Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

What have you been up to lately? I recently drove down to Penn Yan with a friend to have my sewing machine serviced. Discovered that Mapquest and Yahoo maps can’t always be trusted. After having a very detailed tour of the Cayuga Lake shore neighborhoods, we eventually ended up at the shop we were aiming for. Fortunately it was a nice day, and the hillsides were gorgeous with fall colors. After dropping the machine off at the shop, we headed further on for some quilty fun. Our first stop was at Quilters’ Corners in Ithaca. I had known of this shop from quilt show venders malls, but had never been to the brick and mortar place. Wow! Lots of eye candy. So many samples to look at, and of course many different fabrics than our local shops. I love seeing the different choices that each shop buyer will make. Saw rayon batiks, voiles and canvas that I haven’t seen in our area. Every shop has its own personality, don’t you agree? We spent quite a bit of time looking at just everything, every nook and cranny. And oh, the sale fabrics… I am proud of myself that I didn’t buy any fabric at all! But I did have quite a haul of patterns and fun gifts.

Second stop was O’Sussanah’s in Watkins Glen. Another shop with a personality very different from my local haunts. Loved seeing the fabrics being used in garments and home dec.   Quite a few samples of Japanese taupes, and books from designers working in the “zakka” style. Again bought some patterns but no fabric!

We were on the clock to get back to Buffalo around dinner time, so were pleased when we got the call that our machines were ready, right around 3:00. We were in the bulk food store down the way from the machine shop when the call came. Great stuff there too. And we had some scrumptious autumn squash soup in the little cafe which is part of the complex.

All in all, a great quilt excursion. It’s definitely worth the ride with some quilting buddies.

Do you know of some fun destinations for a quilting day trip? Share!

BTW, here are a few interesting links I’ve come upon recently in my travels through blogland.

binding an inverted corner: click here

easy quilt for baby or actually for anyone: click here