is the view out my kitchen window. This puzzle should be easy with all the different colors. Just imagine what it will look like in January with everything covered with snow!!! That would be a HARD puzzle!
–Sue
Archive of entries posted on July 2009
Design Wall Photo Update
I tried to get a better design wall picture today — one that had truer colors in it. I can tell this is going to be a difficult quilt to photograph, because to get the blue the right shade and intensity, the block colors seem a little contrasty.
The blue in the sashings is really a mottled navy. Not such a dark navy blue that you would mistake it for black, but it is a pretty true navy. In the photo I took on Monday, the blue looked much too bright (like painter’s tape), and I couldn’t tone it down too much without spoiling the other colors. Monday’s Picture in Artificial Light:
Tuesday’s Picture in Natural Light (which is better, but still not on the money):
Here are my colors as I entered them in EQ (note: this isn’t my original pattern. I got it from CrazyMomQuilts):
So I guess the navy is pretty close to the actual fabric in the second picture; the first one looks a little bit more towards royal blue, which it definitely is not. It will be interesting to see how it all comes together!
Sue
ps: here is the photo I shared with you a while back using some navy-blue batik I had on hand, but was earmarked for another project (just to TOTALLY confuse anyone who wasn’t already confused when they got to this site):
Telephoto Tuesday…
I have to say, I really like saving my nature photos up and just posting them once a week. And good news for you — if you’re not crazy about the pictures, you can just skip Tuesday!!!
My kitchen window view (where I take a lot of my pictures) was so exceptionally pretty this week, I thought I’d start with my kitchen-table window. (That sounds really stupid now that I’ve written it, but windows are a big deal when you spend most of your time at home!)
I can’t take credit for the plants. We’re in a townhome and the association does all the outside work. The day lilies are in full bloom, and the Anthony Waterer spirea has never been prettier.
And true to form this week, I didn’t go outside for any of my pictures! I do have to say, though, that if I’m going to continue shooting through the glass, we are going to have to clean the windows pretty soon!
We’ve had male house finches quite regularly, but this brown bird is the first female I’ve seen. (And I THINK this is a female house finch, but please let me know if you have a beter idea!) Isn’t she pretty?
I’ve mentioned it before, but I love the late-day sun in our crab tree as it finally comes around the corner of the house and hits the tree. This goldfinch has such a pretty glow side-lit in the warm-colored evening sun.
Mourning doves have started dropping by to snack on the seeds the finches scatter into the rocks below.
And one more critter: the woods must be just teeming with rabbits. This youngster was stretched out looking at the wild flowers behind us. He reminds me of a teenager stretched out in front of the TV set.
An added note: Today the Minneapolis StarTribune has an article about the bunny boom, so it isn’t just our imagination!
Remember to do at least a little bit on one of your UFOs before Thursday (UFO Thursday)! It feels so good to get even a little bit done. I’m on a mission to save the world from UFOs!!! Well, not really — I just want to save my boys from inheriting all these unfinished projects when I’m gone! They will thank me later.
Thanks for stopping by,
Sue
Monday’s Design Wall
Well, I nearly didn’t post a design wall picture to link on Judy’s blog this week, because I’ve been mostly working on UFOs and didn’t have anything REALLY interesting to share. I know, you’re all thinking, when did that stop her before? Anyway, I did get 14 more nine-patches done this week for CrazyMomQuilts’ quilt-along, so here goes…
This is my first quilt built totally out of scraps from the tall waste basket I’ve been packing scraps into for the past four years or so. It was a real trip down memory lane, pulling out various bits of fabric and remembering what it originally went into. (Well, there were some I truthfully didn’t remember at all!) I did buy some navy blue for the sashings, so I thought I would throw the 14 new blocks with some sashings up on the design wall to see how I’m liking the blue (I have a total of 64 blocks done out of the 80 I will need).
This is an awful picture, but that’s what I get for waiting til dark to take a picture. The navy fabric is really navy; this looks more like the blue painter’s tape, and I think all the colors are a little wonky.
The big blocks on the left are for our guild’s BOM. The little fabric stacks pinned along the right edge are my “homework” for one of my UFOs (Judy L’s Shine On Bayou Cane).
Sue
Minnesota Blog Hop
If you entered comments on the Minnesota Blog Hop designers’ sites and would like to check and see who the winners are, here are the links:
www.gudrun.typepad.com – Gudrun’s winners, plus Grand Prize Winners!
http://ankastreasures.wordpress.com/ – winners posted
http://www.perkinsdrygoods.com/blog – winners posted
http://rosebudscottage.typepad.com – winners posted
http://thisandthatpatterns.typepad.com/ – winners posted
www.newleafstitches.com/blog/ – winners posted
www.terryatkinson.typepad.com – winners recently posted
www.cedarcanyontextiles.com/blog/ – winners recently posted
http://scrap-bags.blogspot.com/ – winners posted
http://piecesofwork.typepad.com – winners posted
Announcements should be made Monday, 7/6/09. I will note above who’s posted their results as find them. I will also add a link on this post when they’ve drawn for the grand prize.
Sue
Sunday’s Stash Report
(Check Judy L’s blog for other participants’ Stash Reports.)
Nothing in.
5 yards out for a backing for the Posh charm squares quilt; I finished the top months ago, and it’s time to get this baby quilted and gifted. This quilt is part of my UFO Challenge. I am determined to whittle away at my huge number of UFOs, and so my “out” numbers are going to be mostly backings for a while. Oh, who am I kidding??? I’m sure to start something new once in a while.
I had a little impromptu give-away yesterday for a red, white, and/or blue fat quarter to the first three people to leave a comment. The 3rd and 4th people left comments almost simultaneously, so I increased the give-away to the first four people. Then I went to my sewing closet to dig out my patriotic fabrics. I ran across a yummy piece of red-on-red Christmas fabric, which sounds way more fun to work with right now than fabric for a holiday that has just passed us by. And it’s a little bigger print, so I upped it to 1/2 yard cuts each, and they will be in the mail tomorrow! 2 yards of red fabric out, so there’s my total of 7 yards out.
Sue
Happy Independence Day!
We’re having a nontraditional 4th of July at our house — doing a little cleaning, a little laundry, making a late-afternoon visit to neighbors, and (if I’m lucky) I’ll do a little sewing in the evening. My DH reads my blog (or at least scans it), and I’m sure he’s thinking, hmmm, didn’t see anything about cleaning up that sewing-room disaster downstairs! Hey, I’m declaring my independence from icky cleaning jobs today! I’ll only do easy cleaning jobs! Yes, I know that with freedom comes responsibility, but I’ll be responsible tomorrow.
With today being a holiday, I’ve noticed it’s a slow day in Blog Land. Just for fun, the first three people to leave me a comment on this post will get a red, white, and/or blue fat quarter from me. Just be sure I have a way to get hold of you!
(Kim, Kathy, Kare & Robin will be getting FQs in the mail. I extended it to four because Kare’s and Robin’s comments came in within seconds of each other. Thanks for sending some fun my way today!)
Sue
Minnesota Blog Hop — Last Day!
The 10th stop on the MN Blog Hop is Mary Wilberg of Quilted Treasures quilt shop in Rogers, MN. Mary has a tutorial on using grommets to make an easy decorative pillow.
Be sure to leave a comment on her site for her prize, and if you’ve left a comment on all ten sites, you will be eligible for the grand prize! Good luck.
Sue
Photo Friday — More About Zoom
I have long observed that when you’re using zoom, objects in the background can look much closer to your subject than they really are. A couple of months ago, my DH Jim was reading in the sun room. He looked so comfy and natural, I didn’t wanted to disturb him while taking a picture. I used quite a bit of zoom and basically took the picture of him from two rooms away. I was surprised — no, shocked – when I got the photo on my computer, because I know we don’t have a neighbor that close in the back! It looks like I could just run over and borrow a cup of sugar fat quarter, doesn’t it?
Take a look at a picture of the same house taken out of the same window but I’m standing close to the window and didn’t use any zoom (the house shown in the picture above is outlined here in red):
Weird, huh? Well, when I took the picture of Jim, the camera zoomed everything in, including what was in the background, and made it appear that there is less distance between the subject and the background than there really was; things look compressed.
Why would you do this on purpose? One reason would be if you’re on vacation taking a photo of your family in front of a landmark or something of interest. If you back up from the people and then zoom in on them, still including the landmark in the background, what’s in the background is going to look larger and more prominent and make for a more interesting picture (rather than standing close to the people and including the background behind them).
Another reason would be fairly similar to the picture I took of Jim. Let’s say it’s a cluttery background that we want to minimize (like my sewing room!), and we don’t want to have the background detract attention away from the subject of the photo. You would do the same thing I did: back away from the subject and use your zoom. Because it’s “enlarged”, there will be fewer items appearing in your background, and it will be less distracting.
And remember, for the best quality photos, only use your optical zoom. Your picture quality will degrade once you get into the digital zoom range. (I do occasionally use my digital zoom, but I do lose quality when I do.)
“Depth of field” is a term used to describe the how much of the photo is in focus, depthwise. Zoom can affect your depth of field, as shown in a lot of my bird photos. Here I was using quite a bit of zoom and had my focus directly on the Cedar Waxwing. That accounts for the soft focus of the branches at different distances than the bird, as well as our neighbor’s house.
Compare it with this photo taken out the same window this spring, but no zoom involved. Much more of the picture is in focus — greater “depth of field”:
Don’t wait until a big occasion to try some of these techniques. Practice and play around with it. Then when the need arises, you will have a better idea of what you’re going to get, because it can be difficult to see just what’s in focus on your display.
Also, depending upon the amount of zoom your camera has and how much of it you are using, you will have more or less of the compression effect or change in depth of field. Just play and have some fun!
Also, feel free to upload pictures to the PhotoFridays album on Flickr.
My usual disclaimer: I am a layperson when it comes to cameras and photography. I just happen to like taking pictures and trying to figure out how to take better pictures and to understand my camera better. Hope this has been of interest to you!
–Sue
Thursday’s UFO Challenge
Thursday’s Child Has Far to Sew…
I would love to be able to say I’m devoting all my time, 24/7, to finishing up my many, many UFOs. That is not the case. However, my goal is to keep at least one UFO project in the foreground so that particular UFO doesn’t slip back into the dreadful black hole known as my sewing closet. Right now I have selected three projects to enjoy the light of day as well as some weekly attention:
1. Shine On Bayou Cane (a Judy Laquidara quilt-along pattern from last fall). I determined that to make a queen-sized quilt, I need 56 blocks. Previously: 1 block done. This week: 8 additional blocks done!! Woo-hoo!!!
2. Nana’s Posies & Pinwheels. I started this throw-sized pieced-and-appliqued quilt in a class last summer two summers ago, and since appliqué isn’t my thing (shudder), it got stuck in the closet. Previously: the 13 pieced blocks are done, as well as 5 of the 12 appliqued blocks. This week: 2 lousy leaves appliqued!!! That’s 1/6th of one block. Not much to brag about, but hey, progress is progress! Aren’t the blocks pretty with the leaves? I was hoping that by doing this quilt, applique and I would become one. Isn’t happening.
3. Moda Posh Charm Pack Quilt. The top was done many months ago, the binding is made – it just needs to be quilted and bound! This is earmarked as a birthday gift for SIL Marilyn’s July birthday, so it has worked its way to the top of my quilting pile. This week: thought about loading it on the longarm, but four customer quilts are ahead of it. I guess “thinking about it” doesn’t count for much, or else all my projects would be done by now.
It occurs to me that this is an ideal combination of UFOs to be working on. I have some piecing to do at the sewing machine, some portable handwork, and a top to pin onto the longarm. I didn’t work on all three items this week — only two of them – but that still smells like victory to me.
How are you doing? Did you do at least a little bit of work on a UFO this week, just to get reacquainted with it? It feels really good to see progress, no matter the amount. Hang in there. A little bit every week will add up to eventually finishing an item.
Here’s something that is working for me: I now have a design wall (thanks again, Judy). I pulled out a manageable number of unfinished blocks to complete this week (eight) and pinned them up on the design wall. Instead of being mystery fabric in a plastic tote (which is all too easy to ignore), they became a visible reminder of what I needed to get done this week so I could blog about it today.
You may post any UFO photos on our UFO Busters’ Challenge album on Flickr if you’d like, and it would be fun if you leave a comment about your UFO progress, or lack thereof!
–Sue
My First 10 UFO Projects Slated for Completion, with the year project was started:
Shine On Bayou Cane (components made; need to make 56 blocks) 2008
Nana’s Posies & Pinwheels (need to finish applique on 6 blocks) 2007
Posh Charm Quilt (need to quilt) 2008
Amandajean’s 9-Patch (50 blocks made/30 to go) 2009
Afternoon Tea (24 blocks made / 5 to go; assembling top will be some work!) 2004
Fruit Ladies (needs quilting) 2008
Minnesota Quilt (needs quilting) 2008
Large Wholecloth (sew on borders and quilt) 2009
Rose Basket Wallhanging (quilt it) 2002
One Block Wonder (figure out what the heck to do with it; don’t like it thus far. I think I will make it smaller and get rid of a bunch of blocks.) 2007
