I love the Great Blue Herons, and usually post what I think are pretty pictures. They aren’t always pretty, though. Sometimes they have a bad hair day…
And here he is as a puzzle. Click anywhere on the puzzle below to begin.
Sue
Archive of entries posted on March 2010
And The Winner Is…
Well, I have to build a little suspense first.
THANK YOU to all 234 of you who took the time to visit my blog and post a comment. I read them all, and if you have a blog, I have visited most, if not all, of them as well.
I closed the comments last night at midnight, and by about 12:05 I was at random.org to randomly select the winner of my 14 FQ’s in blue & blue Peeps (to refresh your memory):
And the random number generator chose:
Number 52!!! I wonder who that is? Lucky for me, my comments are numbered, and so a quick check revealed…
52
eileen said,
March 24, 2010 @ 10:14 am ·
What a beautiful color, looks good enough to eat! Also love the peeps! Hope you have a great Easter. Eileen
Woo-hoo, Eileen of Illinois!!!
I hope all of you stop back and visit me again soon. This has been a lot of fun, but I will now be returning to my somewhat regular “programming”! Tutorial coming soon…
Enjoy spring! We are in the 50s in Minnesota, clear sky, calm, with scattered bursts of sewing. How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?
–Sue
“Good Eggs” Give-Away!
Welcome to my blog! I’m delighted to be participating in Sandi’s ‘Good Eggs’ blog hop and give-away. What a fun way to celebrate friendships and springtime!
THE LOOT: 14 Hoffman fat quarters that are absolutely gorgeous in shades of green, aqua, turquoise and teal, fresh from the LQS. I couldn’t resist including this package of turqoise Peeps. You probably have tons of fabric, but I bet you don’t have any blue marshmallow chicks!
THE DEAL: Leave a comment on this post to be eligible for the “drawing” by random number generator. I will be accepting comments on this post until March 28th, 11:59 pm CST. The winner will be posted March 29th.
THE FINE PRINT:
– Only one entry per person, please. (I am emphasizing this because I have done give-aways in the past that allowed one entry per day. This one is one entry, period.)
– Make sure the space for your e-mail address is filled in so if you’re the lucky winner, I’ll be able to contact you.
– You don’t need to have a blog to enter.
– Other bloggers participating in the blog hop are also welcome to enter.
– And, yes, I will mail internationally.
COMING SOON: I created a little wall hanging designed to have pieces that swap out to reflect the changes in seasons and holidays. You can check it out here. A tutorial will be completed and on this site in the next few days, so if you’re interested in the free pattern, be sure to stop back. And after you check out the wall hanging, be sure to return to this posting so you can…
VISIT THE OTHER BLOGGERS: There are 29 other bloggers participating in this blog hop & give-away, so put on your bunny ears and hop on over to Sandi’s A Legacy of Stitches blog to check out the list of sites. There is a wide variety of interesting blogs on the list, so be sure to take a little extra time and see what everybody is all about.
Have fun, good luck, and stop back and visit me again sometime!
–Sue
Give-away is over; comments are closed. Thank you for entering! Winner will be announced on my Monday, March 29th, 2010, posting. Sue
A Basket of Blessings
Yesterday I showed you a very unexciting empty basket I was working on, and last night I made a second one. In a matter of seconds, they look like this:
(in my best infomercial voice:) But Wait! There’s More!!!
Remember the flannel boards teachers used, back before we had all the new electronic wizardry? By using a nice furry flannel as the background of my basket wall hanging, then cutting out simple felt shapes to put into the basket, my Basket of Blessings pattern was born. I made two examples: one with basic black and a wonderful basket-weave fabric FQ I found at Jo-Anns, and the second one features a pieced basket made from a fun stripe (also found at Jo-Anns).
Imagine all the different cut-outs you could make…smaller Easter eggs with your children’s names on them, shamrocks, hearts, red white & blue flowers, apples, pumpkins, poinsettias, snowflakes, and this list is only limited by your imagination. It literally takes seconds to whip off one set of felt shapes and press something new into place.
This would be fun to do with children, too, and include them in the process. Coloring books are a great resource for simple shapes, although mine were so basic, I drew them freehand before cutting them out. Also think about all the applique’ books and patterns we have that have basic shapes. Such possibilities.
Also, although you can’t tell from the pictures, the baskets are open at the top so that the felt shapes can be tucked down into the “basket” for a little extra security.
So tell me what you think, and if you like it, be sure to bookmark me so you can come back for the upcoming tutorial. Also, don’t forget I have a give-away starting tomorrow (Wednesday, March 24th)!
–Sue
Design-Wall Monday
Three words describe my week: busy, busy, busy!
I’m working on a “secret” project. Don’t you love the colors? Picture them with lots of white (instead of taupe carpeting…gotta get my real design wall uncovered…)
Then there are socks. I finally finished up the Zauberball Crazy socks I’ve been working on forever. I started a new pair of Circle Socks from a free pattern I found on Ravelry. LOVE this design! Next pair I will make the larger size, however. These are going to be a little snug for my clodhoppers.
I’m nearly done with my Basket of Blessings wall hanging. I’ve had this idea rattling around in my head for a long time. (Family, no need to comment on the copius space it had in which to rattle, or how lonely this idea must have been.) Click here for more information on this little project and the upcoming blog hop/give-away that prompted me to turn an idea into reality. And I really do have some blessings to put into this basket!
That’s it for now. Be sure to pop on over to JudyL’s blog to see what other quilters are working on this week!
–Sue
Announcement!
This is going to be a fun week!
Sandi over at A Legacy of Stitches is hosting her brand-new ”Good Eggs Hopping Down the Bunny Trail“ blog hop starting Wednesday of this week, and she invited me to hop along! There will be somewhere around 30 bloggers participating (each with a give-away), plus lots of fun for everyone, so be sure to stop back! Give-aways start Wednesday!
I wanted to offer something to everyone who stops by, so I will post the pattern for my Basket of Blessings wall hanging on Tuesday, so I better get off the computer and finish it up! (This isn’t an ordinary basket…you will have to come back tomorrow to see how it “works”.)
I have to get hoppin’!
–Sue
Wednesday’s Puzzle
I like how the Roseate Spoonbill on the right is making a heart shape. Here they are as a puzzle (click anywhere on the puzzle to start):
–Sue
Why?
I take lots of pictures, and sometimes I wonder why. When I go to the birding center and Paradise Pond, I have taken over 600 pictures on a single afternoon. Then I delete-delete-delete, until I have a more reasonable number to save. The good part of having so many pictures to choose from is sometimes I find a surprise in the pictures that I didn’t notice when I was busily shooting away.
When I took this picture, I was noticing that the Black-Necked Stilts and the American Avocets were out of the water and standing on the sandy point with the Roseate Spoonbills.
As I got a better view of the point in my pictures, a big white bird entered into view. I didn’t notice it at the time, but viewing it on the computer monitor I thought maybe it was an albino!!!
What the heck? Then I started looking for this white bird in other photos, and I could see it was a White Ibis, doing wing lifts just like the spoonbills. (Albino! What was I thinking???)
I enjoyed getting a better view of a Black-Necked Stilt right on the point of the sand bar. (The Black-Necked Stilts look like they are wearing tuxedos.) Look at those skinny, long legs! (The Avocets have the white horizontal stripe on their wings.)
Another computer monitor surprise was the big turtle in the midst of all these birds. Do you see him? He on the far side of the sand bar.
What a busy little piece of real estate.
–Sue
Design-Wall Monday
I really look forward to JudyL’s Design-Wall Mondays. It’s good to have a regularly scheduled time to take stock of what you’re doing (or sometimes not doing).
Quilting: Nothing too exciting. Well, I think the colors are kind of exciting, by it’s only strip sets, and the rest is a *shhhh* secret.
Knitting: Got the heel done on my Zauberball Crazy socks. This is the crazy yarn that has no repeat, so no two socks will be alike. Kinda takes the pressure off!
This yarn is very soft and nice to work with. My problem has been I’ve been taking them downstairs to “coffee”, and I end up taking out as many stitches as I put in. New Rule: Only work on socks alone. Conversation is too distracting. Movies are okay. Yesterday I watched a very old Miss Marple movie and a couple of episodes from Season 3 of Monk. What a great afternoon! Another afternoon like that and this pair should be pretty close to done!
Waiting in Bags Somewhere: Appliqued Tree of Life (due in May). Knitted Fish Hat (due in July). Circle Socks (due in July), Embellishing & Quilting Skinny Beach Table Runner (due in April, I THINK!). How’s that for a “Too Due” list?
Dowitchers
When I was at the Birding Center Thursday, the Roseate Spoonbills took most of my attention. A little sideshow, however, was the Dowitchers. They had been congregating, intermixed with some Spoonbills, on the other side of the reeds and cattails from me.
Suddenly, they rose up together like a swarm of Texas mosquitos:
How would you like to be the air-traffic controller for that mess? Then they circled around the water on the far side of the cattails…
…before settling back in amongst the Roseate Spoonbills. This cloud of birds was really quite a sight. I’m heading over there again today, so who knows what I’ll see? Every day is a new adventure.
–Sue
