Summer Fun

Looking for a cute little project to work on this summer? This little quilt called Tinder Box is fun and easy! You can find the pattern at my website, patchalotpatterns.com.

 Sometimes I come up with names for quilts while reading books. For Tinderbox I was reading a book by Suzanna Kearsley called The Rose Garden. This was an enjoyable story about a woman who visits Ireland and lands back in 1712. She falls in love with a man named Daniel Butler and the rest, as they say, is historical fiction! At some point she needs to start a fire using a tinderbox! I don't believe I have ever seen a tinderbox, let alone know how to start a fire with one. But I did send some sparks flying on this cute little quilt, don't you think?

I am back in Virgina as of a few days ago. The weather started out cool and refreshing, but now it is heating up. I finally broke down and turned on the air conditioner which my husband has been reluctant to do. He goes into competition with himself to see how long he can last. Well, he lasted until I came home!

Friday morning my husband woke me up at 6am and told me there were tall ships in the bay. We live one block from the Chesapeake Bay, close to the mouth of the bay where it opens into the Atlantic Ocean. There are always cargo ships lined up out there waiting for their chance to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and go into Norfolk and northern ports. So we walked down to see the action. It was quite a sight and took us back a couple of centuries (rather like time traveling).

Hard to believe this is right down the road from us! As you can see their sails were lowered as they waited for their opportunity to go up the bay.

 This photo is of the Godspeed, a replica of the vessel that sailed to America in 1607 along with two other ships, the Susan Constant and the Discovery. Currently these ships are located at Jamestown and tourists may board them and get a feel for the travel conditions in 1607. (I borrowed this image from the internet). I am told that the Godspeed was one of the ships in the bay, and one of the smaller ones! You can see the other ships at the OPSAIL 2012 website. The event, I am told, was to commemorate the War of 1812.

I am off to try and get some sewing done at last! Yesterday I managed to pull muscles in my back as I reached back and forth to the floor sewing pieces together then replacing them in order. It was all too big for my design wall so I improvised. What a mistake! But today is already better, so let's try it again!