Some stitching, ships and friends

Albeit small, I had one more finish to add to my patriotic collection.

My Sweet Land is indeed a sweet little piece which I hope will have its final finishing done by Canada Day. A girl can dream, can't she?

Tree of Life Samplings My Sweet Land

 

No new starts yet. Instead I spent the remainder of the weekend stitching on Fruit of the Spirit.

 

What a fun design this is!  I love the pigtails on the little girl. Too cute! When I first started stitching this design, the fabric I had picked was labelled 32 ct. It wasn't until I got started that I realized that it was 36 ct. No problem, but of course I wasn't thinking about the over one. Then when I got started on those areas I found I was actually enjoying it. Who knew! Here are the over one areas I concentrated on this weekend.

First the lettering, 

 

followed by the cross, flower, bird and that adorable teensy strawberry.

 

I also swapped out all the bunches of grapes I had previously done and restitched them with the called for floss, NPS Lavenders. I much prefer them now. I think I'm going to stick with this piece a little longer. I have done some more progress on Weeds Make Haste but I haven't got a picture right now. 

 

Bright and early Saturday morning my neighbours had a garage sale. I wandered over to have a look and came across this little treasure.

 

This needlepoint piece was found in a box being used as a cushion between some china. When I asked what they wanted for it, they told me "Nothing." They had no idea where it had come from and they really didn't want it any longer. My payment was buying a glass of lemonade from their daughter's stand she had set up for the sale. I think I will place this on my dry sink. It's the size of a placemat but I'll use it like a small runner. I just need to tack down the outer trim.

Friday morning I had an opportunity to visit and stitch with some blogging friends, Dani and Kathy. Kathy was visiting with her son & family in the area and invited me over to join them for a short time. It was so good to see both ladies. I've missed getting together with them! Dani was stitching Kathy's Christmas sampler and Kathy brought out her Desert Mandela to show me. Check out their blogs for recent pics. Thank you so much Kathy for inviting me. The visit was short but definitely sweet!

This weekend also saw the start of the Tall Ships 1812 Tour, first stop Brockville, Ontario. Those of you who saw these photos on Facebook might want to skip this portion of the post. Originally I had planned to visit the ships with some friends on Saturday. Bob had to work and couldn't go with us. Then he told me he really wished he could see them and was there anything taking place on the Friday. I checked it out online and found out there was to be a sail past and native blessing of the ships late that afternoon. So Friday afternoon, we headed west to Brockville and arrived just in time for the ships' arrivals.  There was a total of 10 ships in all. 

A town crier announced their arrival.

The next shot is my favourite of the day. There were other much grander ships but I just love the look of this one with her sails and many flags.

As the ships approached the shore, there was a battle re-enactment and cannon fire suddenly made us jump.

LA REVENANTE

 

Following the battle, some of the Algonquin peoples paddled out in a birch bark canoe to bless and greet the ships. This canoe was actually made with the help of local high school kids in their native studies class. The instructor is an Algonquin native whose grandfather was a master canoe builder.

 

During the sail past by the ships there were many modern vessels on the water which followed them. I like to call this next pic, Tall Ships & Small Ships!

MIST OF AVALON

 

Several of the American ships sported the 15 star U.S. flag.

 

The grandest of the fleet was Norway's Sorlandet which is currently on loan to Canada for Class Afloat, a program where young people have the opportunity to study aboard the ship while sailing throughout the world. I was disappointed that she wasn't in full sail.

SORLANDET

 

One other interesting fact I learned was that the tall ship Unicorn is the only tall ship with an all female crew.

UNICORN

I was so glad that we decided to go on the Friday. It was the only day that all the ships were on the water. The remaining days you could tour them in port but their sails were lowered. I loved seeing them out on the water! The last time I saw any of these ships was in the seventies when they made an appearance in Windsor.

The tour continues now on to Toronto. From there, the ships will all go in different directions. Some will be going to northern Ontario while others will be joining more tall ships in the U.S. for 1812 battle re-enactments in locations in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin. The tour finishes up in Windsor, Ontario over Labour Day weekend.

Hope you enjoyed the Tour!