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. 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 27-2022

 Welcome to the last week of June. On Friday, we'll be half way through 2022.  Does that shock you too? Time just keeps flying by.  The weather here is now mostly hot and humid which means it is great for quilting. My studio is in the basement so it feels wonderful to be down there where it is really cool.  And, bonus, my main sewing machine looks out of French doors and the outside.  Generally my room has a lot of light as long as it is sunny out. Needless to say, I love it down there.  I spent quite a bit of time down there this past week.  And look at what I achieved! 

6/20/22

✅Finish quilting June UFO -- Done using my domestic machine! 

✅Bind June UFO -- Finished on Sunday. 

✅Bind 2021’s RSC quilt Friendship Stars -- Done! 

✅Work on the Cupcake blocks -- All blocks are finished.

Here are the cupcake blocks ready to be sewn into a quilt top. These blocks are big.  I believe they are 13.5" finished.  I was able to use dies from my Accuquilt 9" cube to cut the fabrics.  I kept running out of fabric as I was making the blocks.  So other fabrics were introduced.  What do you think?  Do all these fabrics work together? My guess is some little person is going to love this when it is finished. Who doesn't like cupcakes?  

Yes, it's been a very good week. Between getting the above items finished I also was able to work on some individual blocks.  

Moving right ahead -- here's what I hope to get done this week.

6/27/2022

Make backing for Cheese and Crackers quilt

Quilt and bind Cheese and Crackers

Finish making the dog toys

Make 3 more blocks for Irma 

Sew cupcakes block together 

For the first time in many weeks we aren't planning to go anywhere.  I translate that into more sewing time.  I'm hoping to get Cheese and Crackers completely finished by the end of June.  (I've been going a bit wild buying fabric in June -- mostly the backing for the C & C quilt.) So if I can finish one more quilt I'll be really happy and hopefully show some great fabric usage. 

Speaking of fabric usage here it is the end of June and I haven't listed my stash busting statistics for May. WHAT?  I forgot all about actually listing them here but I had actually figured it out.  Not the best but I did use more than I bought. Hopefully June will show much more fabric usage. 

2022	Fabric In Month	Fabric In Year	Fabric Out  Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
May	0.75	50.375	2.25	55.00	4.625

More Norfolk photos. On our second day we spent the whole day learning about some of the US Navy history in Norfolk.  First we went to Hampton Roads Naval Museum.  From the water it is called Nauticus. It was full of exhibits on ships although not specifically US Navy ships. 

We didn't spend a whole lot of time in that part of the museum as we also wanted to visit the USS Wisconsin, a battleship docked next to the museum.  

The Wisconsin was launched December 7, 1943, exactly 2 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is huge. This picture was taken from the bow towards the stern of the ship. You can see the 6 forward guns. Notice the buildings to the right of the ship.  I think they are apartments or condominiums.  Would you like to have a view of this ship out your living room window?  

The Wisconsin served as a training ship after the Korean War.  She was dry-docked in 1958. But, that was not the end of the Wisconsin. She was recommissioned in late 1988 and many upgrades of the most advanced weaponry were installed.  She saw battle during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. She was decommissioned in the fall of 1991.  You can read more about her here. Pat and I spent quite a bit of time on the ship.  Three below decks, the main deck, and a couple of upper decks are open to the public. We walked through all of it! 

Stern of USS Wisconsin.

After our time on the battleship, we went through the section on US Naval history and ships.  We were running out of time and our feet were hurting so we left to find lunch before our afternoon activities.  More on Norfolk will be coming in the next few days. 

I'm linking up to my normal parties.  I hope you visit them and use them to surf the many quilting blogs people are sharing there. 

Oh Scrap

Monday Meandering

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

I'll be linking up with the other two parties once they are posted. (Hopefully I actually remembered to link up!) 

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Monday Meanderings 6 - 20 - 2022

So when did we get 2/3rds through June?  You would think time would slow down when you are retired and can do what you want.  I find, generally, that time is zooming by. We spent Sunday afternoon driving up I 95 to watch Natalie play softball.  She had three hits which was terrific to see her succeed.  I also got several of my goals done over the weekend so I was able to check everything off.  Here's the details. 

6/13/22

✅Start quilting June UFO -- about half done.

✅Make June BOM from a quilting life -- finished, looking forward to July's.

Make several blocks: ✅Spider Web, ✅RSC, and ✅FCQ Equilter blocks -- all of these had progress made. See the RSC blocks here. 

✅Make some of the dog toys -- 13 of 20 were made. 

Here's a picture of the FCQ Equilter blocks this month.  It was Irma's choice this time and she chose Jumping Jacks from Missouri Star Quilters. Here's a link to a You Tube video to learn about this block. Irma asked for peach and soft lime green.  Um, I don't have all that much of either color. I want to make a few more so will need to see what else I can find.

I was very happy to finish all of these goals this week.  Looking forward here's what I have planned for this week.  

6/20/22

Finish quilting June UFO

Bind June UFO

Bind 2021’s RSC quilt Friendship Stars

Work on the Cupcake blocks 

Called cupcake blocks because of the center cupcake fabric.  I started these earlier this year but put them aside as I tried to keep up with the UFO challenge.  I'm pretty sure I'll be finishing June's project this week and so will have time to make progress on this one. These Churn Dash  blocks are about 14.5" although I cut the pieces with my 9" cube. Each unit is 5" unfinished.  Hopefully all of the needed pieces are actually cut. All I need to do is sew them together.  I'll let you know next week. 

Now, two more pictures from our trip to Norfolk last week.  It was really cool to stay in a tall, downtown hotel. We walked all over the place. I had over 11,000 steps recorded both Wednesday and Thursday.   Our room on the 19th floor overlooked the water. Here's what we saw straight out of our window. 

To the left midway up were two US Navy ships in for some work. (You can only see the bow of one.) In the distance was another ship being worked on. On the bottom left is the Norfolk sign I showed on Saturday.  There was a lot to see along the waterfront. It was clean and well kept.  Apparently it is also the location of quite a few festivals. 

This Merman was  sitting around outside Nauticus, Hampton Roads Naval Museum. We spent part of the day at the museum and battleship. I'll share more of our trip over the next few posts.  I took way too many pictures so, a few each time I post. 

I'm linking to the following parties.  Please take a look -- you know you need some more inspiration, right? (HA!) 

Oh Scrap

Monday Making 

Design Wall Monday 

To Do Tuesday 

That's it for today.  I'm off to spend some time quilting the June UFO challenge. Because of some floppy ears and button eyes I am sewing it with my walking foot and my trusty Bernina.  

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

RSC Saturday

I finally decided to take out my RSC blocks to get a picture of them all together - minus the last blue one that is actually cut out but not sewn yet.  I like the block but I'm not happy with all my color choices.  On the other hand, I'm not buying any fabric for these so, I shouldn't complain. 

It currently looks a little heavy on the red/pink blocks but should balance out over the next few months. We still have orange and purple and probably a few more colors.  It looks to me that my turquoises aren't all bright enough.  I may make a couple more blocks at the end of the year to balance what I have and make sure I have enough blocks for the quilt I'll finally make from these. I only made 2 of the turquoise ones and one actually looks green although it is teal.  (3rd column, 3rd row.) 

Here's a quick peak at where we spent part of this week. 

We spent our 49th anniversary in Norfolk enjoying the sights.  I'll share some more pictures next week.  It was a fun couple of days and I was surprised how much there was to do in Norfolk. 

Now, I'm ready to finish my last blue RSC block and get on to some other blocks I've cut out. Check out the two Linky parties below.  I'm sure you'll see some fabulous quilts and more ideas than you can use! 

Finished (or Not) Friday

Scrap Happy Saturday

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie