Lobster Rolls and Pumpkins

… are what a trip to Maine in October is all about. I managed a lobster roll for lunch about every second day, which was almost enough. I’d rather have a lobster roll than a whole boiled lobster any day. And please, don’t dress it up too much: nice big chunks of lobster with a little mayo, stuffed into a squishy white-bread bun, lightly grilled in butter, and you’re done. Yum.

Foliage was lovely, but my pics were not, so you’ll have to imagine orange leafy splendor. We shopped for pumpkins at Beth’s Farm Market:

They have a lot of ‘em. That’s my Mum, in red, a bit overwhelmed by all the options:

I liked the white ones, she went with basic globe orange.I suggested she do something like this with them:

Fabric scraps and ModPodge! What a great idea! This little cutie and friend rabbit were on the front steps of Alewives Fabric in Damariscotta Mills. I’d been looking forward to shopping there for months, and was not disappointed. It’s a charming shop, crammed full of just the sort of prints I like.

Success was also had at a new shop, Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast. Here’s some of what came home with me from both places:

There’s a red quilt somewhere in my future. Ideas are percolating. Some blues and purples made their way to the cutting table, too, as Mum insisted on doing early XMas shopping. Those will arrive in a box sometime in mid-December.

I also indulged in some lovely yarns. No idea yet what I’ll do with them, other than Mr. de Hilo might be getting a hand-knit pair of socks for XMas. Don’t drop any hints to him just yet, please, because there’s a very good chance we’re talking December of next year.

In a moment of combined impatience and warped good sense, I tidied up the sewing room before leaving by shoving random heaps of fabric into the stash cabinet and closet any-which-way. Now I can’t put my new fabric away until I’ve tidied up in there, so am forced to embark on a much needed clear-out and reorganize. Which includes going through all the WIPs and UFOs to consider what might manageably get done by the end of the year and still leave time for some holiday sewing. Which I’d better get to, quick, if I’m going to aim for hand-made this year.

Are you sewing or shopping for gifts this year?