Dream Vacation

** I interrupt this quilting blog for a travel post, quilting fun will resume as soon as possible**

I've finally finished working on my photos of my recent trip.  I don't pretend to be a great photo journalist, it's more like, Oh! I should take a photo of this.

I get really caught up in what I'm doing and seeing, but here are some high points of my trip.

We're here!  In Rome wait to go to the ship.

I must say again that the 4 year wait for this one was worth it!
The MS Noordam (we cruised on her 7 years ago in the Caribbean) is a lovely ship.  Our home away from home.

The first sea day they had a tour of the kitchen, one of my favorite things.  This is the Pasta kitchen - look at the size of those pots!

Fruit and vegetable carving - I love the photo food maps that are posted - everything is plated very beautifully.

Our first port; Dubrovnik, Croatia.  We loved it.

We had a wine tasting here after our bike ride at a private winery.

We took a 5 mile bike ride to this Monastery.  It was beautiful.

This is Ancient Olympia.
This cruise became knows as the "Hot Rocks Tour".

The original Olympic stadium - the original.  The kids and I ran it for fun.

Andrew Zorba Dances at lunch

Beautiful Santorini.  This a town called Oia.

It's hard to see, but this is the mule trail.  There are 3 ways to get up and down to the port; cable car (our choice), walking, or riding a mule.

Turkey!  I'm very excited to add Asia to my list of visited continents.  Turkey is beautiful.

We visited Mary's Chapel.  The Virgin Mary lived out her life here on a mountain top in this 3 room home.  The 2 most recent Popes' have visited it.

Ephesus was my favorite place.  The ruins (hot rocks) are incredible.  Cleopatra walked the same marble streets.  It was an incredible place.

My favorite; the library - remarkable!

You know you're not in Jersey when you see this guy...

 A pretty display at the dessert extravaganza.

The Parthanon on the Acropolis (hotest rocks of all)

This temple with the Caryatids is my favorite thing here.  Love those ladies.

Deck 3, Promenade deck was our meet up place in the late afternoon.

Hanna and I loved dressing for the formal nights.  Hooray, she got to wear her graduation dress again.  We look like salt and pepper shakers, lol.

This is a Clock Tower at the Cathedral in Messina, Italy.  It is the largest mechanical perpetual clock in the world - It shows, day, time, year - but also the constellations, the phases of the moon, the biblical year, etc.  It is incredible!

Thanks for visiting and taking the tour.

Whether you have been traveling or enjoy the summer at home, I hope it's been great.  Now I'm ready for fall, how about you?

Quilting by the Sea

Hello - and thank you all so much for your well wishes before I left!

I'm back, well sort of.  It's hard to re-enter the reality atmosphere.  Even when I engage my deflector shields, it hard not to get burned.

I keep going to the kitchen when I'm hungry and nothing is prepared....no matter how many times I leave my bedroom, that bed never gets made.  I'm in denial, clearly.

I actually did a little stitching on this cruise.  I usually take it and never do any.

Here we're sailing from Athens, Greece to Messina, Italy.

This was a great take along project, small and compact.

Here I am at one of my favorite spots:  Deck 3, promenade deck.  This where I head late in the afternoon after I've enough sun and fun for a little rest and relaxation.

Look at that concentration; have I mentioned I hate hand piecing?

This is why:  wrong, barb - again!

I should stick to what I do best on holiday - celebrate my family!

I'm still working on my photos, but will be back before the weekend with "Barb's Top Ten" of my cruise.

I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone's projects.  I hope you are all having a wonderful summer and finding time for some sewing.

All My Bags are Packed (and my quilting too)

Last week the Cupcakers, including Mary, got together for a little sew party and luncheon on Jill's porch.

When I return I'll tell you how this:

Became this:

After four years of saving, and many months of planning, we are finally on our way tomorrow!

We're flying off to Rome tomorrow then boarding a cruise ship and heading for:  Croatia, Curfu, Santorini, (Greece), Turkey, Athens, and Messina (Italy).

I'll be taking my tumbler doll quilt to hand piece on the plane and on sea days when I'm not playing Bingo (obsession on cruises).

I must be strong today and drop coco off at a boarding facility in upstate New York.  They have dog pools and open play and frozen yogurt.  I must be strong.....

See you again in a couple of weeks!  Until then, I hope you have fun!

Dog Day Afternoon

Sorry, quilters, this one is all about my puppy; coco.

On the spur of the moment, we decided to visit the family farm in Illinois for the 3-day weekend of the Fourth of July.  Quite a radical decision, since it's 850 miles away and takes 14 hours by car.

Three us drove and Two of us flew.

My FIL was an "Ad Man" in Chicago and purchased Illinois farm land about 35 years ago.  It really has become his legacy. We are so grateful to have Pioneer Farm in our lives.   Here are the living areas, which were built over many years.

Pioneer Farm -Main House

Loft House

Annex (garage with apartment)

It is a dog's heaven~  no leash, a pool, and lots of room to roam.

Here is coco's visit:

She learned to swim in the deep end

She learned to float

She learned to wait for us on walks

She inspected the tractor

She wandered through my MIL's prairie

She inspected the corn fields

She did an in-depth inspection of the flooded areas of the soy beans

She helped do the dishes

She enjoyed a bone in the front yard

She contemplated life on the front porch

 Then she slept all the way home

I wonder if she thinks it was all a dream.

Good girl coco!

Catching Up

Happy Friday!

Just catching up on some of the things I've been up to while away for the Fourth of July.

Before I left, I won a great antique button give away from Sandra of Cumberland Island.  She put the buttons in a stationery box.  How cute is this?  And it's one of my favorite subjects; birds :)

I love that it looks like a book!

It's magnetized, so it makes an excellent sewing project box.  I love using stationery boxes this way.

I brought this little hand piecing project with me.  I started it about 10 years ago.  It was before I did paper piecing, which would be way, way easier.

It will be for my little antique dolly bed.  I'm about half way there.

So it's back to marking and cutting new pieces.  I'll be taking this on our cruise in about a week.

Yea, I finished the little baby quilt for my friend.   I like the way it turned out.  I like to do minimal quilting so it feels soft.

I just have my name on the label and my friend will fill in the baby info.

We had a great trip to our family farm in Illinois.  Coco in particular had a great time being a country dog.  I'll be back with photos next time.

Hope you are having a great summer and finding time for a little stitching!