Some Ft. Fisher Bird Musings and a Little Quilt and Fiber Stuff!

Good  sunset pictures have been at a premium so far this year.  Most nights it is either too sunny or too cloudy so this is the best I can do for my first two weeks down here!!

 There have been a great number of Godwits, Long-billed Dowitchers, Dunlins and Willets down at Ft. Fisher.  Last year I didn't see the crowds at all but this year, I have seen the twice at low tide although they are usually sleeping or the light is awful so it has been very difficult to differentiate which is which,

 This is a Marbled Godwit and there were quite a few of these on both occasions!

 I think the small ones here are Dunlins which I have seen frequently down here

This is a Great Black Backed Gull and he is large!!

This is of course a Great Egret who kindly posed for me today.  They really are an elegant bird.

Finally saw a couple of Oystercatchers which are one of my favorites.  This one was far off but I could read his greenish tag which identified him as C21.  I was afraid they had left the area, they have been so scarcee this year.  

 Here there are the two of them I spotted but they were really far off

This was literally just a moving speck to my camera and I didn't identify it until I got home although I suspected I knew its identify.  It is a Semi-palmated Plover which is a small bird and blends in well with his environment.

There was a mix of Snowy Egrets and Ibis here  Don't usually see a flock of Snowy Egrets.  Must have been good eating today.

I made some new covers for our couch pillows from some of my mandalas.  I also have made at least five for my daughter and she still has some more for me to do

 This is pillow 2 for this house.  Not one of my favorite patterns but they match the colors up here.  

Also made some more for Lisa in her requested palette of blue/green.  These pillows are super super simple to make.  I just back the front with fusible fleece which gives it body and then sew on the back, turn it right side out and top stitch a half inch away from the side.  The fleece filling gives the illusion of faux piping.

 This was one of my drop clothes in my last ice dyeing.  I thought it was particularly pretty.

I participated in a day of making baby quilts for the Neo-natal Unit of the New Hanover hospital.  These were pre-prepared containing the strips, border fabric, backing and even the binding fabric.  I managed to get two tops done during the five hour session.  

Well, some are better than others and if  you look carefully at this one, you can see how I can screw up even a simple pattern!!  I had better stick with scrap quilts!  Inadvertently, both of the main fabrics in these two quilts were directional as well!!

Anyway, I spray basted them and decided I would try a new binding technique I had seen on Its Sew Easy -- a show I usually don't get much out of but amazingly have picked up three incredible tips (the pillow construction was one of these).  They wanted us to machine do the bindings.  In the past, I have always attached to the top, folded around to the back and then stitched in the ditch on top.  The front looks good and the back not so good usually.  This is why I generally hand stitch down the binding on my quilts.  So the new technique was for finishing a blouse without using facing.  You attach the binding to the back and then fold around to the front.  I was going to use the applique stitch on one of my zig zag machines but was too lazy to get one of the machines out and instead just top stitched down on the front real close to the edge.  I think it looked almost as good as hand stitching down the binding and will definitely make more baby quilts using this technique.  In one afternoon, I bound four baby quilts!!  I have always liked the hand stitching but this was just too easy!!