Happy Place Row Along -- My Happy Place!

I'm really happy to be participating in this awesome hop. A big thanks to Marian at Seams to be Sew for all she does to bring us these great creative opportunities!

Here are the participants for today:

Tuesday September 18, 2018

Just Let Me Quilt
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs (me)
Quilt Fabrication
Renee’s Quilting Addiction
Made By Marney

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My happy place is about 2.5 hours away from where I live, and I don't get to go there very often. But, I was just there this past weekend! I selected it for this hop because I am hoping one day, once we are retired, to live much closer. Maybe then it will be my more frequent happy place! I would like to introduce (or re-introduce as the case may be) you to The Cape Cod National Seashore:

Cape Cod is a geographic formation extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts. As you can see in the above pictures, the Cape Cod National Seashore is located on the upper "arm" on the cape.

On August 7, 1961 President John Fitzgerald Kennedy signed a bill creating the Cape Cod National Seashore. The goal, he wrote, was "to preserve the natural and historic values of a portion of Cape Cod for the inspiration and enjoyment of people all over the United States." Being from Massachusetts, Kennedy had spent a lot of time on Cape Cod with his family. He knew how beautiful and precious the beaches of the Cape were, and how badly they needed to be protected. I may be biased, but I believe they are some of the most beautiful beaches in the world!

There are many sites and landmarks on the National Seashore, but there are six main beaches and they were the inspiration for my row for this hop. The row is made up of seven applique blocks, (one of the blocks is a repeat). I would like to tell you a tidbit about each beach, show you a picture of a key feature, and then show an illustration of the block I came up with for each. I encourage you to look up pictures of each of these places to see more of the beaches themselves. 

(Please bear with me as this will take a little while lol. The information on these beaches is taken from https://www.nps.gov/caco/ )

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Coast Guard Beach, Eastham, MA.

(photo of the Coast Guard Station)

Betcha didn't know the Mayflower didn't initially land at Plymouth Rock...

"On November 9, 1620, a ship named the Mayflower, 65 days out from Plymouth, England, made her landfall in the New World at what is now Coast Guard Beach. Captain Jones, knowing that his Pilgrim passengers were supposed to settle in northern Virginia, headed southeastward. Although he stood well offshore to avoid shoal waters, his ship soon became enmeshed in the worst shoals in the area, Pollock Rip. A miraculous change of wind enabled Jones to sail his ship free of the shoals, and he then turned northward to anchor in Provincetown Harbor, November 11, 1620." It wasn't until after staying in Provincetown for a month and a half that the Pilgrims went across the bay to Plymouth.

Since the symbol of the US Coast Guard is two crossed anchors, I decided to use the anchor for my block. And since there are two, and I needed an extra block for my row, I included two anchor blocks!

(USCG symbol)

(my Coast Guard Beach blocks)

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Nauset Light Beach, Eastham, MA

(photo of Nauset Lighthouse)

"Nauset Light Beach consists of a broad, sandy beach that is contained by a steep glacial scarp behind it. Piping plovers, a threatened species under the Endangered Species act, nest on the outer beach from early spring to early summer. Nest sites are marked in order to keep visitors at a proper distance."

As you can see in the image above, the key feature of this beach is the Nauset Lighthouse, and it was the inspiration for my block:

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Marconi Beach, Wellfleet, MA

(photo of the look out at the former site of the Marconi Station)

"The Marconi Area obtained its name from the famous Italian inventor. From a site here, Marconi successfully completed the first transatlantic wireless communication between the U.S. and England in 1903. An observation platform at the Marconi Station site offers an excellent overview of the Outer Cape, including both ocean and bay."

The observation platform was the inspiration for my Marconi Beach block:

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Head of the Meadow Beach, Truro, MA

Head of the Meadow Beach is wild and dangerous. "So many ships have piled up on the hidden sand bars off the coast between Chatham and Provincetown that those forty miles of sea have been called an 'ocean graveyard.' Indeed, between Truro and Wellfleet alone, there have been more than 1,000 wrecks."

There's a nicer side to the wildness of this beach. Seals can often be seen sunning themselves on the sand, or peeking their heads out of the water. The shoreline falls off close to the beach, providing deep water for the seals to frolic. Unfortunately that also sometimes means sharks can come close to shore in search of a meal. The adorable seals were the inspiration for my Head of the Meadow Beach block:

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Race Point Beach, Provincetown, MA

Located at the top of the "arm" of Cape Cod, Race Point Beach is another rugged place. It too has a long history of shipwrecks, but is probably best known these days as a great place to see whales. Whales were (obviously) the inspiration for this block:

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Herring Cove Beach, Provincetown, MA

Our final beach is the only fully West-facing one on the Cape Cod National Seashore. As such, it is a fantastic place to view the sunset. And the sunset was the inspiration for my block:

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And here is my complete Cape Cod National Seashore row design:

And the sewn row:

I turned this row into a wall hanging, but I will be showing that to you, along with a project made with fabric Northcott so generously gave us, on Show-and-Tell day.

You can download the FREE pattern here.

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Thanks so much for visiting and commenting. I will reply to all comments via email, unless you're a No Reply blogger. I appreciate your thoughts!

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After commenting, enter today's giveaways!

Inspired LED Sewing Machine Light System(Prize Value $30.00)

Worldwide Shipping / Shipping Cost must be paid by winner.

Product Description Link

Sponsor URL

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Also, visit Marian at Seams to be Sew to enter the EQ Giveaway!

Please read the giveaway rules and guidelines at the end of this post.

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Finally, be sure to visit everyone else participating in this happy hop, and come back and see me on Show & Tell Day!

Tuesday September 4, 2018

The Quilt Rambler
Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Cheryl LaPlante
Patti’s Patchwork

Thursday September 6, 2018

Pretty Piney
Ms P Designs USA
Creatin’ in the Sticks
Freemotion by the River
Any Pattern
Be A Quilter

Tuesday September 11, 2018

Barbara Dieges
Upstairs Hobby Room
Quilt Art
UlaSewing
SzycieUli

Thursday September 13, 2018

Pumpkin Patch BC
Sew Incredibly Crazy
A Quilting Chick
Patchwork Breeze

Tuesday September 18, 2018

Just Let Me Quilt
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Quilt Fabrication
Renee’s Quilting Addiction
Made By Marney

Thursday September 20, 2018

Clever Chameleon
Adventurous Applique and Quilting
Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design
Cynthia’s Creating Ark
Seams To Be Sew

Tuesday September 25, 2018

Songbird Designs/Brenda’s Blog
Powered By Quilting
Kissed Quilts
Happy Sewing Room
Sew Joy Creations

Thursday September 27, 2018

BobbininQuilts
Daydreams of Quilts
The Quilted Snail
Scrapdash

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Words & Stitches
True Blue Quilts
Miss Loreen’s Schoolhouse
Meanderings Along Lizard Creek
Creativeblonde

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Quilt In Piece
Jaded Spade Creations
Mountain Meadow Designs
Masterpiece Quilting
Pamela Quilts

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Show and Tell Day

Words & Stitches
Upstairs Hobby Room
Powered By Quilting
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Clever Chameleon
Creatin’ in the Sticks
Sew Joy Creations

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Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways (from Marian)

Please take the time to read:

Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.

There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor themselves.

You'll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.

Not all giveaways can be entered at Seams To Be Sew.

I will start announcing winners on September 11, 2018, and finish announcing winners on October 10, 2018.

In most cases, the blog where you won at also will announce their 

winners.

You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.

With the exception of Show and Tell Day, all giveaways run for approximately one week.

You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don't do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.

If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.

In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter the giveaway... do the right thing and thank them for the time it took to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and...

Thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways. This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you don't win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive and they really do love hearing from you.

No purchase whatsoever is necessary.

You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.

You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.

All winners are chosen at random.

All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.

Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.

This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.

Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.

The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.

Most of the giveaways are international shipping this year

in some cases, you will be asked to pay for shipping your giveaways.

I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.

If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping.

All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home within 48 hours of my having heard from you.

An invoice will be sent to you via Paypal, and shipping will take place via Paypal, so your Paypal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. All shipping will either be first class which averages out at 2.77 to 4.00 up to 13 ounces. Paypal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee. All fabric bundles from Michael Miller, Hoffman, and Moda will be shipped via Priority Mail to protect the fabric itself.

Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an air tight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.

Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven't received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.

Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn't read them, they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is no excuse for not reading them.