Road Trip Quilt Along Day 28, Acton Massachusetts, Maine quilt block

Today's quilt block is Maine.  This version doesn't show the color variation that distinguishes it from an ordinary variable star, but the larger blocks do.  

We mostly stayed close to home for this day, I enjoyed some time out on the deck!  The truck got a maintenance done on a seal, a slight leak was noticed in Tennessee and we thought it a good idea to take care of it during our stay. I'm happy to say that my husband's shirts that were left in Fort Worth were finally shipped and arrived as well!

They have a really nice large deck out back.  Several houses all have their backyards all meeting together, there are no fences, but there are trees and stones around each yard's boundaries.  It's really nice!  You have privacy, but it's almost like a park.  A great place to sit with a cup of tea to do your morning devotional!  When the truck was done we went out to lunch at a cut little restaurant with Naomi.

In the afternoon we drove into Boston to visit Piers Park with Nick and Naomi.  We found this park when we were here in 2019 for their wedding, and neither one had ever been there before!  It is a lovely place!

We missed our exit and took a short detour through downtown!  The park is actually on the other side of Boston Harbor, giving you a great view of the downtown area. 

There is a little lighthouse where we had someone take our picture.  This was an immigration port many years ago, so has interesting history, and several neat exhibits to take in as well.

Then we had dinner at Nick's parent's house!  It was wonderful, and we so enjoyed our visit with them as well!  Her backyard is like a beautiful park!  She is a very talented gardener!

Tomorrow we are headed north on a little side trip to get some Maine Lobster, and to enjoy another day with the kids!

The three inch block again.

The six inch block.  You can see the color variation here better.  The side units are simple Flying Geese with two different sides!

And the nine inch block.  This takes us to the halfway point in the Quilt Along!  I don't know if you are keeping up, but if so, you have 28 blocks made so far!  Well done!  Now we are ready to get to the furthest north point of our journey, then will be starting the route home.  Thanks for joining me in my memories of last year's long road trip!  Hope you are enjoying it - I know I am!
 

Road Trip Quilt Along Day 27, Bunker Hill and Plymouth, Flower Basket Block

Today's block is a pretty Flower Basket Block.  Just some half square triangles, but the assembly isn't quite as simple as most blocks.

Our first day in Massachusets, we were looking forward to a trip to Boston, and some sightseeing!  One place we didn't get to see on our previous visits was Bunker Hill, so that was first on our list.  

So amazing! And so tall!

The clouds were blowing, making it feel like the monument was moving when you looked up!  Such a pretty day out, and beautiful weather.

We paid a visit to our daughter's workplace, then got some lunch at a nearby mall.

Then we took a drive to Plymouth, MA,  The Boston skyline was pretty, too!

It's a bird, it's a plane...it's Superman!

Plymouth was a super cute coastal town!  It was nice to have sunshine and warmth!  The weather is usually quite breeze and cool at our coastal towns on the Oregon coast.

A replica of the Mayflower in the harbor!  They kind of have most of it blocked off so you will pay to go in and see the whole thing.

A view of the harbor!  So pretty!

Plymouth Rock.  It's not very impressive, is it?

Statues are fun to take pictures of!

And if you look down, you can find something interesting to take a picture of, too!

We enjoyed a stop to eat some ice cream, then it was time to head back for dinner.  We had a great first day and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  It was really fun to spend the day out with our oldest daughter - it's hard having our girls so far away!

Not too bad with all those triangles - the three inch block came out nicely!

The six inch block.  The key to sewing this block together is that you start in the middle with a bird in the air unit.  Then you add the rest of the half square triangles to that.

The nine inch block.  After sewing all the triangles, you sew a half square basket triangle to the background rectangles to make the base of the basket.  After that you just have to add the last background triangle.  It's not that hard, honestly!

Purchase and download your Road Trip pattern here!

 

Road Trip Quilt Along Day 26, Lots of Driving - Boston Quilt Block

Today's block is a fun pinwheel variation, we'll be making half of the unit like a quarter square triangle, paired with a half square triangle. (I call it a split half square triangle) 

We got up and out early, knowing it would be a long day!  As you can see, the weather was much better and we were glad we postponed this visit.

There are so many monuments here!  

This is before you even get to the visitors center!  So amazing.

The town of Gettysburg is so quaint.  It would be fun just to explore around here!

We set off on what we thought was a 30 minute walk, but we must have taken a wrong turn because it took us a lot longer than that!  But we were glad it did!  

So amazing, and so much history around here.  We really could have spent all day looking at everything!

We loved it, and again, this is on our list to return and spend more time.  But for now we had to get back on the road!  We had 416 miles to travel before we got to our destination.

We definitely noticed that the roads were getting busier.

We drove through many states today, but we knew we'd be going back south through them next week, it was fun getting a taste of what they look like!

Lots of hills, gorgeous trees and lovely summer skies!

We were so excited about seeing our daughter and son in law!

Those hills are so beautiful!

Love seeing the different types of geology and formations in each area we drove through.

I wish I could remember where all these pictures were taken!  

I think this was the Hudson River.

We were almost to Connecticut by bow and were getting hungry!  

Time to start looking for dinner!  We ate at a Five Guys for the first time - oh my goodness was it ever delicious!  

The sun was getting low and then we ran into a massive paving project in Connecticut!  It took us hours to get through, and by the time we got to Massachussets, it was night-time.  

Onward we drove, and we had an interesting time when the gps unexpededly changed our route, but we finally got to where we were going and were greeted by Nick and Naomi!  We were looking forward to a few days in one spot and getting to enjoy some time with them!  

The three inch block is super cute - all done with sew and flip!

The six inch block is done with traditional piecing.

And the nine inch.  If you would like more instruction for this unit you can find it here:  

Split half square triangle

Purchase and download your Road Trip pattern here!

Road Trip Quilt Along Day 25 - Trip to Gettysburg, Massachusetts Quilt Block

I'm working a bit ahead again, anticipating the next few days of traveling through quite a few states!  This block is Massachusetts.  This is more quarter square triangles, along with half square triangles.  The real magic is how you place the colors to form a star that's split diagonally!

On to today's journey!  Under forbidding skies, we headed out for today's drive across Penssylvania.

This was a shorter drive, but it really felt like a long one!  It rained on us most of the way. and it was a very mountainous curvy road!

And a whole lot of it was under construction, too!  There were so many semi trucks on this road, and the lanes were super narrow, with constant traffic. It was really anxiety inducing!

But it was pretty, too!  We didn't realize how mountainous this area was going be!  We crossed over the Appalachian range here.

Lots of cute farms along the way, too!

Lunch at Cracker Barrel, then back on the road!

Through a long tunnel!

 

At least it was out of the rain!

More road work, and silos in the background.

More pretty red barns!  By the time we got to Chambersburg we had decided to postpone our visit to Gettysburg until the following morning as the weather was supposed to be better then.  It would make for a longer day, but we felt like we would enjoy it more.  You have to be flexible on a trip like this, so we enjoyed a relaxing evening and planned to make an early morning quick visit to Gettysburg, then the long drive to Massachusetts to see our firstborn daughter!

My three inch block.

The six inch version.

And the nine inch block!

Some tricky corners to match up, so take it slow and make sure to press toward the dark triangles.  And watch the orientation of those pieces, or you'll need your seam ripper!

Purchase and download your Road Trip pattern here!