FNWF results

I had a busy night Friday night, ironing, cutting, and sewing.  The results are not exactly pretty.

Because this is what our Saturday kayaking adventure looked like this weekend, I was able to do more sewing.

Click on pictures if you can’t see the rain.  And the lovely rain was part of a cold front that passed through, breaking our heat wave and leaving lovely temperatures today

By the time I went to bed on Saturday night, those not-so-beautiful strips turned into this.

When we went to Lancaster County (Amish country) last month to pick up a few Row by Row patterns, I bought a fat quarter bundle of solid colored fabrics and some black yardage to play around with, and this is what I came up with.  I was thinking that I might actually hand quilt it, but I’m not sure how successful I would be with the black.  Could it be quilted with a thread other than black?  I’m most proud of the second block in the second row.  My first block with partial seams!

The coming week will be spent preparing for vacation!    We’re heading for Nova Scotia, so if you have any tips, please share.  Any must-see or must-do stops?  We’re going to Cape Breton, Halifax, and I’m hoping to meet up with Sheila of Sheila’s Quilt World. We’ll visit Peggy’s Cove, and as many other sites as we can fit into a week.  Beware, many pictures will be coming…..

Sunny

August is over?

Another long weekend comes to an end  And I lived to tell about it.  I have to admit there were a few minutes in the kayak on Saturday when I was a little terrified worried.  We went down to Solomons Island in Southern Maryland.  While checking the weather forecast on our way, I noticed that a Small Craft Advisory was going to go in to effect a few hours later.  Because of that, we stayed on the river and didn’t go near the Bay.  Next time, we’ll stay off the river, too.

I took a couple of pictures when we were first setting out, but there were no more opportunities.  All’s well that ends well!

The reason we chose that location this weekend was so that we could meet up with Jamie from busy bee quilts.  Jamie and I were working on our Farmer’s Wife Quilts together a couple of years ago, and recently, she tracked down some fabric that I needed.  We had a wonderful dinner with Jamie and her DH.

After we left the restaurant, we stopped at the Maritime Museum for pictures of the Drum Point Lighthouse.  Which reminded me that I hadn’t posted pictures from our lighthouse cruise last weekend.

First was Bloody Point, which I’ve never seen before.  The second light was Sandy Point, which can be seen from the Bay Bridge, and which we have kayaked out to.

Next up was Baltimore Harbor Light, which I showed at a great distance a couple of weeks ago when we were on the Bay.

Thomas Point is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the country.  This was my first viewing of this beauty.  It’s a style known as a screwpile light.

And then there’s Sharp’s Island Light.  Sharp’s Island washed away many years ago, and the Light was knocked askew by an ice floe in 1977.  It is listed on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List of endangered lighthouses. 

I’ve been working furiously on WIP’s this month, so I really don’t have anything stitchy to share.  Wait – yes I do!  Di’s challenge this month was to use polka dots.  I knew I had some dotty fabric, and while searching for it, my leaning tower of scraps fell over.  Which led to much cleaning and organizing in my sew room.  But I digress.  I stitched one of Jenny of Elefantz’s designs, and made a cushion.  It’s an odd size and won’t fit a pillow form, so I have to buy some stuffing for it.  But I’m counting it as a finish for Di.

They’re hard to see in the photos, but all three fabrics have dots!

Back to work tomorrow……Sunny

Not our usual Saturday.

We had big plans today.  After all, it’s Saturday.  There was a pretty good chance of rain, but we decided to be optimistic.  We loaded up the kayaks in a light rain.  Then we drove in a moderate rain.  Then a heavy rain.  By the time we reached the Eastern Shore, it was clear that we would not be kayaking.  So, we made a brief stop at an Outlet Mall.  Then we had a nice lunch at *gasp* a Chain restaurant.  Our next stop was a Quilt Store!  After all, I am collecting Row by Row patterns, and time is almost up.  Quilt Vine in Trappe, MD  is an adorable little shop.  They have loads of samples made up, and the shop is nice and bright as they specialize in modern quilts.  I was very tempted by a few of their patterns, but I’m still on a fabric diet, so I resisted temptation.  Stop in when you’re on the way to Ocean City.

We also had to make an emergency trip to Wal Mart of all places.  I had packed my crocheting as my project for the trip, and I failed to include the crochet hook.  Then we checked into our hotel, changed clothes, and headed in the direction of our dinner reservation.  We took a side trip to Tilghman Island, to kill some time, and to make sure we knew where we need to be early tomorrow morning.  We’re taking a little Lighthouse Cruise out on the Bay!

The picture above shows the lovely skies we had today.  And if you click on the lower picture, and get out a magnifying glass, you can see a lighthouse.  I took this with my best lens, but I didn’t crop it for a reason.  We’ll be getting up close and personal with that lighthouse tomorrow.  It’s been leaning for several years, and experts predict that after another hard winter or two, it will fall over.

This is as close as the boats got to water today.  We knew we were taking a risk, but we figured if we came down without them, the sun would shine all day and we would have regrets.

The sky was starting to clear up after dinner, and the prediction for tomorrow is a pretty, sunny day.

We had a fantastic dinner at Bistro St. Michaels.  It was a bit of a splurge, but oh so worth it!

Now I must go try out my new crochet hook for a few minutes, and then get some sleep.  We need to be up early tomorrow for our adventure!

~ ~ Sunny~ ~

P.S.  I can’t remember when I’ve seen gas this cheap!

FNSI: Sail Away!

On Friday night, I made sailboats.  I’m working on a rather unusual wall hanging that I was commissioned to make, and I’m having a of of fun with it. 

I don’t love making HST’s, but I do love the little pile of shavings after they’ve been squared up.

They are now part of a larger piece, but I’m not ready to share yet.

Last week I also finished two more doll quilts and 4 more mug rugs.  I’ve stopped making any more for now, to get some ‘real’ projects done.

On Saturday, we were invited to a family BBQ, but I still wanted to spend some time on the water before we went.  We live very close to the Potomac River, so we managed to get two hours of paddle time and still get to the BBQ in plenty of time.

 

 

 

 

 

I like to paddle near the shore and look for things to photograph.  Pretty flowers, and lacy leaves.

The trees have to hang on mightily to keep standing upright.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve never noticed this tiny little inlet before, with a small ‘waterfall’.

More pretty flowers on another bank.

 

 

 

 

 

And the light was right for some pretty reflections.

The bridge in for forefront is an old aqueduct from the heyday of the C&O Canal.  In the distance is a modern highway bridge.

As we were getting ready to get off the river, we happened upon this heron.  We were able to get very close to him, and he posed for a long time.  I’m not sure what he is, but perhaps a juvenile Night Heron?  If anyone knows, please feel to educate me.

And now another weekend is coming to a close.  I have a couple of projects prepped for hand work this week, and big plans for even more new projects!!  Will we ever run out of ideas or fabric??

~ ~  Sunny ~ ~

It’s All About The Weekends

I live for the weekend.  My job is a miserable place to be, and I’ve been unable to find a new job.  Yet.   Several people either quit or gave their notice this past week.  I’m so envious.  So I just live for the weekends!  And I come home every night and try to do something creative to put a positive spin on life.

We started here, on our way to our kayaking destination.  I stopped in for another ‘free’ Row by Row pattern, and came home with two new patterns in addition to the RBR and its kit.

Then on to kayaking on the Chesapeake Bay!

There aren’t many pictures, because in this kind of water, my camera spends most of its time packed in the dry bag.  I did get a few however.  The bay is dotted with sailboats on a beautiful day, and we saw several barges heading up the bay to the port of Baltimore.

There are two lighthouses, one very near our put-in, and one up towards Baltimore.

I never miss an opportunity to take a picture of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Our plan was to cross the bridge for dinner when we were finished kayaking, but we could see that traffic was barely moving, so we motored on in the other direction.  We found a new-to-us restaurant and had a delicious dinner. 

I have a standing Sunday morning appointment that was cancelled this week, so I decided to take advantage of a free day, and spend the day sewing.  I finished 4 mug rugs, and most of a secret wall hanging.  I’ll try to get some pictures taken tomorrow to share. I also have two doll quilts waiting for their binding.

And now, I just have to get through five weekdays, and there will be another weekend!

~ ~ Sunny ~ ~

FNWF and Weekend Report

Not much time to post tonight, but I wanted to post my results from FNWF.  I stayed up extremely late Friday night, finishing 2 doll quilts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had planned to make one more doll quilt, but then I got inspired on Saturday, so there will probably be two more.

On Saturday, we were planning to go to southern Maryland for kayaking, and to meet up with a fellow blogger.  However, Mother Nature decided that was not a good plan, so DH and I went to Lancaster County, PA instead.  If you’re not familiar with Lancaster County, it is the home of a large Amish population.  Our purpose in going was to visit the downtown Farmer’s Market for lunch, pasta, produce, and bread.  We then went to three quilt shops to pick up Row by Row patterns.  These FREE patterns are getting to be expensive!  I don’t know about you, but if I go into a store to get something free, I feel the need to purchase something.  I need to get over that.  Anyway, I came home with 3 ‘free’ patterns, the kit for one of them, and some small amounts of fabric, a pattern, and a new thimble. 

Some of the sights in Lancaster County include two little Amish boys, and they’re wearing Crocs!  I know this is a bad picture, but I deliberately cropped out the father because his face was showing.

We saw a lot of mules, and either ponies or miniature horses.  I’m not sure what they’re used for.  Perhaps the mules are used in the fields?

It’s not often that we see tobacco growing around here!

Horse and buggies are very common.  Although I actually see them every day in the town where I work.

This quilt was actually hanging outside one of the quilt shops.  I want to go back up there sometime soon with another quilter.  I would have liked to visit many of the shops, and even roadside stands.  DH was a good sport about going, but he sure doesn’t like to poke around in all the shops.  We drove by one farm that advertised quilts, and he just kept on driving.  No quilter would have considered such behavior!!

I must go now to read your blogs and send some emails.  Hope everyone is having a great week.

~ ~ Sunny ~ ~