Maine trip - part I

My dh and I have wanted to visit Maine for years and we were finally able to put the trip together this fall.  And we were so lucky with the timing.  Fall is in full swing (at least until this weekend!) and we enjoyed some beautiful weather and spectacular fall colors!

I had arranged to meet Wendy Caton Reed at her house in Bath and she was a most amazing hostess.  First thing we did upon arriving at their fabulous house was a tour of the sewing areas!



This is Wendy with some of her stash, which is expertly organized.

Then she showed me some of her quilts, which she has laying on a "bed"...she said it wasn't a real bed, though! VBG


The top quilt was the one that Lori recently hosted, the Gwennie medallion.  It is truly beautiful!  I didn't get pictures of her other quilts but do you notice all the ribbons hanging on the wall?  Wendy is extremely modest but she does absolutely amazing work.

here is one little block she has been working on from the Shenandoah Valley year long block of the month, I think.  I hope she doesn't mind that I'm showing it.


Here are her threads (DMC), beautifully organized and arranged!


I think I can honestly say that Wendy is an expert in the "potholder" method of quilting.  It's akin to quilt as you go, only much better!  She works on each block, quilts that particular block (using half weight wool batting), then puts on the binding.  When all the blocks are done, she whipstitches them together.  I'll show you a quilt we saw at the Shelburne Museum in the next day or two.

Yesterday we started our journey to Vermont with a stop at Cyndi Black's amazing shop called Busy Thimble, located on her farm in a beautiful area.


Can you see the gorgeous fall colors??


This is the shop!!

Here is a neighbor, watching the neighborhood:

Cyndi's husband actually works with livestock and I'm guessing this is one of their cows.

Here are Cyndi and Wendy in the shop:

I should have taken more pictures of her fabrics but I was too busy snapping pictures of her samples and pulling bolts off the walls for her to cut me pieces that I neglected to do that.  I'm sorry, Cyndi.

If you EVER have a chance to get to Litchfield in Maine, run, don't walk, to Cyndi's Busy Thimble. She also has a Facebook page and does phone/mail order so don't feel constrained by an inability to physically get there!

I'll post pictures of some of her beautiful samples in the next few days.  

She needed to stop at the post office on our way to Shelburne, which was perfect for me to ship home the pieces of fabric I got.  This tree was in the parking lot and I just couldn't not take a picture.




We fly home tomorrow and next post will show the samples that Cyndi has in her shop.  VERY inspiring!  Then I'll share what we saw at the Shelbourne Museum, in Vermont.  Also, so very amazing!!