Foto Finish --- Farm Fields

This week's Foto Finish topic is

Farm Fields.

Living in the suburbs,

you might think it would be hard for me to find

some farm fields to shoot.

But...

this was taken right across the street from where I live!

I was a bit disappointed that the gate was closed

when I went to take my pictures,

but even with the chain link fence

 I think you can still tell what it is.

Honestly, I have no idea what is growing here.

It sort of looks like Iceberg Lettuce,

at least in a couple of the rows.

They also have grown hay and corn here too.

After they harvest the corn,

they also use the rest of the plant for silage

to feed the cattle at Cal Poly.

To see more Farm Fields

head on over to Cat Patches -

or even better, link up with some of your own!

Have a great weekend!

sue

Foto Finish --- Things That Are Hot

This week's theme for Foto Finish is

Things That Are Hot.

I thought a lot about this one.

I could take a picture of my stove or oven.

Nah.  Not this time.

If I had a scanner at home,

I could dig around in my OLD pictures

and find the one that literally shows

"The Burning Sands of the Desert" -

that one I took while camping out in the Mojave Desert

and we actually set the sand on fire!  lol

But I finally decided that I would show y'all

a picture of Auntie's Ceramics,

where I hang out a couple days each week.

And believe me,

these guys are HOT!

(Well, not at this exact moment, but you know what I mean!)





I'm even in this picture!



These are ceramic kilns

and they can fire up to over 2000 degrees.

It gets pretty toasty in the shop on the days

that Auntie fires!

(Thank goodness for air conditioning!)

If you have a picture of something HOT,

why not share it with everyone

over at CAT PATCHES?!?

Have a great weekend!

sue

Foto Finish --- Things That Fly

This week's Foto Finish theme is

Things That Fly.

My photo was taken during my solo roadtrip in 2007.

I had stopped at McDonald's, somewhere in Wyoming,

for a lunch break, and was sitting in my car

when I noticed a flock of seagulls

in the empty lot next door.
Just as I picked up my camera,
this one flew right across my windshield!

It had never occured to me that they would be anywhere that far away from the seashore!

For more flying things,

hop on over to

CAT PATCHES!

Have a great week!

sue

Story Quilts

Want to see some awesome story quilts a la Mary Lou Weidman? 

Check out Em Celebrates! for some pictures of the quilt show in Galveston here.

You could also have a chance to win a copy of Mary Lou's newest book!

And, our very own Em even has a quilt in the show!  WooHoo!!!!



Maggie the Ribbon Dancer


Have a great weekend!

sue



Celebrating Em!

If you haven't been to

Em's blog

Em Celebrates!

You've been missing out on one of the most

FUN

and

INSPIRING

blogs around.

Do yourself a favor.

Go there!

And now,

just for EM...

A plate

full of

SMILES!

sue

Little Zippy Bag Swap, part 2

This is the bag that I ended up making

for my swap partner:

I followed the tutorial here at

It's a Pretty Modern Life.

Her directions were very easy to follow,

although, while it was still

inside out,

it looked to me like it was going to have holes in it.
I figured I could hand sew them...

but once it was right side out

the holes disappeared!!

Just like magic!

I am very happy with how it came out.

I may just make one for myself now.

These are the crocheted bags I made

to send along with it.

The string bag was an experiment.

I wanted to try one with a round bottom,

but couldn't find a pattern for that.

So I made it up!

Not bad, since I've only recently learned

how to follow a crochet pattern.  :D

The colors don't show up well in the pics,

the light part is actually a pretty, pale yellow.

I also sent a package of 2 rotary cutter blades too.

Just because I was so late!

Hope you're having a great July!

sue

Little Zippy Bag Swap

A few months ago, I took a DEEP breath,

and signed up for a bag swap.

It was a bit scary, as it was to be a bag with a ZIPPER....

and not only have I not made many bags,

but I think I MIGHT have sewn in a zipper one other time.

And that was YEARS ago.

I looked at a lot of different tutorials and patterns online,

but I couldn't find one I was comfortable with at first.

I had sent an email to my swap partner, and didn't hear back from her for a long time,

so I sort of put it out of my mind.

Then I did hear from her, so I wrote back to answer her questions & ask some of my own,

and never got an answer.

And I forgot about it again.

Then I got a squishie in the mail!

Isn't it amazing?

I love it.

It's big enough to hold a cone of yarn,

my TomTom, a CD, and

a bunch of other stuff!

I've been using it every day.

One problem.

Now I'm totally intimidated

about getting the bag done to send back to her.

I looked through the pattern books at JoAnn's,

and bought a pattern for a laptop case-type bag.

But, they didn't have all the hardware to go with it.

So I started looking online again,

and I finally found one that I thought

that I could do successfully.

And I did!

But, it was a small bag,

and that intimidation thing kicked in again,

so I also made a crocheted string bag

and a small crocheted pouch

to go with it.

They should arrive by Wednesday.

(I had emailed her to let her know that I would be very late.)

So, after Wednesday,

I'll post pictures of what I sent to her.

I hope she likes them.

<sigh>

sue



Foto Finish --- Patriotic

This week's Foto Finish topic is Patriotic!

I knew right away what photo

I wanted to showcase for this one.

This is the aircraft carrier, the John C. Stennis (CVN74).

The shot was taken in San Diego, on April 5, 2011.

I couldn't think of anything more patriotic than this,

some of our service men & women on duty.

The Stennis was built by
Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia,

and was commissioned December 9, 1995.

The ship is 1,092 feet long, 257 feet long,
and from mast to keel, is 244 feet high - equal to a 24-story building.  The area of the flight deck is 4.5 acres,
and the ship weighs 97,000 tons.
The Stennis is powered by 2 nuclear reactors & has a maximum speed of more than 30 knots or approximately 34.5 miles per hour, propelled by four 5-bladed screws that weigh over 66,000 pounds each.
It carries an Air Wing of 70+ tactical aircraft,
with 4 aircraft elevators and 4 catapults.
The ship carries a crew of 5,000, including the air wing, and
16,600 meals are served daily.
It carries 28,000 sheets and 14,000 pillow cases, and if the mattresses were lined up end to end,
they would stretch more than 9 miles.
There are 2 anchors, each weighing 30 tons.
The a/c plant has the capacity to serve 950 homes, and the distillation plant capacity is 400,000 gallons, enough to serve 2,000 homes.

For more Patriotic photos
or to join in the fun, hop on over to
Cat Patches !

For more information about the USS John C. Stennis,

you can go to the official navy website:

http://www.cvn74.navy.mil/about.html 


Enjoy the holiday weekend!

sue