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A beautiful sunset down at Ft. Fisher a couple of days ago. You have to have just the right amount of clouds to get the best color. I like it best when there is blue sky above all the color. The thin white line is the Cape Fear River.
I spent one day last week dyeing some neutrals which I will need for the Great Egret. I may have to do some more dyeing later to get some colors for the heron as well but concentrated on the egret this time. I was very pleased overall with the lights and the variety. The first row was just an overdye of some fuchsia I had which I didn't need. I overdyed it with Strong Orange and loved the results. It doesn't photograph well but the texture looks like flowers and reminds me of hibiscus which we have a lot of! The blue is just a four step gradation of Basic Blue which is the only MX pure blue which tends to red rather than yellow. The second row is a gradation of Cotton Black which I just got and wanted to see how it looked. It is okay but a bit greenish in the darker hues. The third row is a gradation of the pure Neutral Gray which is a weak color but just what I need. You can see there is color when you place a piece of white fabric next to it. The fourth row is a mix of Basic Brown and the Cotton Black -- even amounts of each.
Just another view of the above!
Just another sunset view -- I love the colors in this one particularly!! These are un-retouched!!I
I have made progress on the heron and egret. The "road maps" are complete for both of them and blown up to full sized and the lines have been transferred to the freezer paper.
Here is a first cut of the fabrics that will be used for the egrets. Of course, I will not use all of them. I haven't sorted out fabrics for the heron yet! My biggest challenge will be to do justice to the rocks behind the egret and haven't yet decided how to approach this. There may be some applique in this piece as I really want some interest in this negative space and the stark straight lines may not do it!
First here is the sunset taken at Ft. Fisher (of course) through the Live Oaks to the west. Biggest problem this time of year is that the sun is so far south, there are few Live Oaks to shoot through! They were untouched by Hurricane Florence.
Lately the sunset has been loveliest over the ocean (east rather than west). There was a lot of color this particular day.
If you look really closely, you can see some pelicans heading back to their roosts for the night. There were lots and lots flying overhead just at dusk.
This was looking through the Live Oaks to the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Lots of color!!
I did finally get to see some Oystercatchers which have been elusive this year. It was quite late and the light wasn't great but you can see his bright red eye.
There were also quite a few Hooded Mergansers. This is one of the females.
A Willet was also poking around looking for some food.
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!
There was a pair of Buffleheads at Carolina Beach Lake this week. They stayed far far distant so this was the best I could do
A large flock of Ibis were sleeping down by the lake as well!
Forster's Terns resting but they are usually flying around like crazy.
A lone Snowy Egret sitting down at Ft. Fisher.
The first of many sunset pictures. This was taken down at the basin at Ft. Fisher looking toward Zeke Island and the rock wall.
Taken at the same place as above when the sun had pretty much left.
This and the rest were all taken by the museum at Ft. Fisher looking through the Live Oaks which are so beautiful down there. I have had many comments that it looks like the African plain which it does in pictures!
My very favorite of all the pictures because of the great variety of color. Love the juxtaposition of the blues with all the fiery oranges and yellows.
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