May Finishes!

It's that time again, to sum up what projects got finished during the month.  I'll start with One Flower Wednesday.  If my calculations are correct, this may be the last flower for my GFG quilt.  I still need some half flowers, and I'll try to complete them in June.  Hop on over to Karen's blog is you'd like to see more flowers each week.

I stitched up my second BSA block for the month, and it's now on its way to Ireland.  Agnes asked for a traditional block in warm traditional colors.

My Christmas ornament is finished for another month.  Yes, I know I should have ironed it, but then I would have got sidetracked, and I wouldn't be sitting here blogging. 

Next up is y OPAM/CTTY.  This also counts towards Sew it's Finished, because I took the first few stitches back in 2009.  I bought 2 little kits on sale after Christmas 2008, but somewhere along the line, they were thrown into a basket and forgotten.  They recently came to light, so I knew they would be perfect projects for Christmas gifts this year.  Watch for another next month.

I thought I was going to have another finish, but didn't quite make it to the finish line.  Maybe now that we're into summer reruns on television, I'll get more sewing done.

I received this wonderful block in the mail yesterday from Agnes.  She also included some very pretty fabrics, and an adorable cat panel.  She stalked by blog to find out the things that I really like.  Thanks so much Agnes.

Stitching to my heart's content......Sunny

Timing is Everything

About 15 minutes after this photo was taken, we pulled our kayaks out of the water.  Before we had them loaded on top of the car, the sky was rumbling with thunder.  And just as we were closing all the doors and ready to drive away, the rains started.  We drove out of the rain pretty quickly, and had a few showers before we got home.  Actually, we outran the storm all afternoon.  Shortly after we arrived at home and unloaded the car, the heavens opened and the sky lit up with lightening!  It's still booming almost three hours later. 

We were out on the lake for about two hours, and had a wonderful paddle.  There were a lot of other kayaks, a few pontoon boats, some sailboats in the distance, and several small fishing boats.  Although it was hot, there was a slight breeze to keep the heat from being oppressive.  And of course, I can always splash a little water when I need to get cooled down!

Since we came home a day early, I expect to get some stitching done tomorrow.  It's nearly the end of the month, so I have several projects that need to be completed.  Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend!  And one more day off for most of us in the US,

Contentment is sleeping in my own bed tonight......Sunny

Hot time in the City....

Whew! We're finally back in air-conditioned comfort. It was beastly hot here today. Crazy for this early in the season. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city, with lots to see and do. But the roads are a maze, and there are a lot of detours right now. We did make it to the Strip district, which is a huge market area. You can find meats, cheeses, baked goods, produce, and a wide assortment of Pittsburgh Steeler paraphernalia. If we were heading home today, we would have filled a large cooler with goodies.  Instead, we had to settle for just a few small items that will travel well in the heat.

The view of the city from the top of the Duquesne Incline is fabulous. It was a little hazy today, but still nice.

For lunch, DH chose a restaurant dive that he had seen featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.  In a word, it was Awful!  It took forever to get waited on, the place was filthy, the food was mediocre at best, and DH didn't even get the correct sandwich that he ordered.  I'm glad we didn't travel too far out of our way to get there. 

We took a couple of wrong turns, and put on quite a few extra miles getting straightened out again, so we finally decided to leave the city.  We headed north, stopped in Cranberry for a little shopping, and then on to Lake Arthur. 

We drove around a bit and scoped out where we want to kayak tomorrow, and then called it a day and checked into our motel.  We plan to get a pretty early start tomorrow, so we can spend some time on the lake before it gets too hot, and beat the storms that are predicted for later in the day.  We'll probably head home then, so we can have a lazy (stitchy??) day on Monday.  Thanks for stopping by!

Contentment is found in a kayak......Sunny

I miss Border's

DH and I are off on a little jaunt for the weekend, and we're staying just outside Pittsburgh tonight.  We'll spend tomorrow seeing the sights, as we haven't been here for almost 10 years.  Then we're going to do some kayaking on Sunday.  We've changed our minds several times about where we'll be going, and in times past, I would have spent a couple of hours at Border's, and we would have had a nice book to look at while we weighed our options.  We stopped into a B&N after dinner tonight, but I just don't like their stores as much as I loved Border's.  Their "Local Interest" section was seriously lacking.  But you know I wouldn't walk out empty handed!  (notice the lovely hotel bedspread background!)

In other news, my local Quilt shops were all having sales this weekend, and I wasn't going to be home!  Horrors!  Fortunately, one store started their sale on Thursday, and they're open until 7:00 in the evenings, so I was able to buy some pretties. 

a Nice little selection of Civil war prints

Yummy Blueberry Crumbcake.

I also forgot to show you the block I made this month for BSA.  I have 2 partners this month, and this is the first block.  I'll be doing the second one as soon as I get home.  And yes, Linda, I have communicated that to partner #2.

Well, the WiFi here is slower than molasses, and I still need to crochet a rectangle and read about Pittsburgh, so I'm outta here.

stitching and sightseeing to my heart's content.........Sunny

Lazy Blogger

Has it really been two weeks since I posted?  It's just pure laziness.  I have no other excuses.  I'm getting an early start tonight, because I have a lot to share. 

Two weeks ago, we went to Burnside Bridge, where we learned a photo technique called Light Painting.  The photos were taken after dark:

Exhibit A

Our instructor then painted the bridge with light, by way of a rather large spot light:

Exhibit B

Don Cooper, a former photographer for National Geographic, is a member of our local Photo Club, and graciously offered to teach the technique.

I wasn't real excited to go, but hubby wanted to, so we went and it was actually a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun Saturdays. kayak season has started!  We packed a picnic this past Saturday, loaded up the kayaks, picked up dsd and dgd, and headed for a beautiful lake. 

It's hard to believe it was such a beautiful day, because it's been raining ever since. 

As we all know, rain gives us a wonderful excuse to stitch!  I've made a couple of flowers, and more have come in the mail from Gemma.  She even included a cute calorie-free cupcake.  How cute is that?

You can go to Karen's blog for a link to more flowers for One Flower Wednesday. 

A lovely squishy arrived today with this beautiful basket block, from my BSA partner Jessica.  She included some of the yellow fabric, which will be making an appearance in my flower garden quilt.  What a nice surprise.

I've also been cross stitching.  Here is my Christmas Through the Year gift.  I'll show it again soon with the pillow insert. 

My crocheted rectangles are really piling up.  My usual monthly goal is to use up one skein of yarn, which typically makes around 10 rectangles.  I set a new goal for May, to finish at least one rectangle each day.  Most days I've made at least two!  I bought giant skeins this month, and I'm enjoying crocheting. 

I must get back to work now.  If any one is still reading this, thanks for stopping by!

Stitching to my heart's content......Sunny

May Flowers

The April showers have come and gone.  Now the May showers are here.  But they bring beautiful May flowers so it's all good.

I only need a few more white flowers to make my quilt.  I really need to start spending a lot more time sewing them together.  For the next couple of weeks, I'll be making half flowers, and I think I need about 200 connector petals.  They'll go very fast!!  If anyone wants to volunteer to sew everything together, just say the word and they'll all be on their way to you.

I even received flowers in the mail, from Cathi!

I've now changed my color choice from the Inchy Swap, so I can be planning my next project.  I'm still addicted to making hexies, and don't plan to stop any time soon.

I've also been working on cross stitch.  This will be a gift, so I'll show it as a finished project soon. 

Now that I've finished stitching this, I pulled out two other projects that have been languishing in the basket for awhile.  Must.  Finish.  Projects.  Before. Starting.  Any New Ones. 

Contentedly stitching away.....Sunny

Wordless Wednesday