  A group of us in the guild are making fat quarter quilts next year.   This should be a perfect palette for the project.

My Favorite Things

Winter in Upstate New York

Our Camper - All Loaded and Ready for the Trip South

Now that we’ve celebrated Christmas with my daughter and her family and Tom’s family here in upstate New York, we’re headed for North Carolina tomorrow to spend the next week with my son and the granddaughters, Shannon (age 14) and Jordan(age 11).  I told Jordan that I was bringing a casserole of baked lasagna that I had made last Sunday and frozen.  “Yum,” she said. “Are we making pasta salad while your here?”  Grandma can’t say, ‘No”.

Jordan had asked me to show her how to quilt when they visited earlier this year.  I helped her make a’ paper’ crazy quilt.  Now I’ve borrowed a book from our guild library on teaching children how to quilt. Both she and Shannon want to give it a try.  So our camper has the sewing machine along with my supply of scraps, rulers. cutting mat etc.  It should prove interesting.

We’ll visit with them until New Year’s day and then end our short winter get-away with a week in Charleston, SC.

Check out our website Tom and Lucia on the Road for an update on our travels.  Of course I’ll be bringing along a couple of projects.  I have two table runners that I will finish binding and an applique/redwork project that is a great take-along project while traveling.

Adirondack Vacation Day 1

We have limited internet access so I’ll be posting 2 or 3 days at one time on this trip.

We’re traveling again.

It seems like quite a long time since our last trip with the RV. We came back from a two-month stay in Florida at the end of February. In May and June we took two trips to Albany NY to participate in art fairs. (So I won’t count them because they were work related.)

We are now at Forked (pronounced fork ed’) Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. – One of our favorite places to camp in the Adirondacks. While this is actually a working vacation – Tom will be taking pictures at the Adirondack Museum on Saturday- we still have 5 days to relax and unwind. I plan to do a bit of quilting also – then some kayaking, quilting, hiking quilting, relaxing and quilting.

I’ve brought along a number of projects but will concentrate on three: my Celtic quilt (I have one side of the binding and the label to attach) , a wool appliqué project that I started last year at our quilters’ retreat at Watson Homestead. The project, Basket of Sunflowers was featured in the Fall/Winter 2007 edition of Quilt Sampler.

And the Third – my scrap stash. I have cut most of my blue stash into squares. It really is therapeutic to finally get some organization done

Right now Tom is down at the lake setting up for some sunset pictures. I’ll join him in a bit – Hope the sunset is good tonight.

Life sure is good!

There’s always time to quilt!

Day 2

Another Day in Paradise

What a way to spend a vacation! Tom decided to be chief and bottle washer today. A nice treat for me. When he prepared and did clean up for breakfast and lunch I was hoping that he would do the same for dinner. Now I’ll never know.

As we were preparing to have a glass of wine with a light snack before dinner, our neighbors in the next campsite invited us to share a drink with them. We ended up in our campsite however since we were all set up for “Happy Hour”. By the time we were finished visiting – it was nearly 7:30 so we decided on a quick dinner.   Tom wanted to go down to the lake again for some sunset pictures. The sunset has been really nice – not outstanding – but I don’t think you can get a bad sunset in the Adirondacks.

Today – the weather was perfect – in the 70′s. We spent most of the afternoon kayaking and exploring one of the streams that feeds Forked Lake.

And yes, I did get some quilting in – I’m still working on the binding for my Celtic quilt. I have about half of the final side to sew – and then the label.

There’s always time to quilt!

Day 3

Applique bedspread made as a retirement gift in 1894

We’re at the Adirondack Museum and I am enjoying the new quilt display, Common Threads Quilt Trail.  The collection consists of quilts from the 1800′s to present.  There are also quilts on display at various exhibits throughout the Museum grounds.

Touring the display is really worth the stop.

There’s always time to quilt!