Pennsylvania Six-Five Thousand

OK, the title of this post is a stretch.  It has nothing to do with the jazz song that the Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded in 1940.  I do love the song, however.  But we did go on a short trip to Pennsylvania a couple of weeks ago, and here are the highlights.

This is the cottage we stayed at near Somerset.

We had it all to ourselves.

First we went to the Flight 93 Memorial.

It was a very solemn place.

Next up was the Johnstown Flood Memorial.

The flood occurred in 1889 after a

catastrophic failure of a dam upstream of the town.

Over 2,200 people were killed.

This was part of an exhibit inside the Visitors Center

depicting some of the carnage.

We visited the Allegheny Portage Railroad

National Historic Site.

This is the Skew Arch Bridge.

The railroad was the first to circumvent

the Allegheny Mountains in 1934 and included

the first railroad tunnel be to built

in America.

We also went to Fort Necessity National Battlefield.

The confrontation there in 1754 was the prelude

to the war fought by England and France

for control of the American continent.

This was the first major event in the

military career of George Washington,

and it was the only time he ever had to

surrender to an enemy.

As you can see, it's a pretty small fort.

There is a lot of history in Pennsylvania,

and we explored only the western part

of the state!

We spent a little time in Pittsburgh, too.
We took a tour on one of the ducks
(amphibious vehicles built for the Army in the 1940's).
It was entertaining, informative and a lot of fun.
We quacked at passersby
and they quacked right back at us.

We rode for free on the Duquesne Incline
(one of the perks of being old).

The view from the top of the hill was great.
Tall buildings and a river or two?
I felt right at home.

Pennsylvania is a really pretty state.
I love all the hills, having lived in
the flatlands of Illinois my entire life.

Meanwhile, back at home,
a friend and I went to a "Sip & Paint" class.
If you're not familiar with the concept,
they are usually held at a restaurant or bar
and you go there to paint a picture
under the guidance of an instructor
while sipping some wine purchased at the site.
Our class was held at Color Cocktail Factory
and it was a BYOB (and snacks if you wanted).
No painting experience is necessary.
Our instructor was great
and took us step-by-step through the process.
Both my friend and I had a blast.
And here is my post-impressionistic "masterpiece," 
Van Gogh Comes to Chicago:

And since this is a stitching blog,
I do have a small new piece to show you:

This is the May Flip-It Bit
from Lizzie-Kate, wonderfully finished
with French knots and a bee charm
by Averyclaire.

That's it for now.
Hope you had a great weekend.
Thanks for visiting!

Almost Heaven--West Virginia

Welllll, that may be overstating it a bit.  I'm a city girl after all.  But I wanted to catch you up on the trip we took last week.

First, a little background:  DH is an amateur radio operator and participates in various nets on the radio.  The founders of one such net decided to have a get-together at Beech Fork State Park near Huntington, West Virginia.  We looked at the park's website, saw that the cabins looked really nice, and decided to go.  It was a good decision because we had a wonderful time with a great group of people.

Here is half of the Southpaw Stitcher staff

on the front porch of our cabin.

It was the smallest cabin they had.

The stairs to the right lead to the back porch

which runs the entire length of the cabin.

Two bedrooms, huge living/dining room,

and a full kitchen complete with dishwasher!

All the comforts of home!

Actually, more than the comforts of home,

because we do not own a big flat screen TV!

Only one other XYL came to the get-together.

"What's an XYL?" you ask.

In amateur radio lingo, an unmarried gal is a YL -- young lady.

A married woman is an XYL.

So most amateur radio operators refer to their wives as their XYLs.  (sigh)

The other "XYL" had the same first name as me,

and her interests were...

...stitching and quilting!

What are the odds?

Both of us were glad the other had come.

One of the group activities was a trip to

the Museum of Radio and Technology.

No, it wasn't boring!

They had a lot of interesting old stuff

that a lot of us geezers used to own

and had fond memories of.

There was a large Nipper display--he's the RCA dog.

Lots of old radios, TVs and computers.

I even managed to find some hand embroidery there.

Those are tiny satin stitches with cutwork!

Our last morning there, we awoke to find

what appeared to be an entire herd of deer

outside our front door.

They were entirely too tame.

This mom and baby were no more than 20 feet away from us!

I, of course, started a small project while I was on the trip:

the third square from Laura J. Perin's

American Quilt Collection, Holiday Ornament series.

This is how far I had progressed by the time the trip was over.

Canvaswork goes fast!

To see the other two squares I made last year,

go here and here.

That's it for now.

I'll be doing my best to hermit and stitch this weekend.

To find out what that's all about, go to Joyce's blog.

It's not too late to join in on the SAL!

Have fun this weekend.

And thanks for visiting!

Two Starts and a Finish

Hey Blog Buddies,

This will be a quick post before I head for parts West.

I actually have two starts to show you.  Working backwards in the seasons, now that I have done four Chirstmas ornaments, I've decided to do some Hallowe'en stockings.

This is "Deadly Nightshade" from the 'Tis Hallowe'en booklet by Blackbird Designs.  The chart called for 30-count linen, but then the stocking would be 7" long--too big for my little everblack tree.  Yes, I have a black Hallowe'en tree that sits on a black pumpkin with a purple bow.  (You should know by now that I'm not quite right.)  So I am stitching the design on 40-count linen to make it a little smaller.  I think I'll have enough linen to stitch three stockings!  Hopefully, I can have them all stitched and finished-finished by the 1st of October.  (yeahright)

I started this little cutie when I went to my needlepoint group on Wednesday because I wasn't in the mood to work on my Autism design or my "little lady."  The design I'm working on is the one at the top left of the page.  As you can see, this is a Laura J. Perin design, and it's going to be a really fun stitch.  It will finish itself whenever I get a chance to get back to it--probably only on needlepoint Wednesdays for now.

And finally, my finish.  I'll admit it, this one is a little weird.  DH is a licensed amateur radio operater, as am I, but he actually talks to folks all over the world on the radio.  So he's been pestering me to do our callsigns.  His is on the top, mine is on the bottom, and they both have the characters "B9" in them.  He suggested the layout of the letters, and I just perused my alphabet books to find charts for suitable letters.  The "client" is happy with the end result, so I'm happy.

First thing tomorrow, we are off on a road trip to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons.  I have my hardanger bookmarks packed, in addition to a book on Ukrainian Drawn Threadwork.  If there were any lingering doubts about my being strange, they should all be dispelled now.  It remains to be seen how many stitches I will actually take.  I'll be offline until after I'm back, so... see you in September!

And thanks for visiting.

Long Distance Information, Give Me Memphis Tennessee

Good Afternoon Dear Readers,

This past week, DH and I took a short road trip to Memphis--just a brief getaway to somewhere a little warmer than Northern Illinois.

We were pleasantly surprised to find many of the trees were flowering, and the grass green and growing.  The temperature was in the upper 70's when we arrived.

Beale Street has juke joints everywhere...

...and its very own Walk of Fame.

We took a music/history tour led by Gary Hardy, a musician in his own right.  Many songs were interspersed during his running commentary.

We visited Sun Studio....

... where this guy got his start.  His first record released by Sun was "That's All Right, Mama."  We did not go to Graceland.  Maybe next time.

But let's not forget about the ducks.  If you look closely, you can see them swimming around in the little pool under the planter.  This is in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel.

They spend most of their time here, on the roof of the hotel.  But at 11:00 a.m. every day they are paraded down to the pool in the lobby.

And at 4:00 p.m. every afternoon they are paraded back up to their rooftop digs.

They even have their very own duck master.

We spent some time at the Cotton Museum.  Memphis is the largest spot-cotton market in the world, and for years was the center of the worldwide cotton trade.  When I asked "Why Memphis?" our docent said that it was because of its location on the Mississippi River, and the fact that it is situated on the 4th Chickasaw Ridge.  Memphis never floods.

This is how they kept track of prices before the age of the computer.

On our way back, we stopped at Giant City State Park in Southern Illinois.

Unfortunately, by this time, the temps had plunged back into the 30's.

You may be wondering if I took anything to work on during my down time.  But of course!

I had started on this blackwork piece before I left.  It's called "Greenpiece" by Elizabeth Almond, and will eventually have two shades of green along with all the black.  The overall size of the design is 118 stitches by 118 stitches, so it is going to take a while to finish.

Here is my one little finished square.  There is a lot of backstitching, as you would expect from a blackwork piece.  Most of the squares will be embellished with beads after all the stitching is completed.

Experiencing three seasons in three days was a little too much for my system, I guess.  I came down with a bad sore throat the day we left Memphis and am still feeling pretty miserable.  I guess I'll have to lay low this week and just work on Greenpiece--as if I needed an excuse!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.  Thanks for visiting!