Summer Recap: August

Trip To Maine and More Adventures in Cross Stitch

I've had a dream for a while to visit all the National Parks.  Or at least all the ones shown here:

Okay, maybe the panel was another factor in finalizing that dream!  It was also always part of the dream to do this in an RV.  DH and I have discussed the possibility of getting one for over ten years.  Now that our sons are grown (and one is out of the house), the prospects of just the two of us traveling has reignited the RV discussion.  Earlier this year we did make a final decision on the travel trailer we'd like but until recently still had the hurdle of getting a vehicle with the capacity to tow it (more on that at some point in the future).  So for now, we have to start "the park tour" by tent camping.  This is fine as I had mapped out all the parks on the East Coast.  

When discussing what to do for DH's August vacation, I suggested we try to get to one of the parks.  Given the immense heat this summer, going South was NOT an option!!  So Acadia in Maine became the choice for the first trip.   

We watched a bunch of You Tube videos about other people's experiences making the same trip so we would have an idea of things we might do while there.  We have now also decided that as part of our trip to North Carolina next month to visit his mother, we will take a couple of days and visit Great Smokey Mountain National park.  This way we get two of the parks in our East Coast swing checked off the list this year!  We went to our storage unit to review and organize our camping equipment and looked forward to traveling. 

A week before we were due to leave, I saw a You Tube video thumbnail picture of a project made by a Flosstuber I've watched before named Helen D.  It was a little pillow with the words:  "Loons, Lakes, Blueberries, Black Bears".  

From the research I had done for the trip, I had learned that Maine is known for Blueberries and Loons and there are lakes in the park so could this piece be about Maine?  Not only is it, but it had been a freebie design Helen had made for a Maine Stitch Get Together!  Needless to say it immediately went on the "must make" list!  Even better, I decided it might be cool to see if there will be a quilt shop near to where we would be camping that I might be able to find "Maine themed" fabrics for finishing the little project.  It is a given for me as a quilter to make a quilt shop stop where ever I travel!

After downloading the pattern,  I was able to pick up floss for the project before we left.  I did change up some of the colors used and where I would use some of the colors in the design.  I had a choice of two different Aida cloths in my burgeoning CS stash.  One was a white 14 count and the other was a Lori Holt 10 count in "Buttermilk".  Since they were different colors, I decided to wait until I could find the finishing fabrics to determine which I would use.   I also took the supplies on the trip in the event that once I got the finishing fabrics, I might be able to start work on the project at the campsite or in the car driving home.  

The Acadia trip was a blast!  My DH and I like to say that every view in the park is a postcard!

The shoreline near our campsite at Seawall.

The view at Otter Creek

Just after sunrise on Cadillac Mountain

Hiking around Jordon Pond

Excursion ships out of Bar Harbor

Acadia is one of the top ten most visited National Parks and the Bar Harbor area in Maine is a summer resort destination so in that first week of August, it was packed!!  Since we were only able to luck up on a two night camping spot (and that was only after checking back daily to see if any spots had opened up at all), we didn't get to see and do everything we wanted to.  So our plans now are to book early next year and try to get back there again so we can visit some of the sites and do some of the hikes we didn't get to this time.

On the cross stitch front,  I was able to pick up some Maine fabrics at a quilt shop in Bar Harbor called Fabricate.  Even better, the day we went there I learned that Nessa, one of the owners and who helped me find what I was looking for, is actually a former New Yorker!  However, I wasn't able to get the project started until after I got back home.  Fortunately, I had noted in my planner that Friday 8/12 was National Cross Stitch Day so figured that would be the perfect day to get it started.  

With the finishing fabrics I found, I decided to go with the Lori Holt Aida.  This was my first time using 10 count which will make the piece slightly larger than patterned.  It was really easy to stitch especially since I've learned to stitch using the "sewing method" which works better without a hoop.   I worked on it a little each day and by month end, the stitching was finished!

Of course there is still the "Fully Finished" work to do but I am already glad I got this done as a memento of our trip to Maine.  Additionally, I saw and purchased this cute pattern which I hope will become my first attempt at a  "full coverage" piece.  

I'd love to finish this as another pillow to add to our our camping setup (or our future RV when we get one)!   

 Fat Quarter Shop Simple Zipper Bag Gift

Back in 2016 the Fat Quarter Shop did a YouTube video with Sherri McConnel of "A Quilting Life" for making some "Simple Zipper Bags" Sherri designed.  I learned about it when Pat Sloan made the same bag and embellished it with a Bee applique she designed to make use of buttons she received from a FQS monthly Button Club mailing at the time.  I thought it cute and downloaded the info for a potential future project.  

It was two or three years later when one of the members of the community garden I belong to and with whom I did a lot of projects in the garden revealed how much she loved bees!  She was also always misplacing her keys and other things in the back pack she usually carried around with her so I thought it would be great to make the pouch for her using "Bee themed" fabric.  I picked up fat quarters with bees on them as I saw them.  Eventually, I lucked up on a mini charm pack that I felt coordinated perfectly with the fabrics I had already collected and would use it to create the bag front as the pattern directed.  I also added some additions from my stash to help round out the finishing.  

For a long time the remaining debate was what to use for the bee applique and whether to embellish it with buttons as Pat did.  

Then like most things in the last few years, COVID interrupted our garden attendance.  Even when the restrictions began to lift, the member was by then dealing with family issues so wasn't at the garden for all of 2021.  Then just before DH and I went on the Maine vacation,  I happened to see her and she said she expected to finish up her dealings and would soon be back in the garden regularly so I said  I'd see her again when we returned.  I then made plans to work on the pouch when we got back.  

On our way to put our camping supplies back in storage, we stopped by the garden.  The member who schedules the volunteer shifts was there and was surprised to see us since the scheduler said the woman had told her we were away on vacation.  The scheduler had re-assigned our shift to her and another member not realizing that we planned to be back in time to do the shift as promised!  So since we now had that Sunday "off",  I decided to use that time to make up the bag.

It's not a hard make so thought I could start it that same day and make it up quick enough to bring over to the garden before the member I was gifting it to left that day.  

Since I rushed to make it up, I also made some changes to the original plans.  To save some time, I decided not to do Pat's bee applique after all but instead fussy cut a motif from one of the bee prints I had collected and appliqued that to the back of the pouch on top of the bee fabric I had used there.  I did also add a mesh “pocket divider” which is something Pat did in her version.  Rather than the fabric zipper pull called for in the pattern, I added an empty clip and key ring I had so she could attach her garden keys to the pouch and also easily remove them when she needed to use them.  

Unfortunately, when I finished the bag and headed over to the garden to give it to her, I didn't quite make it in time to catch her before she left!  No matter, with the bag now done, I gave it to her the next time we were both in the garden together a couple of weeks later.    

So that's (finally) it for all the projects I worked on over the Summer!  Here's hoping I can bring some of what I reported on to a finish before the end of the year while keeping up on the current projects that are "front and center" as the Fall progresses!