Two Go Mad in New England

I am back in sunny (not) Ayr after a really brilliant two week holiday with my friend Janet and our two very patient, and quilt - tolerant husbands!
I don't intend boring you with holiday related tales but some of it is very much quilt related and I just know it will be of interest.
Let me give you a bit of background. Janet and I have been friends for as long as I have been in Ayr, about 23 years (how did that happen??)
I introduced her to quilting back in 2003 and she is brilliant at it - she doesn't blog - yet - but does have a Flickr account and is one of our Bee a Brit Stingy members. You should go and have a look at some of her work.
Anyway, about three years ago, a casual conversation turned into a savings plan and our goal was to go on holiday to the New England area. Time passes and plans were made over several suppers.
Our trip started off in Boston.
Now I just have to say here that I am a good organiser, and a bit of a control freak (Aries) but I surprised myself by being extremely laid back and relinquishing most of the planning of our trip to Janet.
Even I could not have arranged for our first day in Boston to co-incide with this -

                                            Hurricane Andrea - just the tail end.......................
So, after a day of Scottish-like rain, we awoke to a better Saturday and Janet had booked for us, a walking food tour (yes, food tour) of Boston. This time she had arranged or it to take place during this -

My, but it was a busy place that day. To be fair we didn't see much of the parade, we were too busy pounding the streets of the City's South End, scoffing delicious food at various locations. Yum.
Janet's next feat of amazing organisation was in booking our Boston accommodation - it was a traditional New England house located in the suburb of Jamaica Plain, just minutes walk from shops, restaurants etc. The local CVS pharmacy was just on our street corner.............or so we thought. See those green blinds?
Those were positioned under a huge CVS sign but were actually on the windows of the most fabulous fabric/yarn shop....JP Knit and Stitch

We headed in for a look on the Sunday....................it was the most exquisite retail space that I have encountered................only modern fabric in stock.............beautiful yarns.......patterns............comfy seating area.........................class area..........................evidence of beautiful work created................inspiration all around........oh, and did I mention a SALE section............we just had to start buying. It would have been extremely rude to have left the shop empty handed. But have a look at some of the pics I took inside.

This shop had such a young and vibrant atmosphere and obviously has an important role in the local community. As you can see from the next pic, knitting seems to be extremely popular.

As promised, I am not going to go on and on about our holiday........but stay tuned for the next instalment. It's one you won't want to miss because it's all about what happened when Janet organised for us to meet Peg of Sew Fresh Fabrics.......................