Full of Soup

Quilting has taken a bit of a back seat to the rest of my life this summer. Anthony is working on a research project in Boston, and I’ve been running up there every weekend. This past weekend, Anthony had to make a last minute trip to Acadia National Park to look for some Digitadas Laminaria (kelp) for his research project.

Anthony contacted a farmer who harvests kelp to ask him for some nearby sources of this specific species, and he suggested the tip of the Schoodic Penninsula.

Last year Anthony traveled to Ireland where they have a lot of this kelp, but this year they are trying to do a smaller scale test.

The kelp thrives in deep water, so we headed to the shore at low tide.

The team might come back here with their instrument to test the prevalence of a compound the kelp gives off, so Anthony asked me to take a lot of pictures of the landscape with his body in it for scale.

He’s not in that one, but I think that is some evidence for why I am so sore today from running around those rocks.

There was so, so much seaweed and it was incredibly beautiful. I can’t believe I never noticed this stuff before.

It actually took us a while to find THE kelp:

We brought some kelp home on ice so Anthony could use it in the lab. He also found this guy among the seaweed:

Last February, my mom and I went to the Stockbridge Ramsdell house in Newbergh, New York for a two-day quilting retreat. The hostess cooks dinner on Friday, three meals on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. We didn’t need to leave the house for the entire time and could truly focus on our quilting.

The dining room was cozy for our small group.

The hostess was really accommodating for special dietary needs and made delicious, healthy meals and delicious, not-so-healthy desserts each day. In the evenings, wine and cheese were served in the parlor.

The parlor had a lovely view of the Hudson River.

This is the view from our room on the third floor:

Downstairs, there is a porch with a large selection of fabrics for sale.

The inn-keeper is also a quilter herself and she shared with us some of the antique quilts she collects.

The woman who made this quilt of hexagons fussy cute each floral hex so they would match perfectly.

This was another hand pieced gem, but the quilter never finished her project and the inn-keeper intends to add the backing and quilt it herself.

This quilt is called a Crazy Quilt, which is a style of quilting I had never heard of, but dates the piece back to the late 1800s.

The quilting room is fitted with really bright Ott lights and of course plenty of daylight and that view of the Hudson.

After working with those lamps, I’m a convert. I was able to work a lot longer without feeling fatigued in such a bright work-space. As you can see, I am still surrounded by polka dots and snowballs as I continue to work on my Bounce quilt.

The inn-keeper is working on her own Dear Jane quilt and has just about a dozen blocks left to go!

My mom finished putting together a top she is making for her friend who will be retiring in the fall. She left the workshop just needing to add the borders.

One of our retreat companions was working on this beautiful flying geese pattern she designed herself. The square will be the center when she’s finished.

She was also working on her version of a One Block Wonder. It was so fun to work surrounded by design walls so we could quickly throw our work up against the wall and see how it was all coming out.

The other woman on the retreat had recently finished a take-off on the Trip-Around-the-World pattern and she was deciding whether or not to extend the zig-zags and what type of border would work well with the quilt.

I didn’t have anything to hang up on the walls in the end, but I was proud of my headway on the many, many snowballs.

My sister made this for Anthony for his birthday.

Last night my friend Katie came over and I pulled out all my quilting stuff and showed her what I had completed over the summer and some older projects that I’m not sure what to do with next. I have a small trunk in my bedroom where I keep the older projects and just as I lifted out the first quilt, my cat jumped into the trunk. I ran over to pull him out, but it was too late. He peed all over my quilts.

The quilts represented years of work, and I was so afraid the smell and stains would be irreparable. I took them to the laundromat first thing the next day and washed them on gentle with detergent, OxiClean, and a ton of white vinegar, and they came out smelling fresh with no stains.

The cat will live to see another day.

For our wedding, my mom made this beautiful quilt.

It is a sampler using traditional Amish-style blocks.

Thimbles or Bow Ties.

Butterflies.

Appliqued flowers.

Log Cabin stars.