Summer Vacation ~ 2012

It's been a whole week and more since we returned from our vacation up north in beautiful New Hampshire, so it's about time I share with you my visits to two lovely quilt shops. First take a look at what my view was for the week...


Ah yes, lovely Lake Winona! This picture was taken from the deck of our place that we rent each summer for a week. It's a little slice of heaven for sure! The house is perched up on a small hill and we have our own private beach right there just below this picture. That is our dock, and the kids spent most of the week swimming out to it, climbing the stairs and then jumping back into the water! Such fun!

But of course I had to take a little trip or two, while the kids were frolicking in the lake, to my favorite quilt and yarn shops up in Center Harbor. They would be Keepsake Quilting and Patternworks of course! This year nothing at Patternworks jumped out at me, but this is what I found at Keepsake in their clearance room...


Yardage of Sweetwater's Pure fabric line in both canvas and quilting cotton. The brown and blue are the canvas and the white is the quilting cotton. I also found some yardage of a few prints that I thought would make great aprons or tote bags. I love how they fold up the fabric after it is cut at Keepsake...


...a nice way to show it off! I also love that they cut a few inches past the yardage that you ask for. Nothing worse than paying for 36 inches and only getting 34 or 35 inches of squared fabric!


On the front porch of Keepsake Quilting, there is always lots to look at. I found these baggies of jumbo ric rac, each holding over 3 yards, for 59 cents a bag! It's a delicious buttery yellow too, so I'll have to think of something fun to do with that!


I was on the hunt for some new rulers this year and had googled where I could purchase one particular Creative Grids ruler for a friendship braid pattern I had recently bought. In that search, I discovered a quilt shop that is just a stone's throw from where I do my grocery shopping while we are on vacation. So I stopped in there and bought these two rulers. The Binding ruler has proven the perfect tool for the friendship braid, although not the one that I was originally looking for. And the other ruler is the 60 degree triangle ruler which I will use for another pattern I will be trying soon.


Country Heart Quilters in Plymouth, NH was a fun little shop to poke around in. Loretta had a huge variety of patterns, notions and rulers, lots of samples of bags and quilts and other items, and a nice selection of fabrics. She even gave me a little demonstration of how to use this binding ruler to achieve the perfect join for the beginning and end of binding. It was shop hop day there too, so things were really hopping, but she took the time to help me with my needs and got herself one happy customer. If you're ever up that way, her shop is only a few minutes off the highway right on a main road. Be sure to stop in and say hi!

It seems like we've been home much longer than a week, but I guess time really does fly when you are having fun. And I've been having some fun this week, let me tell you! Coming soon, I'll show you the quilt top and back I have finished, and also the new one I am working on, and a fun and easy crocheted bag that I made during vacation and its mini mate made with the leftover yarn. Lots of fun things happening here with hooks and needles, just not a lot of computer time!

I hope your summer has included some good sewing or crocheting too! Just a month left until my kids go back to school, and lots to get done in that time!

Happy Stitching!

Click here to return to HookedOnNeedles.com