Cruise...

This month the hubs and I celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary. For our anniversary we went on a cruise from Quebec, Canada to various ports in northeast Canada and the United States.

It was heavenly. The fall colors were beautiful, but even more impressive were the amazing ports we visited. Here's a very quick one-photo-per-city tour of our trip...

Quebec, Quebec, Canada...

Sidney, Nova Scotia, Canada...

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada...

St. John, New Brunswick, Canada...

Bar Harbor, Maine, USA

Boston, Massachusetts, USA...

Portsmouth, New Hampshire...

I came back to a kitchen renovation that is just about complete. Tomorrow the appliances arrive! It's been a long five and a half weeks without a usable kitchen, so I'm very excited to break in the new appliances with a little home cooking. I will publish a post next week of the kitchen "before" and "after."

40 Halloween Decorations

Forty Halloween decorating ideas and their links are posted on Shutterfly this morning -- including my "Countdown to Candy!" {If you want to request the "Countdown to Candy" document, do so before October 12th, or you'll have to wait till October 23rd for the document to be sent to you.}

Go here to check out these fun ideas at Shutterfly! 

Reed's Quilt...

One of the challenging things about making a quilt for everyone in our family is the fact that a bunch of them are older boys and men. There are so many fabrics that are appropriate for girls or women, and so few for teenage boys or men. This quilt is for our almost-twelve-year-old grandson Reed.

One thing is for certain, however, and that is most teenage boys like cars. When I saw this Jeep fabric I considered it a shoe-in for Reed. The coordinating fabrics put the icing on the cake!

Reed is our oldest grandson and when the grandkids are all together they all look up to Reed. Our younger grandsons particularly adore him. He's fun-loving and patient with them all. Since there are seventeen grandkids under nine, that's says a lot about Reed's personality.

I've decided I love this particular pattern for a quilt. It's an easy quilt pattern that works up in hours, rather than days, which is important since I have so many quilts to finish. It also highlights the fabric -- rather than the pattern on the quilt -- which I love!

I chose a quilt pattern that reminds me of puzzle pieces for the quilting...

And the back is a mix of the fabrics found on the front of the quilt...

I hope to put a few more quilt tops together this week. Right now I have five quilts at the longarm quilters that will need binding when I pick them up and six more quilts to make. {I can do this!}