People ask me what I do while in Maine each year on vacation. Well truthfully – not a lot. When the kids were home, vacations involved activities and places the kids would enjoy. However, now that vacation is solo, my vacation is about quilting, relaxation, and used books.

Before the question comes up “why do you vacation solo?”, let me answer it. Hubby does not like to travel anymore, and I still do. So he enjoys the quiet time at home to work on his own projects while I go on vacation. It works well for both of us, and gives us both much needed quiet time.

Quilting Projects during vacation:

This year has been a bust when it comes to quilting projects. The first six months were spent recouping from a shoulder injury. Then in July I injured my wrist and was in a brace for several weeks. Injuries like this seriously interfere with anything quilting, especially when it is the dominate arm.

So this vacation I packed fabrics for a few simple wall hangings, and already cut pieces to work on components of other quilts. Actually, I feel like the time was well spent.

Component parts for other quilts:

This bag of several hundred 3″ squares turned into a pile of 100 nine patch blocks.

An uncounted pile of “fallish” looking HST turned into many Flying Geese.

These red, white, and blue HST and squares will eventually become small Friendship Stars.

And 2 other projects:

Pumpkin Spice has been in the works for several years. It has become one of my more ignored projects. I like to applique, but it is time consuming to prep for. However, I got three plus part of another pumpkin hand appliqued over vacation. I may or may not decide to add some leaves.

I love to do counted cross stitch, but it is time consuming which hinders me from doing much of it. Plus I have to work totally uninterrupted so I don’t loose count. But my evenings in the hotel on the coast were perfect for this.

Quilting, Relaxation, and Used Books

My vacations would not be complete without spending time (and $$) getting used books. Or reading and enjoying time by the ocean and lighthouses. After all, my vacation is all about quilting, relaxation, and used books.

I work hard for 50 weeks a year to have two weeks to relax, and just enjoy a slower and no stress time. Maybe my vacation does not appeal to many others, that is ok. But I really do think some down time in our busy, stressful world is good for all of us.

And yes, I did hit several used books stores this year. I ended up mailing home two boxes of books. Mailing books is cheap, and why should I hassle around with the weight and space constraints? It is less stress to just send them.

Quilters, please take some time to just do quilting and relaxing. And if you happen to see me in a used book store, hopefully we will be finding some fun quilting (and other topic books) that appeal to us.

PLEASE NOTE: 
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.