Leaving Vermont...

On our way from Vermont to Connecticut, we stopped at the King Arthur Flour Baker's Store. I've been buying my chocolate from them for a while now and it was really fun to stop and find even more great baking tools. We found the hot pads we've been hunting for for years - oh happy day.

Then we went down the road to Simon Pearce. I had not heard of Simon Pearce before but this is a well-respected source for hand-blown glass in the northeast. These are photos of the outside of their home base. The waterfall you see generates much of the power that they use.


I loved the wear pattern on this rock...

Steve took the photos above from this covered bridge...


I did try to resist, but I just didn't do a good job of it. We bought one glass bowl, the smaller Corinth bowl. It's going to look lovely on our dining room table. Steve thought so too - although later he said that really, as long as I loved it, that was good enough. I think our table without a bowl would suit him just fine. But we decided that if we managed to stimulate the economy a little bit on this trip that that would be OK so there you go.

Fabric shopping at the Vermont Quilt Festival...

I have stimulated the economy by buying fabric on this trip (and some other stuff too but we won't go there right now). This is the fabric I managed to buy during my 2 hours at the Vermont Quilt Festival show. I was teaching and the show was off-site so I didn't get to the show very much. This first fabric I got at the Woodstock Quilt Supply booth. These are mostly (or all) from Westminster and are fabrics that I think I don't already own.

Isn't their fat quarter label wonderful!

I spent a lot of time and money at the Quilters' Express to Japan & The Beckoning Cat booth. The Japanese fabric was worth the money.

This fabric is one cut off the bolt. The pattern changes at the fold - positive and negative designs on each side of the fold. Very cool.

The background colors behind the swirly black print changes across the width of the fabric. There were more fabrics like each of these.


And, last but not least, Handloom Batik had a booth. They have beautiful fabric and scarves and batik stamps and more. That gray piece of fabric with the light berries on it - I'm going to find a special place for it!

Seen in Vermont...

My last class ended at 11:30 on Sunday. It was such a good few days! The ladies in my classes all did so well and a good time was had by everyone. As a quilt teacher, it always makes me happy when my students leave happy and confident that they can applique anything. Good job ladies!

Kayoko, one of my students, gave me an origami winged dragon that she made. I love it! It folds flat so that I can travel home with it. It will live in my studio. Thank you, Kayoko.


Steve and I drove to Stowe for a couple of hours. Steve hiked and saw quite a bit of Vermont while I was working so this was my chance to see some of the state. We took the scenic route and found this spot in the road. The rocks are HUGE and the road is narrow and winding. Very scenic.


These flowers were in Stowe. I should know what they are, but I don't. Let's just call them pretty.

This is pretty interesting...

Last week I found a link to The Uniform Project. Click the link and read all about it. This is a project in which the woman below is wearing the same black "uniform" every day for one year. It is a short dress/smock that buttons up either in front or back. She changes up the uniform every day. She is doing amazing things with this one dress and accessories. I'm getting some good ideas!

Look on the left side of her blog page. Click on "View Dailies" and a calendar will come up. Click on a day and you'll see the photo of the outfit she wore that day.

The Vermont Quilt Festival...

I taught at the Vermont Quilt Festival. What a great show! If you ever get a chance, go to this show. The quilts were wonderful, the quilters are happy, and there are lots of classes. It is held on the campus of St. Michael's College in Burlington, VT. The land is flat and the classrooms are air conditioned.

There were some great red and white and green antique quilts. This one, #A32, was my favorite. Here is what the catalog said about it:
"Potted Flowers with One Blue Pot, 1850-70
This quilt is an example of the pot-of-flowers quilt pattern for which there is an ongoing research project. There are very few of these intricately made quilts, the majority of them having PA or OH origins. This particular quilt, locatedin 2006, was not one of the known examples and has since been added to the project. We do not know the name of the maker, but it is also believed to have come from PA. The one blue glowerpot is a result of the yellow component of the original over dyed green being fugitive. Private collection."

Personally, I wish the blue flower pot was intentional. That color change is what makes this quilt so memorable.


#A4 was another favorite. It's named Urn with Red Feather & Mystery Flower, 1850. The catalog says:
"This quilt is from Oneonta, NY. The design is composed of elements common to many red and green applique quilts with flowers and leaves emerging from an urn. But the expression is totally original. The flowers are unlike those seen in nature and the leaves are as much like red feather as leaves. The quilting apttern on the center setting blocks is unusual - a pineapple tree with three pineapples. Private collection."

And then there was this striped stairwell spotted in downtown Burlington. The stripes dressed up an otherwise boring spot.

The Shelburne Museum...

We went to the Shelburne Museum before my classes started at the Vermont Quilt Festival. The museum sits on a large swath of land in Shelburne, VT. There are historical houses, barns, buildings, a steamboat, and a locomotive on site that have been restored and furnished. There are a variety of exhibits. The docents were exceptionally helpful and knowledgable. The Shelburne is definitely worth a visit if you come this way.

It was a beautiful day - breezy and cool. The plants were bright green, the flowers lovely. Here is some of what we saw...

The round, red barn at the entrance had a motorcycle exhibit on display.

It was interesting to go into these houses. The walls were mostly solid wood planks. 2x4 construction came along much later.


There were several lovely antique quilts on exhibit. I didn't photograph them because we couldn't figure out how to turn off the flash on my camera. Oh my. I did use my little camera to take a photo of this block. I know I've seen it before but I don't think I've ever really looked at it. The shapes are appliqued, not pieced.


This Paul Revere on his horse weathervane made me smile.


There is a horseshoe-shaped building devoted to circus things. One entire side has a carved replica of a circus parade mady by Roy Arnold. He spent 25 years carving and painting it - and he had helpers! It's pretty amazing. I think the wheels would look great as pieced blocks.

From the American side...

The American side of the falls is different. From this side you get the view over-the-top. Surprisingly, the river leading to the falls doesn't look that dangerous. There are rapids and there is a lot of mist in the distance (clouds of it in fact) and there is the noise from the falls - but if you didn't know what was coming you might just paddle on... and over you'd go.

A closer shot of the top of the American falls...

Here's the top of Horseshoe Falls...

I love these things. They look like happy men from Mars.

Niagra Falls...

We drove from Michigan through Ontario, Canada, to Niagra Falls. It really is spectacular from the Canadian side. You can see the falls falling. There are two falls. American Falls...

...and Horseshoe Falls. There is mist coming off both of them and when the light hits it just right, you can see rainbows. It's very cool. And noisy. And damp depending on which way the mist is blowing.

You can't park near the falls. The walk from the parking lot to the falls takes you through some serious tourist-y stuff. The Frankenstein Burger King was pretty impressive.


King Kong was attached the the sideways Ripley's Believe It Or Not. I was happier to find fudge and a nut-covered carmel apple.

We got to our hotel and they asked if we would be willing to upgrade to a jacuzzi suite. Well, why not, right? There's a huge jacuzzi in one corner of the room and we might actually use it! Actually, no, we didn't. It just seemed a little icky.

Michigan flowers....

What is this flower? It might be some sort of lily.
These white flowers were big - 8" across or so. The petals seemed sheer. Is this a peony? It does not grow in my part of the world.
I think this is a lady slipper...
Even the dandelions are pretty here.

Fun stuff from Michigan...

Isn't this an amazing roof? I've never seen another one like it.
These pansies are pretty, but the colored pots are what make these special.

Very ornate wrought iron looked wonderful in front of a Victorian house in Charlevoix...
The Charlevoix Public Library is a renovated elementary school. The children's area was one of the best I've ever seen - and it was obvious that the kids thought so too. One thing I noticed in particular was this old refrigerator door mounted on the wall with word magnets. The kids were encouraged to make new poems. Great idea for an old fridge.
All in all, I have to say that the parts of Michigan we visited were absolutely beautiful, the people were great and the food was magnificent!

More from Michigan...

Charlevoix, MI, is a lovely resort town. We did a walking tour of the "mushroom houses" designed by architect Earl Young. These houses are happy! The owner of this house was outside and we got to visiting. He and his family are from Austin, TX. He invited us in to see the house - what a treat! The house is tiny and quirky - perfect for a summer home.

The mile long drive into Charlevoix is lined with petunias on both sides of the street.
This young woman was outside a restaurant, luring in diners. I would seriously love to have those striped tights. But not the dress.

This mosaic was outside of a restaurant. Very cool.We had dinner with friends, Jackie and Jerry, at their house on Torch Lake. It was so much fun! Jackie helped me find petoskey stones on the lake shore (mostly she found them for me). Petoskeys are the state stone of Michigan. Steve and Jerry went sailing. Where the color of the water changes, the lake bottom drops from about 5' to 200'. Torch Lake at its deepest is 300'. It's so very clear and blue - it makes our lakes at home look like mud pits.