What an amazing time we have had over the last month, travelling around USA. We spent the first 3 weeks touring about with hubbies & then spent a week in Houston at Quilt Market & Festival. It is hard to decide what the highlight of our trip would be as there were so many special moments for their own special reason. We loved the cities of San Francisco, Chicago, New York & Washington. We loved the beauty, serenity & peaceful atmosphere of the Amish area. We loved the spectacular colours of the autumn leaves, the grandure of the Grand Canyon & the amazement of Niagara Falls. Over the next few days we will share some highlights of our trip. Unfortunately we did not find too many Patchwork shops as they did not appear to be where we were. However we did make a detour that took us along back roads among the corn fields to Merry's Stitchins near Waterloo, only to find the shop closed. A quick phone call & Mary obliged by opening her beautiful shop for us. We felt at home in this shop as Mary's fabric choice is so much like ours. How we would love to live nearby as Mary was so friendly & we could imagine the fun you would have in Mary's classes. Mary was very generous, sharing her knowledge & ideas with us. We could not resisit some retail therapy & reluctantly left this charming Patchwork shop with an armload of goodies & ideas.

Here we are in front of Mary's shop which is huge. Samples hang from the walls & over the bannister, inspiration is everywhere. You can see from her little display in the garden that it was Halloween. We were amazed by the colourful Halloween displays allow the roadways & streets. You might like to visit Mary's website & take a peek at what we experienced. You might even like to leave her a comment & tell her we have shared her part of the world with you.