Travel to No Avail

My sister and I planned to go to the Cape this weekend to see my dad and attend his church's Strawberry Festival, always a fun event (lobster rolls! strawberry shortcake! linens table!), so we headed to National Airport after work and had a relaxing dinner and chat before we were to catch our 10 p.m. plane to Providence. As we walked to our gate after being both body scanned and frisked, we noticed that flight after flight was being canceled and there was a huge line forming in the terminal. We noted that our flight had been moved to 11 p.m. As it turned out, an FAA facility had caught fire in NJ and they had lost the ability to meter flights into and out of airports up and down the east coast, and there were thunderstorms in all the affected areas as well. So we got in line, anticipating that our flight was going to be canceled and reasoning that even if it wasn't, there was a good chance we'd arrive in Providence to find the car agency shuttered (everything there closes at midnight). We didn't want to lose the value of our ticket, although by now--11 p.m. and no sign of the plane--we decided we were too tired to continue regardless. So the exhausted ticket agent refunded our tickets, and gave our seats to two people who had lost out when their flight was canceled at 5 p.m. Hopefully they got to go. Gleefully, we headed back to the car and drove home. Written on our refund voucher are the words "travel to no avail." Lots of people around us in the line were traveling to no avail: the woman from Richmond doing the 3-day museum tour in Portland, Maine, who flew from Richmond to LaGuardia, only to have her plane routed back to DC. The woman flying to Boston for a wedding whose replacement flight on Saturday would get her there too late to attend. We'll try again next month.

In the meantime, I decided I'd clean a few closets and stumbled on this nearly finished project. And finished it! It's a very old project from a book I no longer have, and I started it in roughly 1990. It's on either 16- or 18-count white aida, using DMC. I'm going to frame it and hang it in the kitchen; I think its cuteness stands the test of time even though I don't like the fabric and there are a couple of indelible hoop marks on it. Had I traveled this weekend, I might never have finished it!


Since every finish deserves a new start, I started "Lilies" by Kustom Krafts, Inc. It's Heaven and Earthish, with every square filled with DMC. I want to hang it in a cottagey bedroom full of yellow.





I have not neglected my ongoing major projects either: here is Sarah Hatton McPhail:



And progress on Elizabeth Easdon:


And a close-up of the area I'm stitching now:


Speaking of Elizabeth, Elizabeth and Elvis finding time to cuddle in between renovations of their bunny cardboard tunnel (to date, three skylights).


Although I haven't been blogging much, I have been stitching, as you can see. Happy week ahead!