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What’s Different?

26 February 2009, 11:25 am

Do you like those picture puzzles where you have to find the 8 teeny, tiny differences between two pictures?  Well, here’s a real easy one.  The first photo was taken out my back window at about 9:00 this morning:

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Now, compare, branch for branch, squirrel for squirrel, against this photo taken at 11:00 this morning:

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They took my BIRD-WATCHING TREE!!!  Okay, I suppose it was dead, and I’m sure there was a good reason to cut it up into chunks and haul it away, and I suppose the hawk will find another tree to perch while browsing for his lunch . . . but I won’t be able to see him there!  And look at all the houses I can see.  Bummer.  I did love that tree.  It had so much character.

Well, on a brighter note, today is my birthday and I’m meeting friends for lunch!  We postponed our family get-together for another day because of the snow storm that is threatening the Cities as we speak.  Oh, you lucky Midwestern people in Texas, Florida, Arizona.  Enjoy that warm weather while you can!  Winter isn’t over yet.

Sue

Filed under Out My Window.
4 Comments

Stash Busting — Week 8

22 February 2009, 1:31 am

Last week I stood at 14.25 yards OVER for 2009 thus far. 

This week

  • 7 yards out (14.5 out previously) for a total YTD 21.5 yds out
  • 0 yards in (28.75 in previously) for a total YTD of 28.75 yds in
  • YTD Net:  7.25 yards OVER
  • Goal is 75 yards out, so 82.25 yards to go!!!

The seven yards I used up were for my guild blocks, HST patches for the Bears in the North Woods quilt, finishing the borders on my Moda Posh quilt, and 2 yards went into an apron.

PhD List (Projects half done) for February:

  • Pat & Patrick’s Irish Chain (working on the borders)
  • Challenge Quilt — finish piecing top (3/4 done)
  • Quilt & Bind Judy L’s Labor Day Challenge
  • Catch up on Judy L’s Star BOM February blocks 11 & 12
  • Start Judy L’s Bears in the Farmhouse
  • 3 PLQ challenge blocks
  • Need to quilt Renee’s quilt
  • 192 HST blocks for Bears in the Farmhouse
  • One apron

    • Exercise Plan:  Used the elliptical machine daily, increased from five minutes to nine minutes, and I’m taking Sundays off.  Slow, but it’s progress!

    All in all, a very good week.

    P.S.  I borrowed the PhD (Projects half Done) from someone else on Judy’s blog this week, but it’s so much more positive sounding than UFO, isn’t it?  We’re all working on our PhD’s.

    Filed under Stash Busting Sunday.
    2 Comments

    Quiltathon Report – Fri & Sat

    21 February 2009, 12:35 am

    Saturday’s Quiltathon Progress Report:

    I finished a top that has been in the works for a while.  Last year, I purchased four Moda Posh charm packs and started sewing them together with dark green sashings.  Then I didn’t know what to do with it, and set it aside.   Today I finished out the center portion with some half blocks, and then added the borders with some Posh yardage I found on our Seattle trip last summer.

    quilt0003

    quilt0004

    The dark green looks like black, but it is definitely green!  Thanks to Judy Laquidara for having the Quiltathon this weekend.  It does inspire one to sew!

    Friday’s Quiltathon Progress Report:

    Judy L of Patchwork Times is having a Quiltathon this weekend.  I decided to make it a three-day weekend.  I will add to the beginning of this same post for Saturday, but here’s what I got done on Friday:

    bears0006

    These are for my Bears in the Farmhouse quilt by Judy L (or Bears in the North Woods).  I needed 192 half-square triangle patches, and those are done plus quite a few extra.  I kept adding another fabric, another fabric.  I’ll be able to make a table runner or two out of all the extra stuff, as I have extra printed squares also.

    Saturday I’m going to do Blocks 11 and 12 of Judy’s Star BOM, and also finish an apron that has probably half an hour of sewing left on it.  Sunday, I think I will get something on the Gammill and do some longarming.  I haven’t done much of that this winter, and I need to get back at it.  I’m going to quilt the top I made from Judy L’s Labor Day Challenge.  (I can hear you saying, Good grief, don’t you make anything without Judy?  Yes, I do, but I have kind of a Judy thing happening right now.  If she would just quit designing such fun patterns. . .)

    On the exercising front, I’m hanging in there with my renewed efforts.  So far, so good. 

    Oh, and this weekend I need to blog about our new club — The Broken Wrist/Arm Club.  There’s a new member.  Oh, my!!!

    Sue

    Filed under Judy L's 2008 Star BOM, Judy L's Bears in the Farmhouse.
    2 Comments

    Happy Birthday, Pat!!!

    20 February 2009, 2:54 pm

    Hahahahaha, you probably didn’t think I would call you out on my blog, did you?  Out of pity, I won’t mention which number birthday it is.  (Plus I’m only days behind you!)  Pat is one of my bestest buddies, who is wintering out of the state right now.  We will celebrate when you get back home!

    And on a quilting note, I am participating in Judy Laquidara’s Quiltathon Weekend this weekend (actually I started today).  My Quiltathon schedule is to do 196 HST patches, quilt my Labor Day 2008 quilt, and finish an apron (10 cut out/only 2 done so far).  I will be posting photos at the end of each day showing my progress.

    Sue

    Filed under Friends, Quilting.
    1 Comment

    Out My Window

    19 February 2009, 12:03 pm

    The Lazy Woman’s Guide to Nature Photography…

    I haven’t seen anything interesting going on out my window for weeks, so it was fun to see this hawk just sitting on a branch (slightly obstructed, but he didn’t listen to my request to “move over”).  I can’t tell for sure, but we usually see red-tailed hawks around the pond.  Not especially great photos, but this fits with my previous post below about cameras.  Here is a photo taken with my new 3x zoom Canon, fully zoomed in:

    hawk0011

    And here is a photo taken with my Lumix fully zoomed in 48x:

    hawk0004

    FYI:  These aren’t cropped or anything — straight out of the camera(s).  I did save them at a lower resolution so they don’t take so much space on my blog and take so long to come up.

    ADDITIONAL NOTE & PHOTO:

    The hawk did hear me!  He moved to a better branch, but now he’s in silhouette form.  But I love how you can see the point of his beak and the talon.  I think he must be hunting for the mice and voles to appear out of our dwindling snow cover.  The background is the frozen pond.

    p1100231

    Sue

    Filed under Out My Window.
    3 Comments

    Cameras & Kittens

    19 February 2009, 9:10 am

    THE BIG GUY . . .

    camera0006

    I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20.  It is three years old, and it’s a great camera.  I bought it because of the zoom capability (I love taking bird photos), and because it has an awesome lens for this type of camera.  It also has image stabilization, which has become more common in cameras since then.  I’m not a real camera techie, I just know enough to be dangerous.  Here are the features important to me, in layman’s terms:

    • It has a 12 x optical zoom and a 4 times digital zoom.  This means I can zoom to 48 times, but you do lose quality when you go above the 12 x optical zoom.  The zoom is equivalent to a 36-432 zoom on a 35mm camera. 
    • And with this much zoom, you do need the image stabilization, which steadies a little hand shake in long shots. 
    • It has a Leica lens (1:2.8/6-72), and it’s much larger than the typical point-and-shoot lens.  Your pictures will only be as good as your lens will allow.  Also, a larger lens allows more light in, and I can take more of my photos without a flash.
    • It’s around 5 megapixels.  And physically, it’s about 3 5/8″ x 5″ x 4 1/2″. 

    I would buy this camera again in a heartbeat, but I haven’t checked yet to see if this model is still available.  There are several Lumix models, and they differ quite a bit.  My main goal was to get a mega zoom.

    THE BABY . . .

    camera0002

    I just got a new purse/pocket-sized camera because there were many times I wished I had my camera with me, but the BIG GUY (despite its many fine qualities) is just too big to haul around all the time.  THE BABY is a Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS.  Besides being absolutely adorable, she does a fine job taking pictures, and is roughly the size of a deck of playing cards.

    • It has a 3 x zoom (perfectly adequate for people shots and most other pictures).
    • Much smaller lens (duh — it’s a much smaller camera!)
    • 8.0 megapixels.  Physically 2 1/4″ x 3 3/8″ x 7/8″.
    • Got it in chocolate brown (choosing a color for your camera seemed a little weird, but it is adorable!)
    • And it also has image stabilization.

    I think that, between the two cameras, I really have my picture-taking needs well met!  And they both use the same SD cards for photo storage, so I can interchange them between the cameras.

    A Warm Fuzzy . . .

    Nephew Doug the Forest Ranger posted this link this morning on our family web site.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rooyt3ptNco

    Filed under Miscellaneous.
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    Judy L’s Bears in the Farmhouse

    18 February 2009, 10:22 am

    Here are my fabrics for Judy Laquidara's new (and first!) Quilt-Along project, Bears in the Farmhouse.  Click here for a look at Judy's finished quilt. And now that you've had a look at Judy's gorgeous quilt, I have to tell you mine isn't going to look anything like that!  I so wanted a stripe to use in the bear paws (sooo cute!), but didn't have one.  Ran across these fabrics that have been properly aging to perfection in my closet.

    bears0002

    My quilt will have these Minnesota-themed motifs for the bear paw blocks (from Quilt Minnesota 1 1/2 years ago).  They are almost exactly the right size.  I will have to do some fussy cutting to make sure the outline doesn’t show in the finished block.

    For my coordinating fabrics, I am using some plums and greens from my stash.  The muslin is a good match to my Minnesota block backgrounds, so that will be the background to the “paws”.  I also added a gold that wasn’t in my original mix of fabrics.

    Filed under Judy L's Bears in the Farmhouse.
    4 Comments

    Some Updates:

    17 February 2009, 10:13 pm

    I made three blocks for our quilt guild’s block-a-month project for 2009:  January’s, February’s, and December’s blocks.  We got December’s pattern early so we can hopefully have our tops completed by the December meeting (each member is doing their own quilt).  These blocks were fun and super easy to do.  I’m using my collection of Asian cottons.  Many of the fabrics have a metallic gold element to them, and I haven’t been sure what I wanted to do with these fabrics.  I think this is going to be lovely.  I have a luscious chocolate brown that’s going to be my sashing & border fabric.  These fabrics were all purchased last year for another project (right before I broke my wrist), so I will be taking fabric out of stash for this quilt!!!

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    Tuesday’s Little Victory:  6 minutes on the elliptical trainer.  Woo-hoo!   You guys promise to warn me when I’m losing weight too fast, and I start making Nicole Ritchie look like a Sumo wrestler, okay?

    I’m also stitching 13 blocks together with setting triangles, which will comprise the center section of my challenge quilt for Minnesota Quilter’s 2009 Challenge Quilt for the quilt show in June.   These quilts are usually wall-hanging size, but this year they increased the dimensions allowed, and so mine is going to be roughly twin size.  I can’t show you the design or my progress (but I am making progress!);  here are some of the fabrics we are required to work with (in one of three different colorways – mine is the Brights; it’s Ricky Tims fabric):

    newcamera0012

    All the fabrics are fun-fun-fun, except for the green.  It doesn’t want to play nicely with the group.  I guess that’s the “challenge” part.  We are required to use a recognizable amount of each fabric on the front (rats!!!) of the quilt.  So I’m just going to work in a little of this too-light green, and hope it’s not too distracting.

    Wednesday is my favorite day of the week, ‘cuz it’s DayStitchers day!!!  We meet at a local library from 1 to 5 in a conference room, and bring our hand sewing to work on (or knitting or crocheting or hardanger or …)  Our numbers range from 10 or so, to 20 or 22 on the high end.  We are a little low right now because of the gals that are still enjoying their winter in warmer climes.  It’s such a fun and friendly group, and it’s always interesting to see what everyone is working on.  I feel very fortunate to have found this friendly bunch.

    DH’s doctor appointment went well Tuesday, and he should be done doctoring for a while.  I think we’ll start going to a local mall in the mornings for him to get some gentle walking in.  It’s raining out tonight, and we have below-freezing temperatures forecast for tomorrow.  Bad combination.  Maybe we’ll just do some laps around the living room until I know the roads are good!

    I got a new camera for Valentines Day/Birthday combined, and these are my first photos.  I have a big Panasonic I just love, but it’s a little cumbersome, and sometimes I miss photos because I don’t carry the Big Guy everywhere I go.  Later this week I’ll tell you about Baby.  She’s  just adorable, and I’ll be able to carry her in my purse.

    Filed under Daystitchers, Friends, Miscellaneous.
    1 Comment

    My First Quilt

    17 February 2009, 1:10 pm

    triparoundworld0001

    Today Judy at Patchwork Times asked about our first quilt — if we still had it, if it was finished, etc.

    My first quilt was the above-pictured Trip Around the World, made in January or February of 2000.  Mary L. (former coworker) and I took the two- or three-Saturday class through I believe Eagan’s community ed program.  It was our first experience with rotary cutters, strip piecing, and just quilting in general.  We were psyched!  We probably did some of the work at home, but I really don’t remember any more.

    I quilted it myself, and it’s stricly stitch-in-the-ditch.  The “binding” shows a little bit in the lower left-hand corner of the photo.  We didn’t learn “real” binding, but we brought the backing over the front and stitched in place.

    I use this quilt on the underneath bed of our trundle day bed for the boys when they come home.   Shortly after making this quilt, I made the Card Trick quilt for the other bed, using different fabrics but that same ’60s/’70s color scheme.

    The other thing Judy talked about was quilting friends.  And yes, I’ve made some wonderful friends through quilting.  It really enriches your life in so many ways.  No wonder so many of us love to quilt!

    Filed under Quilting.
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    Just a few thoughts…

    16 February 2009, 10:22 pm
    1. We probably won’t go to the Knitting Expo at the Mall of America next year, unless we’re looking for a place where we can go stand with several hundred other women, shuffling along in line, for hours on end (moo).  And I do mean hours.  Free Stuff Received:  2 skeins of yarn, 2 magazines, 2 crochet hooks.  I vote next year we skip the standing in line and go straight to lunch!
    2. DH has a follow-up appointment with the doc Tuesday morning.  Think good thoughts for him.  He’s doing well, and he is being very tolerant.  It ain’t easy being a patient, and he has little prior experience.
    3. You can’t have it all.  I always knew that YOU couldn’t have it all; it’s just hard to understand when I can’t have it all!  We planned a wonderful vacation with other family members for this summer, and when I checked the calendar, I realized I will miss the county fair.  I know that sounds trivial, but I really WANT to enter stuff at the fair and then go and admire my treasures!  But not enough to skip a great vacation, so that’s the way it’s gonna have to be.
    4. Monday, Feb 15th, I did 5 whole minutes on the elliptical trainer, and I didn’t die.  My plan is to go downstairs first thing every morning and keep working at getting reacquainted with exercise, and work my way back up to 30 minutes.  Why can’t chocolate make you thin and exercise make you fat?

    Filed under Miscellaneous.
    2 Comments
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