We left Greenville, ME Friday morning with this view and it rained the whole 3 hour drive to Mount Desert Island. We spent the afternoon in Bar Harbor while we waited for the house to be ready and we arrived to this view. Let's be honest, it's still a pretty spectacular view even on a gloomy day! the day wasn't a loss because we had lobster for dinner. We woke yesterday morning to this view. Now we're talking! Everyone's mood lightened instantly and we quickly planned and set out on our first hike. We usually do a "warm up" hike and this time was no different. We started in Thuya Gardens and hiked through to reach a carriage trail that went around and over the Amphitheater trail. It was about 6 miles but almost all on smooth surfaces. It was just what we needed. Here are a few photos from the day. Thuya Gardens is not officially part of Acadia National Park but is adjacent and connected through trails. If you are ever visiting Acadia try to visit Atiscou and Thuya Gardens. It's a beautifully maintained property with lovely gardens. The trail we took has some pretty mossy areas and you can get a glimpse, on the left, of how well manicured the trail is. There are miles and miles of carriage trails in Acadia. They were developed in the late 1800's by the barons of industry (Rockefellers, Fords, Vanderbilts, Morgans, etc). This is where they chose to summer and the developed these carriage trails so they could travel to the tops of the mountains and enjoy the beautiful views. Now they are used by hikers, cyclists, runners and horse drawn carriages. Most are many miles long so they are good for a long, relatively easy, walk. They aren't flat so there's a lot of up and down hiking to keep the blood flowing. I love that they are mostly all lined with granite blocks. Besides timber, cod and lobster, granite mining was a major industry here. Even the park bridges are made from granite. This is a small one. This is one of the large ones, the Amphitheater Bridge. We hiked under this bridge on the Amphitheater Trail last year and it was one of our favorite hikes. Yesterday afternoon we started getting more settled in and I got my sewing corner set up. I love the view from my sewing room at home but it pales compared to this one. Before we left Greenville I got close to 60 more block corners sewn along with the offcut mini HSTs. I'm ready to start sewing these into blocks. I have about 80 blocks cut out and once they are sewn I'll need to do some math and see how many more I need. I'm out of light fabric so I might go shop for some light blue batiks to finish off the blocks. I don't think anyone would notice batiks mixed in as long as they are mottled and not printed. On the crochet front, I finished these two hats for donation. I had a skein of this dark green yarn that I wanted to use up and a pattern I wanted to try out. It's the Crochet Baby James Beanie and it comes is all sizes. I like working a hat in this way and will use this pattern again. Laura finished the second veterans quilt top Thursday night before we left Greenville. She's now moved on to knitting. This is a sweater project that she started in May, the last time she visited the US and it will be her US project until she finishes. She wanted to cover a mistake for the photo.
That's about all from here. I'm hoping for kayaking weather today. It was way to breezy for that yesterday. I have a toe injury (long story about me being a klutz) that I keep reigniting so I will take today off from hiking or even walking much. Plus my friend, Anne, has arrived and we'll plan something that she wants to do. The boys will get to take one of their hard hikes today. I won't go on hikes with cliffs or rungs to climb. Yesterday brought us better weather than we expected but we still didn't' feel that the trails were dry enough. We are planning to get out on one of our favorite trails today if the good weather holds. I did get the next batch of 40 blocks done for my blue quilt so I have a total of 99 out of 256 done and the pile of tiny HSTs is really growing. Laura is almost done with her second veterans quilt top. We might have to go to the quilt shop today and get fabric for another kit for her. We've picked a simple pattern and the local shop has some nice woodsy themed fabrics that would work well. Today's crochet was the baby quilt and I got about 6 more rows done, finishing off a row of dark blue squares. If I crochet today it will be on the sweater. I like to alternate the projects. The weather was much better than forecast yesterday. Weather forecasts here are really just a total waste of time. I did a pretty hard workout this morning so I was not interested in the 8 mile walk that Ian and Laura took into town. Chris and I drove in to pick them up and make a trip for groceries. While we were having dinner I looked out and realized that last night was our first real sunset since the night we arrived. I rushed down to the pond to capture it. After sunset I convinced Chris that we needed a fire. After all, we had bought all the makings for s'mores and this was our first opportunity to use them. It was a lovely calm evening for a fire. Isn't the moose cut-out on the fire ring cute?
Here's hoping for a nice hike today! Yesterday was kind of perfect. It had a morning of recreation and and afternoon of reading and crafts. I'll start with the afternoon activities. I didn't finish any more blocks for the blue quilt but I chain pieced parts for about 40 more blocks. We are expecting bad weather today so I might get this set done today. Laura started the second veterans quilt kit that I brought for her. I think I'm going to have to go to the local fabric store tomorrow and get more fabric for her. She's got another week and a half here and is about out of sewing projects! While she was sewing, I added two more rounds to my hexie cardigan and finished listening to Yellowface. I will have a lot to say about that book in my book review at the end of the month. I did not particularly enjoy it and got a totally different message out of it than what I've read in other reviews. I also finished reading this book and I don't recommend it either unless you are a scientist or mathematician or just want to make your brain hurt. It was a difficult read. I'm digging into a new Michael Koryta mystery tomorrow for something easier. The one thing that you cannot rely upon here is the weather report. The day rarely turns out to be what's predicted and today was no exception. We did get clouds and a little rain in the afternoon/evening but the morning started out beautiful. Laura and I got in a 4 mile walk and then Chris and I headed out on the kayaks and it was absolutely beautiful on the pond today. This pond has yellow water lilies. We had not seen yellow ones before and I was shocked to be able to get the bloom and dragonfly in the photo together. We also saw a few loons. The photo is a little blurry because I had to zoom in so much to get the photo but I was thrilled to get a photo at all. They usually dive just as I'm about to snap the picture. They are such beautiful birds and we just love hearing their calls in the evening. I've become really fascinated with trees growing on and in rocks. These trees seem to be perched on top of the rocks and have created their own dirt mound within the roots.
The tide has started to turn on the gaming. Ian and I had a puzzle race which I won by 5 minutes, then I finally won a Cribbage set (he's still ahead 5 sets to 1) and I beat him and Chris at Scrabble. I made two separate words off the "z". We'll see if my luck holds tonight. We do expect rain/clouds today but it could change. We'll make the best of whatever it is. I didn't post yesterday because Friday was an all-rain day here and we used the opportunity to read and sew. I just didn't have enough worth sharing yesterday. But last night Laura finished this quilt top and I made some progress on my blue blocks. The colors in this photo aren't accurate. It's a lot prettier in real life and you will see it again after I get it quilted and bound later in the year. It was a good use of the box of leaf printed fabrics. I finished 30 more blue blocks. I think I'm really going to love this quilt. I have 40 dark blocks and 19 light blocks done for a total of 59 out of 256. I also have 118 mini HST blocks. This was our view on Friday and will likely be part of today too. With rain coming on alternate days we are starting to give up on hiking. The trails here are steep and have lots of areas that collect water. They will be too slippery unless it stops raining for a couple of days. But we can still kayak. Chris and Ian did a long kayak but I decided to do a long walk and a 40 minute HIIT routine. By the time my opportunity to paddle came around I was spent. Today may be my day, depending on the weather. The Cribbage tournament continues and I still haven't won a match. I (red) was way ahead in this game but Ian came from behind to whip me again. After Cribbage we drag Chris in for a game of Scrabble. I did win one of those games but Ian won this one with his judicious use of the J, Z and X. The weather isn't perfect but we are having a lovely time.
We had lobster for dinner last night and it will be our last until we get to Acadia this weekend. It was outstanding, as always. I didn't actually sew yesterday but I did iron some blocks that I finished Wednesday. These are 19 light blocks. Now I have 30 of 256 blocks made. The color in this photo is bad but there will be lots more photo opportunities to get it right. Last night I was just too tired to spend much time on it. Laura got the first border on her scrappy veterans quilt. We were so excited to have the sun back yesterday. We had a high temperature of 73 and it was wonderful. We decided to hike Little Wilson Falls because it's kind of a short hike (2.4 miles). It's been so rainy that we didn't want to get stuck on a slippery long hike. It was a good decision. If you go to the link you can see that LWF is usually a low flow stream. Yesterday it was roaring. All of the rivers around here are very high. The hike was wet in parts but easily passable. The hike ends at a point on the Appalachian Trail. There was anote there for AT hikers to tell them to take the LWF trail down to another intersection point because the AT crosses this "stream" and it was completely impassable yesterday....and probably for a few more days. We enjoyed the hike and Laura said we walked 8000 steps, although it didn't feel like it. It always amazes me to see trees growing right out of rock slabs. On the way home we saw a bunch of cars on the side of the road and that can only mean a moose jam. Laura got to see her first moose! This is a young one and it was quite far away, hence the bad photo.
We were going to float in the pond after we came home but all the rain we have had really chilled the water and we retreated to the deck instead for some sunning followed by a relaxing afternoon of reading. We will wait for a couple of dry days before we do one of the longer hikes so that the trails have time to dry out some. Luckily, we have another week here! We had nothing but rain yesterday so we didn't get to hike or kayak. Instead it was a good vacation day of reading and sewing and playing a little cribbage. I got 11 of 256 blocks done for my quilt. I think I'm going to like this quilt a lot. These blocks are made with all squares so that means that there's quite a bit of waste when you cut off the corners. Since I had to draw the center stitching like I figured I might as well draw another stitching line 1/2"away. I stitch both lines and now I'm getting a nice stack of these little HST blocks. Can't you see some placemats out of these? Each square is 1 3/4 inches so they will finish at 1 1/4. I know, I'm insane. Two years ago we started a tradition of bringing a hummingbird feeder with us on vacation. It's taken 3 days, but we had our first visitor today! She hung out all day and enjoyed the free food in the bad weather.
Today we expect rain and clouds again but we should be able to get out for a walk. Otherwise it's more reading and sewing or crochet. I'm fine with a day doing some of the things I love the most. When we are on vacation with our friends, Ian and I always have a cribbage competition. We play best 2 out of 3 each night and keep track of how many wins we have. After the first night it's Ian 1, Vicki 0. We left Virginia Thursday for the 2-day drive to Maine. We stopped over in Fishkill, NY the first night. We both drove because we need 2 cars here for the month. Last year I did that drive really sick and, honestly, I don't know how I did it. I must have just have wanted to prove that I could make it because, perfectly healthy, it's fatiguing. I had a good book (Homecoming by Kate Morton) so that helped a lot. I have a few observations about the current state of Interstate driving. - I81 is the primary trucker route in the East. It's all trucks! At one point, in Maryland or Pennsylvania, the truck right next to me blew a tire. That's never happened to me before and it was LOUD! I'm grateful that no one was behind the truck. I saw a lot of debris flying but it didn't look like anyone was hurt. But the truckers aren't the problem. They are the good drivers on the road. - If you drive with the attitude that the roads belong to the truckers and they allow you to drive with them, your drive will be much more pleasant. Respect anything that can squash you like a bug. - It seemed that the people who ran up on me at high speed to pass were all getting off at the next exit. It was really weird and happened a lot and was quite dangerous at times. Once a car passed me only to pass a WalMart truck and immediate cut in front of it to get off at an exit. Crazy. - The solo motorcyclists are crazy and have a death wish. The only motorcyclists that didn't drive dangerously was one Harley group out for a ride on a beautiful day. All the others wanted to die. - Massachusetts roads are in the worst shape of all the states we drove through. - Maine tolls are crazy but you get what you pay for. I95 is pristine. - Always stock up on booze in New Hampshire. Their prices are 30 - 50% less than every other state. - My car needs a wheel realignment and I'm going to work on that this week For my posts from Maine I'm going to alway start with my project updates and I'll have a photo or 2 or 3 at the end from the vacation. I know you come here for hobby content and not my vacation log but I like to keep the vacation notes because I often look back over them to remember what we did and when we did it. I wanted to immediately get started cutting out the blue quilt blocks so that I could get the cutting out of the way before Laura gets here today. Last night I finished cutting all that I could and set up the sewing machine. I'm a little short on light fabrics. I need lights to finish off the block sets at the top of the screen. Those are the stacks on the table. The stacks on the cutting mat are all block sets are are read to sew. Many of my "lights" are mediums but I think it will all work. I'll see how far I get with the sewing. If I'm getting through all the blocks I'll go buy some light blue batiks to finish the cutting. I had a very pretty pile of tiny scraps and I did throw them out. I'll admit that I considered postcard possibilities. All of the rest of the leftover fabrics (only a few) and the larger scraps are sorted and packed away. I'm maybe feeling some scrappy placemats in here. I've been doing a little crochet too and I'll share that update tomorrow or Wednesday. Our friends come in today and we'll go pick them up in Bangor so I may not post tomorrow. Here's the view from our cabin over Lower Wilson Pond outside Greenville, Maine. This is our third year here and we love it. This year is the first year we've actually had internet at the cabin. Previously I had to go to the library to get access to post. The internet is a treat! We haven't done any hiking or kayaking yet. Saturday was rainy and windy. Yesterday was beautiful but quite windy. We tried to go on a hike but someone (me) had the great idea to take a logging road to get to the trail and that was a big failure. By the time we got turned around and back to the cabin we decided to just do the 4 mile neighborhood walk and then sit in the sun and read in the afternoon. The weather should be good for kayaking and floating today. This is our launch point. Sometimes it's an adventure to get in and out of the water, but it's worth it. We head to Bangor airport (2 hours away) this afternoon to pick up our friends. When we are in Acadia we can get lobster every day if we want (and can afford it) but here we can only get it once a week. This year I got smart and ordered last week so I could have my first lobster dinner Saturday night.
It was delicious, as expected! Who knew that orange could be a neutral? This is my last finish before vacation. This is also a veterans quilt and I love it. I really enjoy making these quilts. I can piece a top in one weekend if I have the strings and foundations already cut. You just have to remember that half the blocks need to have the diagonal in the opposite direction. I didn't pay attention to my block count when I made this quilt so I had to remake one block. I know that orange isn't appealing to everyone but it's my happy color and I love it in this quilt. In between travel preps, Chris and I got in some kayaking one evening. It was beautiful out on the lake.
We leave today for a 2-day drive to Maine. I probably won't post again until Monday. It may look like one quilt here but you'll see below that I made 2 identical quilts. I cut out veterans quilt kits all at one time and they usually hold me for a year or more. I had enough of these fabrics to make 2. I worked on piecing them over 3 months of quilt club sewing days and got them quilted and bound this weekend. I really like the look of this quilt and will likely make more in the future. See, I did make 2! I also got 4 quilts ready for the quilt exhibit in September. One of them is Mom's. Three of them needed labels and 2 needed sleeves. Luckily, I had 4 hanging rods just the right size! I really wanted to get these ready before I leave so I didn't have to worry about if after vacation.
Otherwise, it's just laundry, packing and a little evening crochet going on here this week. Kim is still here and we have been having fun hanging out in the sewing room for a few days. She leaves today but she got a lot done on her new quilt. I decided that I needed to get busy and start looking for a project to take to Maine. I already knew that I wanted to use up some of my blue scraps. I've made a purple and yellow scrap quilt, a quilt using green scraps and one using brown scraps. It's time to tackle the blue drawer. I got out a stack of books and started searching for a simple pattern. This is the quilt that excited me to make and it's made with all squares. It's from Kaffe Fassett book called Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts. Here are all of the fabrics that I pulled for this quilt. I will not do any cutting before the trip. I'm just going to get it all packed up and ready. I have one kit cut in patriotic scraps and then I found these fabrics in my stash. I bought these YEARS ago and, clearly, have used them in some projects but I've lost interest in them. They are printed ombres that are overprinted with various leaf prints. I thought it might work in the same type of layout. So I cut all of it into 4.5" squares and picked 2 shades of gray for the inner and outer borders. I think it will actually work out OK and will all tie together with some leaf quilting. Stay tuned for updates on all of these projects in August.
Now I need to get back to that Goldfinch! |
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I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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April 2024
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