October Quilt Travels

Back in October, I traveled to Boston for work.  Some careful pre-planning and an understanding DH, resulted in having two whole days to explore parts of the East coast that I've never visited before. You know I HAD to fit in some quilt related destinations into this trip.

Since I had a rental car and a home base hotel in Burlington, MA, on the northwest outskirts of Boston conveniently located near several highways, I could go in so many different directions.   What's a quilter to do??  

Head to New Hampshire!  It was comfortably mild, sunny and the roads stretched out before me. Destination? 

Keepsake Quilting, Center Harbor in the Lakes Region of NH!  For years, I've been receiving their catalogs in the mail. I've participated in their quilt challenges, purchased fabric and supplies and been inspired by images and examples in the catalog. 

It's a lovely building right across the street from the Lake.  It has a nice, long porch with seating for non-quilters to hang out & wait.

Was it all that I expected? Yes & no.  It was large. There was a class going on in the side room, lots of shoppers  but it wasn't overly crowded. The staff was friendly enough.  The cutting table was unfortunately surrounded by so many bolts of fabric waiting to be re-shelved it was almost hazardous.  And it was in those piles I actually found another fabric to bring home.  Imagine what damage I could have done if even half of those bolts were back on the shelves.  The shop wasn't that busy. I'm not criticizing but I do have experience working a cutting table in a busy quilt shop and the first rule is re-shelf as quickly as possible!

Which brings me to the shelves.  Some collections were housed together - mostly the newer ones, revolving around Halloween or wool.  What was the problem?  Color hashed walls!  Fabrics were not in genres or collection but hashed together in colors.  It may work for them but not for me.  Thankfully, the batiks were housed separately. And a few things did come home with me.

On the way to Center Harbor,  I ran across this on the side of the main road.

A tiny, little quilt shop - just the place to stop & support a LQS owner. I found a few bits for the stash.

The drive went through some beautiful scenery with conveniently located scenic lookout spots.

There is so much more to explore out there for next time.