I Really Can Finish A Project!

Wow!  It really is possible!  Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in UFOs.  Lately I have been quite a little bit reluctant to start something new because of all my UFOs.  I was recently reminded of this by way of a fun Disney Cruise we took to Alaska with SonStitches, Dear Daughter-in-LawStitches, BabyStitches, and DaughterStitches, Dear Son-in-LawStitches, and GranddaughterStitches.

Our first port stop was Skagway, a cute little town.  Rushin' Tailor is a quilt shop in Skagway.  I think it was three years ago when we last visited Alaska and I found this shop.  So last week I walked from the ship to the downtown area and browsed around in this very nice quilt shop.  And I found a really nice kit that was a depiction of a whale tale (complete with beads) just before it returns to the water.  Yup, I had bought that kit three years ago and  yes, you guessed it--I haven't completed (or even started) the kit yet.   :-(

 This time I found another cute little kit and it looked kind of fun for hand sewing.  It included everything I needed, including two kinds of thread, a needle, hexie papers, felt, and ten squares of fabric, so that I could have a choice of which seven to use.  They even gave me two straight pins to use! I had to supply a scissors, but that was it!

It didn't take me very long to baste the hexies, hand sew them together, sew them onto the felt, trim the felt, and finish it off with blanket stitch.  And now I have a nice little mug mat, or whatever it wants to be called!

Route 66

"Getting my kicks on Route 66!" I know that in this photo I don't look like I'm getting any kicks (or am happy at all!), but I found it exciting to be on the historic Route 66. Of course, I remember the tv show from way back when, with the two guys in their red sports car convertible motoring along Highway 66. I don't remember what they did in the show, but I remember they drove a lot, and I remember that catchy melody of the show's theme music.

We visited this little "ghost town" named Calico, California. It was an actual boom town in the 1880's, where people mined silver and borax. It's been "re-created" into a tourist activity. Some of the buildings are original, and some are a little "Disney-ish," but it was kind of fun.

Sweet MisterStitches spied a quilt shop for me! So I went in and talked quilts with the man and woman who were running the shop. Of course, they were dressed in old-fashioned costumes. It was pleasant, visiting with them. They had quilts for sale, and a few fat quarters. There was a long-arm machine set up behind the counter.

And that's no "drug store cowboy" you see in the foreground of the photo. That's the man (Ray) from the shop, who had stepped out of the shop for a bit. Both he and his wife are quilters.