Pieces Of Old: The Perfect Weekend

I was on vacation last week. No set plans, no alarm clock and no watch. An entire week off to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. It was heaven!

I just had to start a new quilting project, when I stumbled across a 2007 issue of "America Loves Scrap Quilts" and spotted Nine & Vines. Sure, I had other projects that I could have been working on and heaven forbid, maybe even getting around to finishing something -- but, that wasn't in the cards for me. I wanted a "What I did on my summer vacation" quilt. I would get up in the morning, put on a pot of coffee and head up to

my sewing room to sew a few 9-Patches. When/if the sun came out, I was out in the yard, with the boys, soaking it up. Then back to a little more sewing into the wee hours. Hey, this is vacation. But, I must admit, I think I was seeing 9-Patches in my sleep. Here is a little preview - I'm done up to the first border.

I had picked something out for the final border, but it just wasn't working for me. I feel a Road Trip coming up. I'm even kind of antsy to start on the applique -- yes, me, appliqueing, but, did I say -- I really want this quilt?

On Saturday, I got together with my Quilt Buddy, Susan, and we checked out a new Quilt Shop not too far from home, Lil Country Quilt Shop in Middletown, DE. As soon as we walked in the door, I could feel the MODA-love just pouring out from every corner in the store. All those FQ's, Jelly Rolls, Dessert Rolls and Charm Packs screaming "pick me, pick me". Who am I to leave a Moda Charm pack behind? Each and every one of them were just too cute for words.

These are the charm packs that came home with me. I'm hoping that by holding onto the label and fanning through them will cause all kinds of inspiration and scream "use me, use me!"

This was a really cute shop with a friendly staff that were more than happy to indulge us. Susan and I are usually a force of nature when we get together with fabric and have to touch, fondle and cajole, then, usually end up buying everything we put our hands on. You can almost say, this shop brought me to me knees or I'm praying to the altar of St. Moda.

When we left the quilt shop, laden with bags and a little lighter in cash, we headed to a little shop that sells Brighton jewelry. After all that "soft-ware", I needed a little heavy metal to round out the day.

Fast forward to Sunday and I went canoeing down the Historic Brandywine River. I'm not really an outdoorsy type of person, but something about this really appealed to me. I called Sonny-boy and he was on-board with this crazy notion of mine, as was my granddaughter, Kylie. A family outing!!

We had picture-perfect weather for our trip.

After gearing up, and of course, posing for a few pictures, we were transported to our drop-off location, given a shove-off, and we were on our way down the river.