Oh, how I love Mondays when I have something to show!  I finished my apron.  Don’t love it, but don’t hate it either.  I’m going to make it again in a small print and a near-solid, and I think I will be much happier.  As Mary-Kay said, spots won’t show on this apron, so it will make a good “working apron”.

I’m at a waiting point on my at-the-beach skinny wall hanging.  I do love how this one is coming out.  It needs more embellishment and quilting, but I don’t have access to all my “stuff” right now.  Most of the “sky” is hidden because I had to wrap it around the railing and pin it.

I’m still working on my Crazy Zauberball socks.  This is the crazy yarn where there is no repeat in the striping pattern in the yarn, so your two socks are going to be different no matter what you do.  And mine are.  The yarn is wonderfully soft, and I’m guessing these socks are going to be favorites.  They will look great with denim.

And I started a new project.  This is an applique’d Patricia Campbell pattern, Tree of Life 1.  I started by doing a flower, but I need to work on the rocks and the tree trunk and branches.  What is most exciting to me is I’m using one of Vicki Welsh’s hand-dyed fabrics for my background (and also some FQs of hers for the tree itself).  I LOVE this piece of fabric.  To me it looks like a fiery sunset.  So you don’t think I’m getting myself in too deep for my second applique’ project?  Of course I am, but that seems to be what I do when I learn something new.  Okay, I can paint a stick man; now I think I will try to replicate the Cistene Chapel. 

I just eye-balled laying out some of the pieces, so it isn’t quite right; just wanted to give you an idea of what I’m doing. 

And I’m missing some of the rocks on the left-hand side, but I’m still debating on those fabrics.

And, guess what?  I passed 100,000 visits sometime in the night last night, so I’m going to have a give-away later this week!  The theme of the give-away is “At the Beach”, so be sure to check back. 

Wondering what other quilters are working on?  Pop on over to  Judy Laquidara’s blog.  And thank you, Judy, for hosting Design Mondays.  It’s a lot of fun, and a it encourages us to take stock once a week of our progress. 

And a thank you to Vicki for her wonderful hand-dyed fabrics.  To visit her shop, click here.

–Sue

(This is kind of a UFO Thursday Prevention post) 

Reflecting on my choices in life, I’m not disappointed.  I have a wonderful husband, love my kids, enjoy my neighbors, both in Minnesota and Texas; I maybe would have made different career choices early on if I would have had the opportunity to go to college (but then I wouldn’t have met Wonderful Husband).  All in all, not too bad and no regrets.

When it comes to fabric choices though, I don’t always hit a home run.  In making this apron, I’m barely making it to first base.  In fact, if I make it to first base, it will be on an error.

I mimicked the light/dark arrangement that was shown on the pattern cover.  My light fabric has MUCH too large a print for this pattern, and it really bothers me.  It would be marginally better (maybe 2nd base, but doubtful) if I had switched the light and the dark and put the bigger print on the trim and scallop pieces.  I also think it would have been better if I had left off the contrasting pockets on this one — it just cuts into the big print too much.  I think in my second go-around (or second at-bat), I will make one of the fabrics a nearly solid. 

When I reach this stage of not loving a project, that’s when it’s so easy to pack it away somewhere and it becomes a dreaded UFO.  I’m about 75% done with this apron, and the construction is going so well, I’m going to hold my nose and power sew right through to completion.

I love this pattern, and it is going together nicely.  I can’t wait to try it again with much smaller scale fabrics.  How are your projects going?  I hope you are loving whatever you’re working on!  It’s so much more fun.

–Sue

We’ve enjoyed watching these red-eared sliders at Paradise Pond, and even at Leonabelle Turnbull birding center once in a while.  This guy was close enough to get a really good look at him, and here he is as today’s puzzle:

–Sue

Last week on Mustang Island, we had some lovely days.  This week we are getting clouds and drizzly rain.  I’m sharing a picture from last week!  I love this time of day, and it really only lasts a few magical minutes.  It’s right before sunset when the sun is really low and just catches the tops of the waves and shades them pink.  Wishing y’all were here — next week when it’s nice again!

–Sue

Wow, it’s February 1st and this is my first Design Wall report of the YEAR!!!  Thanks to Judy Laquidara for hosting these Design Wall reports.  If you have extra time, swing by her site and check out what other people are working on.  It’s always interesting!

I’ve been working on a wall hanging from the Skinny Quilts & Table Runners book, edited by Eleanor Levie.  The wall hanging I’m making is by Karen Eckmeier (page 61, if you have the book).  This is for a skinny quilt challenge issued by Pam of my sewing group in Minnesota.  Since we all make resolutions to lose weight in the new year, and few actually succeed, let’s make a skinny quilt!  The odds of success are soooo much better…

The pattern called for lights, mediums and darks of both blues and turquoises.  I had no trouble sorting my (mostly) batiks by color.  It was the color value that was getting tricky.  I was just reminded a week or two ago by Vicki W. to use your camera as a tool.  (See if your photo-editing software  has an option to change the picture to black and white.  Another way to do it is to look at your camera’s options and you can possibly select taking a black and white photo (remember to change it back!).)  It is so much easier to see what fabrics are out of place in grays.

I wasn’t planning on using the fabrics absolutely from darkest to lightest, but I did want to sort them that way initially.  It was also a good test to try when I did have them organized how I thought I wanted them.  I changed them around several times before I had an arrangement I was pleased with.

Now I’ve started embellishing with some beads, trim, lace and yarn.  There’s quite a bit more to do on it, but it is really a fun piece and will be a wonderful memento of our time at the beach.

No, it isn’t quite straight, but the designer allows an each on each side to be trimmed off when everything is done to ensure it squares up.  Also, I have the top inch of sky tucked into the armoir, so there is a little more sky than shows here. 

I have a throw-sized top finished (can’t show it yet), and a queen-sized top started as well.  And I’m working on the same pair of Zauberball Crazy socks I’ve been working on for a l-o-n-g time, but I am on the second sock!  That’s a good thing for me.  It’s always so tempting to switch to something new, and I have a knit stocking cap that I want to get done this month.

I will share a crafting report later in the week.  Two weeks ago we embellished dishtowels, and this Wednesday we are making those cute criss-cross coasters.  Two weeks from now we are making Vicki W’s pot holders.  (The alternate weeks are strictly “social” get-togethers.)  If you’re wishing you were in Texas at the beach, you can do the crafts with us electronically!  Fun, fun, fun.

Notice I’m not talking about the weather.  For beach weather, this week leaves a lot to be desired.  However, for getting-away-from-the-snow-and-cold weather, it’s pretty darned wonderful!

–Sue

When I was a child a very long time ago, we lived on a farm.  We had a small bathroom (thankfully I’ve always enjoyed indoor plumbing), but there was no bathtub or shower.  Baths were reserved for Saturday night when a round galvanized steel wash tub was brought out for the weekly ritual.  When I got older, I could go next door (a two-family farm) to my grandparents’ house and use their basement shower.  Did you have ”bath day” as a child? 

I figure it must be Thursday baths for the ducks and grebes, as they were all in a splish-splashy mood when we were at the birding center Thursday.  An American Coot:

A Green-Winged Teal had been bathing, and had apparently entered the spin-dry cycle:

A very enthusiastic Least Grebe:

Here is a Moor Hen who is determined to get all those tricky hard-to-reach areas:

And the Ruddy Duck was doing a little grooming.  What good, clean ducks!

On a quilting note, I’m making good progress on my beach scene skinny wall hanging, and hopefully I’ll have a picture so I can participate in Design Wall Mondays again!

–Sue

Well, that title pretty much covers my life lately!  Well, to be accurate, I would have to include hot-tubbing, potlucks, crafting group, eating out and parties in general.  Have I mentioned that we are having a lot of fun in Texas?  Well, we are!    Decent weather, great people, lots of fun things to see and do. 

Today was a better day than forecast, so we went to the birding center and Paradise Pond.  (By the way, in the mile or so between them, there’s a quilt shop!)  We saw some new birds added into the “duck soup” at the birding center.  The first is a little guy (compared to the ducks).  He’s a Least Grebe, and of course I happen to have a photo:

He is recognizable by his golden eye and the narrow bill.  The grebes aren’t good at walking because their legs are so far back on their bodies, but they are excellent swimmers and divers.  Doesn’t he look like the back part is just missing?

In the same area was a Ruddy Duck:

He really stayed close to the reeds.  He is one of the stiff-tailed ducks.  They use their tail as a rudder when they swim under the water.  They are also identified by their white cheeks.  Their bills are blue when it’s mating season.  In some pictures his bill looked more blue than others, but mostly at the base.  Cute, isn’t he?

Then, moving on to not-so-cute…

was this Turkey Vulture.  There were three of them, mostly sitting atop this big pole.  (Gotta win the lottery and get that really good camera with the monstrous lens that’s on my dream list!)

And for the quilty part — I’m making a skinny runner out of Eleanor Levie’s book, Skinny Quilts & Table Runners.  Actually, mine is a wall hanging, not a runner, and it’s a beach scene.  Here’s a picture of the pieces laid out together (it’s been changed a zillion times since though) with a picture of the pattern…

I’ve since picked up the fabric for the “sand”, but the quilt shop didn’t have any “sky” fabric.  I should be able to get that Saturday when we go to the quilt show in Rockport.   (A quilt show!!!  The fun just continues.)

–Sue

PS:  In a month or so, I will hit 100,000 visits.  I think I feel a give-away coming on!

Usually the males of various bird species are the gorgeous ones, and the females are … brown.  This female Green-Winged Teal Northern Shoveler wears brown very well, and I think she is so stunning…(see comment by Leigh, I originally mis-identified this lovely duck)

that she is this week’s puzzle (see? she’s all quacked up):

-Sue

Monday I made the short trip to both Paradise Pond and the Leonabelle Turnbull birding center.  It’s always a surprise to see what birds are there — or aren’t there.  Last week Paradise Pond was teeming with Great Blue Herons, Black-Crowned Night Herons, and Ibises.  This week there were turtles.  Lots and lots of turtles.  It was a warm sunny day, and anywhere there was the slightest bit of a log protruding out of the water, there were more turtles!  In case you’re interested, these are Red-Eared Sliders.  In the third picture, you will see the tell-tale red marking on the turtle’s head.  The largest ones are pretty close to the size of a dinner plate.

Then I made the 2-minute drive to the birding center.  No big birds at all.  From a far distance, I did see three of the Showy Egrets, and I saw one Tri-Colored Heron, also a little too far away.  Lots and lots of ducks, just like last week.  It was a calmer day, however, and with the bright sunshine, a lot of the ducks were taking a floating nap, like this Green-Winged Teal:

We sometimes see Moor Hens, but they are usually walking along the shoreline, in and out of weeds, and I haven’t been very successful in getting a good picture.  Today this guy was having a nice swim:

And a picture of a Northern Shoveler:

The water was so much more calm this week, it made for some nice reflections.  The next time I go, the weather, the birds, and the water will all be different.  It’s always an adventure!

–Sue

When it’s time for a puzzle, I’m always wishing I would have saved a good picture for Wednesday.  This week I found one that I took on Sunday that I hadn’t posted.  This is the same Great Blue Heron that was primping and preening.  All the turtles and birds were soaking in the rare (lately) sunshine.  Here he is as a puzzle (this cut is pretty easy):

– Sue