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Archive of entries posted on 18th September 2009

Friday’s Photo Faux Pas

When I looked up “faux pas” to check the spelling and see what the plural would be (the same), I was reminded that faux pas is a social blunder; it doesn’t really fit.  Still, I like the alliterative sound of it, so I’ll keep it for today.  (Shoot, now I have another word to look up.)

The other day, Robin asked me if I had a picture of this whole quilt: 

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Well, today’s lesson is that not all pictures turn out to be the beautiful photo you see in your mind.  There was so much glare on the glass at the State Fair, this was the best I could do of the whole quilt. 

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My solution was to get the camera lens close to the glass and take a photo of just part of the quilt (which is the first picture above).

That made me think about all my not-so-good pictures that I usually delete right away, and I certainly don’t post them!  Well, lucky, lucky you — I found some pretty funny examples  of “mistake” pictures to share with you today.  Whoops, just a little head movement here…

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Don’t look down your nose at me!  I’m just trying to take your portrait!

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Since I was shooting through the blinds, I was getting some terrible white glare on the window.  I knew if I raised the blinds, this house finch would be gone in a flash, but I couldn’t resist another shot of these tufts of feathers.

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You know how much I love the hummingbirds.  I managed to catch the most awkward looking position for this little one.   It looks like she impaled herself on a twig, but she was just turning around.

 

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Is she gone yet?

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Here is an example of my automatic focus catching the wrong thing to focus on — in this case, the leaves.  I hate it when that happens!Examples6

This picture came out all right, but before this one I had a terrible time getting the camera to focus on the bird.  I think there was too much light on the irridized feathers, and the focusing beam was getting all messed up.  My solution was to focus on the base of the twig she was sitting on, keeping the button pressed half-way down, then move the camera up to the bird.

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And I can’t begin to tell you how many hummingbird photos I have that look like thisExamples8

And sadly, the hummers are gone.  I haven’t seen them for about three days, so they are on their way south.

–Sue

Thursday’s UFO Report

What, you say?  It’s not Thursday???  I’ve got to get my calendar fixed.

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I have actual UFO progress to report!!!  My 9-patch new antique quilt, a sew-along with Amandajean on CrazyMomQuilts, is FINALLY a completed top!!!  Now it’s off to the longarmer for quilting.  Oh, wait, that’s me.  This is the one I’m going to do the wonky freehand Baptist fans on, so I’m quite excited about getting this one done.  I’ve decided to use wool batting, and this will be the winter quilt in our guest room when we pop down the Murphy bed. 

I like the little border of leftover blocks framed with the navy.  Very cool!  I think the original design was 8 x 9 blocks, for a total of 72.  I did mine 8 x 10 for a total of 80 blocks.  It wouldn’t fit a traditional queen-sized bed, but I like how it fits on the Murphy bed, even allowing for a little “shrinkage” that will happen when it’s quilted.  This will be a nice contrast to the summer quilt (and full-time husband) in this photo:

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 I also did another 8 blocks on Judy L’s Shine On Bayou Cane quilt, which is slated for DS #3.  24 blocks done, 32 to go!!!  I really like the civil war reproduction fabrics in this quilt, and the secondary design the light and dark background fabrics make will make it pretty unique. 

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  • And on an unrelated note, is anyone out there planning on taking in the North Dakota quilt show next weekend in Fargo?  I am thinking about packing a bag and going up there for a couple of days.
  • –Sue
  • p.s.  Let us know how are you doing on your UFOs???