Truely Miscellaneous Today!

I was inspired to make a Quilt of Valor quilt by our speaker and so picked up a couple of fat quarters of patriotic fabric as I have none.  I found a pattern on Facebook that I liked and that I thought would be appropriate.  This is the finished top.  I am going to let someone else do the quilting as it is pretty big and I wasn't comfortable with doing it.

This is what the individual blocks looked like.

The back of yet another Quilt as You Go.

This is the front.  I added the green as the gold and brown started looking like Brownie uniform to me!!

This is a block I did for a friend who had sent me a envelope of scraps from a bridal quilt she has made for her son and daughter-in-law to be.  We have been email friends for close to 25 years along with two other ladies.  We have met up a number of times over the years despite geography!  I really wanted to have four stack and whack blocks but only had enough repeats for two.  I only had tiny scraps left when I was done!  I have held off posting it as I didn't want her to see i before she got it!

The last of the baby quilts made from those long ago striped fabric that I had made.  I don't have enough left for any more.  I tried to use lighter fabrics both on the front and the back.

All done except for the binding which is done now.  I only had 1/2 inch of the blue fabric left!

Had a nice visit with my daughter and was surprised to see a bunch of Cedar Waxwings in one of her trees.  At the time, I only saw 2 but when I looked at the camera pictures, there were obviously six or seven!

Her neighborhood Great Blue Heron payed us a visit as well.

A Great Egret also visited but was chased away by the heron who had claimed the territory!

 

Finally Some Birds to Report!!

Before we get to my birds, here are a few of the many baby quilts that I have completely finished.  I should have the rest done today or tomorrow as the machine quilting is done.  I just have to attach the borders and then the binding.  My new approach to both basting and borders has made the process sooooo much easier for me.  

Now I baste on my design wall by putting the quilt top face down, spray, batting and the the backing.  This way, when I am quilting, any wrinkles in the top can be smoothed out and I get NO wrinkles in the back!  

Also, I have discovered it is much much easier to attach borders after the quilt is all quilted.  I just leave enough batting and backing around the outside of the quilt.  So no more measuing and pinning to make sure it lays flat.  It lays perfectly now!

All of these quilts are 40 x 40 inches.

This was my favorite and of course right at the end as I was trimming the edges, I managed to cut off a triangular piece in the upper left hand corner.  I pieced it back together and it looks okay but sad as I really wanted this one perfect.

I still have more of these blocks -- like a lot more!  I will do something with them though as I hate all the white which demands to be quilted a lot!

Locally, someone posted that they had seen Cedar Waxwings at a local lake -- Greenfield Lake.  As they are one of my favorites and I haven't seen one in a few years, I headed down yesterday.  I was disappointed not to see any but did spot this female Kingfisher on a branch over the lake.  The females have the distinctive brown on their chests where the males are more boring!

The full frontal view.  I also saw a Pied-billed Grebe with a fish almost his size as well as quite a number of Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons.

On the way home, I decided to stop at Carolina Beach Lake and was surpised to see this beautiful Marbled Godwit.  I hadn't seen  one in fresh water before and it has been a couple of years since I have seen one at all!!  There were also lots of gulls and Kildeer.

As I was in the car and had my camera, I deided to venture down to Ft. Fisher even though it was not low tide and was a weekend (therefore more people).  There was nothing much down there, but on the way back I noticed a large flock of robins and blackbirds flying back and forth across the road i was on.  It was such a pretty backdrop for the birds, I took a bunch of pictures until I was holding up a car behind me (there was no shoulder on the road where I was).  Imagine my surprise when I got home and was blowing up the pictures to discover Cedar Waxwings!!  One woman counted five in this picture but I am only sure of four for certain!!

Here is one of them closer up!!  So I got to see my Cedar Waxwings after all!  They are such beautiful elegant birds and one of my favorites for sure.  It was a very chilly day and I certainly didn't expect to see such early migrators!

The next three are just my common friends that I see frequently at the pier -- a Great Blue Heron here.

A Great Egret but I liked the background for this one!

A juvenile Ibis who still has a little brown in his feathers!