What I've been up to

I'm just back from a long weekend in Maine and a week spent with my parents, who are visiting from Wisconsin. I have a ton to catch up on with work, etc. and may be quiet for a few days, but here are some pictures of what I've been up to for the last week or so. First, I was in Camden seeing beautiful foliage, like in the photo above. Then I was on the beach...

With this pensive writer-guy.

The weather was beautiful and we had a lot of sunshine through the changing leaves. I loved the orange trees right next to the ocean. I am definitely turning into a coastie girl...

I also made some progress on my hand-quilting, as you may be able to see below. The thread is brown, and right now I seem to be at 6-7 stitches per inch. Any tips on how to improve, other than practice?? I'm using the technique outlined in Jinny Beyer's book (at least, I think I'm interpreting her instructions correctly!)

And I just had to include this cute picture of us looking happy and relaxed. Aaahh, vacation!

What have you been up to?