Friday, July 1, 2022

A Small Friday Finish


My finish is my 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. These are 6" finished Friendship Star blocks. I tried to move the colors from dark to light. Although, when I was making the blocks I didn't have that in my mind but it definitely worked. No pictures of the backing -- just look at the back of this quilt as I used the same backing on it and the same borders.  It's nice to be able to pull from the stash! 

Now, back to Norfolk.  Last post I was sharing about our visit to the USS Wisconsin.  After lunch we took a 2 hour tour on Victory Rover Naval Base Tour.  The weather was beautiful that afternoon and we enjoyed the time on the water.  I took a lot of pictures but I'm only going to share a couple with you.  It was so interesting finding out about the Naval ships along with the businesses along the Elizabeth River. Naval Station Norfolk is the largest naval base in the world. Although we heard about so much Navy history, I had to look up the information about these specific ships. You can read more about the Naval Station Norfolk here.   

First up are the submarines. I have no clue which ones they were because not much was showing.  I remember going on a sub when we lived in Norfolk. These are nuclear subs (if I remember correctly.) 

We saw a lot of ships but only some of them I could identify from the pictures I took. So here are two of the ships we saw and I could figure out what I had seen. 


This is the USS Bataan, LHD 5. It is named after the Battle of Bataan during World War II.  It is an amphibious assault ship.  The LHD means landing helicopter dock. My understanding is it has a complement of helicopters and someplace to store them on board. You can read more about LHD class hulls at Wikipedia


USS Monterey (USS 61) is a guided-missile cruiser.  It has a crew of 400.  

Unfortunately all the big aircraft carriers were out to sea during our visit.  I was on several air craft carriers while growing up.  Once I was on a dependent's cruise.  And, sad to say, I got sea sick.  Ugh.  Being around Navy ships was always interesting. But the moving every 2 to 3 years wasn't so much fun.  I ended up going to 11 different schools.  

After the boat tour was over we had a great dinner at Grace O'Malley's - Irish Pub and Restaurant. Yummy food.  I had Cottage Pie and Pat had Bangers and Mash.  We followed that up with Bread Pudding. It was all wonderful.  

I don't know whether we'll go back to Norfolk for more tourist activities.  But I am interested in the museum that has some great art and glass so who knows. Maybe we'll visit other cities and stay downtown. It was a lot of fun in Norfolk. 

I'm linking up with the following Linky Parties.  Give a look at them and then find lots of different blogs to see what quilters are doing across the Internet.     

Midweek Makers 

Needle and Thread Thursday 

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant 

Scrappy Happy Saturday 


Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 












We spent the whole day learning about some of the US Navy history in Norfolk.  My dad was stationed at the Naval Station Norfolk in the mid '50s so I remember going to the base and specifically to his ship.  It might have been where I put up a stink at dinner in the Officer's Mess because they only had canned milk. Hey, I was in 2nd grade, what do you expect?  Here's some info on the Naval Base which is the largest naval base in the world. 

11 comments:

  1. Your RSC quilt is pretty. Nice to be able to use the rainbow backing, you must have bought a good amount of it. I'm enjoying your tour and knowledge of naval ships!

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  2. Great finish on the RCS21 blocks! Love all your pictures of Norfolk...makes me want to visit!

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  3. growing up in the military with all the moving has to be hard on kids I think, My husband stuck with it for 9 years but when the kids started to be in young school age we decided as shy as one of them was it was going to be too hard for her to constantly change schools and decided to move and stay in one place that was nearer to family

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  4. Your RSC is so pretty Bonnie, and the outer border is perfect for it.

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  5. Love your RSC quilt--it totally looks ombre!!! Nice complimentary quilting! Interesting about navy ship life. I'd be interesting in seeing what those ships look like inside...

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  6. Congrats on the small finish. The border is just perfect. ;^)

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  7. The finish is adorable! Rainbow quilts are always happy ones. The ships must be so enormous. We live near Bremerton WA and see huge ships sometimes. It is hard to imagine what it takes to keep one going - the people, supplies, equipment, etc. As for growing up and constantly changing schools and moving, that seems awfully difficult for a family.

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  8. Nice finish of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt - the unplanned gradient effect makes it even more fun. Moving so often is hard on military families, but the experiences are priceless.

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  9. Love your RSC finished quilt so colorful and bright. Congrats it is a beauty.

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  10. Very nice quilt! i was wondering how it might go without a real plan in place when I start. Seeing your finish is encouraging.

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  11. Love your quilt - and how you moved from light to dark!! its so pretty!
    The ships!!! Crazy!! and so cool !!

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