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Can't help myself but start with another sunset picture. I figured I would take them on our last day of really nice weather for a few days. More at the end of the post.
I have been busy the last few days trying to finish the three quilts on which I had been working. This is the Holiday Lights quilt. You can't see it but I did overall loopy quilting in all but the big blocks. I did some outline quilting of the snowflakes in the bigger blocks, creating snowflakes in the blank large blocks. I am not particularly happy with the quilting. I used invisible thread as there was so much difference in color and value. Standing a few feet away you can't see the quilting which is the good part as I really wanted something that didn't distract from the pattern itself. It is not clear what would be the best approach to quilting this.
This is the other quilt which I called City Lights. I used a different approach to quilting this one (my first approach) and am not particularly happy with this one either. I basically stitched in the ditch first between all the 4 1/2 inch blocks, avoiding the big blocks of color. I went back and stitched in the ditch at the 2 1/4 seams, again avoiding the big blocks. The big blocks looked lumpy so I went back and did some overall stitching of squares. I didn't stitch in the black areas as they didn't show the puffiness. The first quilt was bound with dark green fabric and this quilt was bound in black. I couldn't decide whether to bind them or to face them but like the containment that the binding provides.
Here you can see the finished Birds of a Feather quilt and also the quilting which I liked, unlike the other two quilts. It kinds of looks like there are circles and doesn't detract from the birds.
Two more sunset pictures taken at the Ft. Fisher museum and also the basin (where I take my bird pictures). I really like the sunset pictures where there is blue sky above which gradually turns to orange. So far, haven't found a purple sunset but that is a goal!!
This is the basin area.
Can't help myself on these perfect evenings for sunsets down at Ft. Fisher. I took this bunch from a little different perspective. The trees are Live Oaks and make the scenery look like the African plain even though there is a river in the background here which you can't see as it is too dark!
I really liked the sky in the background. I used my little point and shoot so I got more into these pictures than the others where I was using my telephoto lens.
Just a couple more!!
All done until the next nice evening!! Really want to get some purples. I call the sky "sky blue pink" which was actually a color I remember from when I was about 8!
Carolina Beach Lake has had some birds other than the many Cormorants and Coots. This is a brightly colored male Bufflehead.
This is a Ruddy Duck.
This is a male Scaup -- I used to see tons of these but this is the only one i have seen this year.
The Ruddy Duck joined a male Bufflehead and two females. The Buffleheads were constantly diving as was the Scaup.
This is a very early start on my next quilt. I am incorporating many of the smaller Panamanian appliques I purchased from Priscilla Kibbee. They are a little short of the five inch squares I have been using. I will be adding a lot of plain black squares in this one as well (there was no black in the other quilt). I have gotten a ton of these little 4-squares done already so now ready to add in the larger squares and start some assembling! Progress will be halted as my daughter will be visiting for Christmas and I don't like to isolate myself when she is here!
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