Happy 4th!

We are back from our getaway "up north," and had a great time in the Wisconsin north woods.  The weather was absolutely perfect!

We enjoyed being right on the lake, although we didn't boat or fish.  It was wonderful to hear the loons in the early morning and the water lapping the shore, spot eagles, and watch playful chipmunks and squirrels.  I loved sitting on the deck in the afternoon or evening and working on English paper piecing.
 

The place we were staying had a "quiet time" policy after 10:00 p.m., so when the people below us started cutting loose and belting out "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," we only had to bide our time before knowing they would have to move the party to one of the bars downtown.

We did some trail walking every day, and shopping and sightseeing.  And eating, of course.  One favorite restaurant had great food and offered gluten-free toast instead of buns for their burgers and sandwiches.  Such a simple thing, but that and a very friendly waitress who was happy to check ingredients on other menu items, made all the difference in the world to me.

Things I could not resist:

Thrift shopping, stores that have the word "Antique" in them...

Pretty pottery, whether vintage, like this one...

Or new and locally made, like these.

I was very happy to sew on my hand-piecing project.  It was so relaxing and fun to see it take shape once I started whip-stitching the pieces together.  I ran short by four pieces, but I finished those last night when we got home.

I will probably be appliqueing this onto a background to make a wall hanging. On the drive home yesterday, we stopped at a quilt shop along the way and I bought some batiks.  One or all (!) of these may become the background for the hand-pieced tumbling blocks.

The staff at Antoinette's was very helpful and friendly.  I would have been content to wander the store on my own, but a staff member offered assistance within a minute or two, and as it turned out, I was happy she did.  She pulled some things I might not have considered.

I had also found another nice shop where we vacationed and picked up a few stash builder type things.

Check out the cute valance of strips on the shop window.  What a great idea.

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting a recreated Ojibwe Indian village and hearing about Native culture.  

Entrance to Waswagoning.

 

It was fascinating.  More on that in another post.

You'd be smiling, too, if you just made fire by rubbing sticks together.  This guy did it in about a minute!