Be sure to check out other birds on the Ecobirder’s web site (click on the button below).  And if you enjoy taking bird photos, consider posting a picture and linking to the Ecobirder’s Tuesday Tweets post.  It’s a fun way to share bird pictures!

–Sue

I’m still working on my January color palette challenge.  The finished design:

I’m working on my QST’s (quarter-square triangles), using the Triangulations software.  I really like the colors, and have to speed things up to be done this week!

–Sue

Week 1:  15 miles
Week 2:  15 miles
Week 3:  16.75 miles
Week 4: 15 miles
Week 5: 8.5 miles

For a total so far of 70.25 miles

Not so good this past week…too many other fun things going on.  Have to kick it up a notch next week!

–Sue

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

I don’t know what kind of flower this is, but I like it!

–Sue

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

Be sure to visit the Ecobirder by clicking on the button below and check out other bird photos!

– Sue

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

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

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