This is my 365Project photo from yesterday. I liked it so well, I thought I would share it here as well. You can also click on the photo to see my photos so far on the 365Project. It’s really making me think about photography more, and that’s both a good thing and a bad thing! I need to sew!!!
–Sue
This was taken outside the Birding Center in Port A. The local garden club has planted various flowers to attract butterflies, and bees as well, it seems:
I don’t know what kind of flower this is, but I like it!
–Sue
I think this is a female Northern Shoveler…but I could be wrong because I’m never certain about the females. She has a pretty big beak though, which looks like a shoveler.
She had just taken a sip of water and was “tossing it back”. I haven’t done a puzzle for a while, and I know Judy S. looks for them, so here you go, Judy! (Click on the puzzle to play.)
–Sue
Today I went to the Birding Center in Port Aransas, Texas, late in the afternoon. I’ve never seen so many ducks! At first I thought this fellow was a Green-Winged Teal, but it’s an American Wigeon — the first one I’ve ever seen. (He has the tell-tale white on the top of his head.)
Be sure to visit the Ecobirder by clicking on the button below and check out other bird photos!
– Sue
This was a busy week, but I guess they all are!
We had a “crafting” get-together in TX this past week with at least 26 ladies attending. My plan was to make glasses cases (or iPod cases or phone cases) out of ready-made potholders. They are so simple — one L-shaped seam and sew on a button and you’re done.
NOT SO FAST!!! My machine down here isn’t as heavy duty as my machine at home, and goodness knows what size needles I had on hand, but they weren’t doing the job. I figured it wouldn’t be fun for the ladies to sew with needles breaking every fourth potholder, so I stitched the L-shaped seam ahead of time and we sewed buttons on by hand as a group! I wish I would have taken a picture of the 26 I stitched up for the get-together, but I didn’t, so here’s a picture of two I made for myself after the meeting:
I was able to get my rotary cutter in one and my Razr phone in the other (just barely). Just search for potholders on line, and there are a lot of projects out there you can make from a ready-made potholder.
On a photography note, I joined the 365 Project, which is a web site where you take at least one photo a day and post it on their site. It will make kind of a photo journal of my year. Right now it’s all about the birds, but there are times of the year that I don’t see many birds, so I will be forced to branch out *shudder*. I put a link on my left-hand side bar and would LOVE it if you visited.
Back to work! I need to finish my blocks for my Color Palette Challenge with Judy Laquidara. The end of the month is near!
–Sue
Goal: 165 miles walked in 11 weeks
Week 1: 15 miles
Week 2: 15 miles
Week 3: 16.75 miles
Week 4: 15 miles
For a total so far of 61.75 miles
My favorite place to walk to is the South Jetty. It’s about 4 1/2 miles round trip, and there’s always something interesting to see. Yesterday it was a Snowy Egret fishing for his breakfast:
–Sue
This has been a fun week, quilting-wise. I’m participating in JudyL’s & VickiW’s Fabric Palette Challenge for January.
How NOT to Build a Quilt: I bought fabrics without a pattern or project in mind. What was I thinking? Really…who does that? I found a batik I fell in love with, and chose some coordinating fabrics, thinking that I would figure it out later. So I have 3 yards of a border print, 2 1’2 yards of background, a couple of 1-yard cuts and a couple more 1/2-yard cuts. Try finding a pattern to work with predetermined, semi-random fabric amounts!
I decided this was a good time to dust off EQ7 and design my own quilt. Okay, that isn’t so easy either. It took several sessions, but I finally came up with a plan I liked. It’s easiest to work on EQ (I think) if you play around with alternating two blocks. I like Irish Chain quilts, so I thought I could use the greens in the Irish Chain blocks, and decided on a star for the open spaces. Not terribly original, but I like it:
Then I started figuring out the rotary cutting instructions. The star block worked out great. The Irish Chain block came out to 2 7/8 strips. Ooops! Guess I won’t be using my handy-dandy strip cutter!
Lesson Learned: I was making 12″ finished blocks. The star built on a 6×6 grid. Worked out perfectly. The Irish Chain block was a 5×5 block, and 12″ divided by 5 isn’t so neat and tidy. I should have paid attention to the configuration of the blocks I was choosing to make sure they would all play nicely together.
Solution: I decided I liked the look of the two blocks together. I like that seams don’t all meet at the same place, reducing thick spots. I like how the star nestles in and fills the space. I even like that corners of the star block that become part of the chain are a little smaller. If I do this one again, I might make them a different color. So anyway, I cut 2 7/8″ strips. I figured since that block only required strip sets, that it wasn’t a big deal.
Now that I have some preliminary blocks together, I know it will work. *whew*
Don’t forget to stop over to JudyL’s blog and see other quilters’ design walls!
–Sue
The Ecobirder (my favorite bird blog) started a bird meme called Tuesday Tweets, and this is his first week!
This is a green-winged teal photo, taken last week at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas, TX. Port Aransas is on Mustang Island, one of the barrier reef islands along the Gulf of Mexico. We have the benefit of being in a major migratory path of a large variety of birds. Unfortunately the drought in Texas has even reached the islands, and some ponds have temporarily dried up. The ducks, however, are plentiful, and I thought this fellow was particularly fetching in the late afternoon light.
Be sure to pop on over to the Ecobirder’s blog to check out other photos!
–Sue
Goal: 165 miles walked in 11 weeks
Week 1: 15 miles
Week 2: 15 miles
Week 3: 16.75 miles
For a total so far of 46.75 miles
These birds always make me smile on my walks, with their oversized orange beaks. This is a Royal Tern.
And if you have a smart phone (Droid or iPhone) there are some pretty cool pedometer apps that are free. Anything to make exercise more “fun”.
–Sue
I do, and I like seeing the “before” and “after” pictures.
We had some remodeling done this winter in the little efficiency condo next door to us in Texas (we use it as a second bedroom when needed, and it’s in rental the rest of the time). I really like how it came out. The Before:
and the After:
The old kitchen was original to 1983, so it was well past the time for an update. We had to “steal” about 10″ from the walk-in closet to get in a real refrigerator and slightly bigger range. And DRAWERS!!! We have DRAWERS!!!
The carpet went in Wednesday, so we are officially D*O*N*E with this project. I love how it turned out though. Now I’m thinking I need a glass-tile backsplash in our kitchen at home, but it will have to be a do-it-myself project.
–Sue
