Three Quilts Finished!!

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.

Trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina

I decided this year to tackle the Outer Banks on my own as getting on and off the bus for the regular trip was getting to be a problem.  I can set my own pace driving myself and sit when I want to plus there is a lot less noise and more chance of seeing the birds.  One of my memories from before was of the 1000's of Red-headed Ducks that sit in the waters off the Outer Banks.  Here was a whole bunch that were just landing.  Twice I saw huge flocks in the air and they looked like starlings, there were so many!

I thought I would never get out in the morning.  I had packed everything up the night before and intended to get out at 6:30 but figured I wouldn't set the clock and just get up when I got up which was pretty close to the aforementioned time.  However, at the last minute I decided to take my little purse so transferred stuff from my regular purse.  Unfortunately, I discovered an hour and a half into the trip that the carefully sorted out the cards I didn't need (like library cards and Brueggers Rewards cards) were the pile I had bought with me instead of the credit cards, AAA , drivers license etc!!  Luckily I had a little cash and one debit card that I had decided not to take.  I had to have a picture id at the motel so he took my BJ's id card!!  Arghh.  Then there was a lot of road closures for construction and I never did get to Pungo Lake.  It was okay though.  It all worked out and I was careful not to speed too much!!  I also realized when I was about ready to get into the car that I had forgotten my cane so another trip up to the third floor, finding a cane without the rubber bottom and then searching for my good cane which I found on the first floor -- another arghh.  It took me an hour to finally get going!

The first day I went to Mattamuskeet.  The weather was cloudy which was perfect for this lake.  There were lots of ducks there including lots of Pintails, Gadwalls and Northern Shovelers.  There were lots of Tundra Swans as well -- certainly more than when I was there in Novermber.

This is a male Northern Shoveler which is one of my favorite winter ducks.

I drove the long way to the Outer Banks and took a short trip down to the Bodey Island Lighthouse before I checked into the hotel which was fairly close by.    There were a  lot of Northern Pintails there as well as Gadwalls and of course the Redheads!  The ducks were feeding constantly so the challenge was to get their heads above water!  Isn't this a beautiful duck?

This is just a small portion of the Redheads wihich are off in the distance interspersed with the Tundra Swans.  If you look really closely, you can see a few Canvasback Ducks among all the Redheads.

Here is a small group of the Pintails taken at Mattamuskeet.  The females are not as pretty.

Way way off in the distance, I spotted this Avocet dipping in the shallow water.

This is a Green-winged Teal which is not a bird I see that often and one that I have never gotten a photo of before.  I saw several of these at Bodey Island.

I also saw a lot of Gadwalls here at Bodey.  After Bodey, I drove down the coast to the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge where I saw the rest of the birds here.  There is a beautiful path there and lots of benches to sit and just view all the birds.  I am always reminded of the abundance of wildlife I saw in East Africa (also why Yellowstone appeals to me so much) when I sit and view all the comings and goings here and the other locations in northeastern NC -- what a national treasure this area is.  It is a must see area in the winter for anyone interested in bird watching.  

I stayed overnight in Nags Head and had great views of both the sunrise and sunset from my hotel.  I headed out in the morning again and went first to Bodey Island Lighthouse and then headed down the coast to the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge which certainly didn't disappoint!!

Here are just some of the many Tundra Swans wintering there.  I am not good enough to determine if there were any Trumpeter Swans in any of the locations and most of the swans were napping anyway.  I had fortunately seen the Trumpeters at Yellowstone last summer.  It is reported that 75% of the world's Tundra Swans winter in northeastern NC.  They don't seem to care whether it is fresh or salt water.

I saw one or two of many species here including this one Redhead close up.  

Here is a male Bufflehead sleeping and a Hooded Merganser, also a male.

I saw quite a few of the American Widgeons here.

Both here and Mattamuskeet had more than their fair share of American Coots!!  They seemed to be guarding the shoreline in both places.

A Little Blue Heron was fishing along the shoreline.  Not an uncommon bird, but I rarely see them down here.

I parked myself on a bench and watched as a flock of White Pelicans flew overhead.  They were not close which was the case for all the birds in my pictures -- thank goodness for telephoto lens!

One of the White Pelicans stayed for a long time and posed for me in every possible position.  This is the only place in NC that I have seen these magnificent birds.  They are huge!!

 As I was walking back to my car, a couple said they thought they had seen an American Bittern so I kept my eyes open and sure enough.  He was out of the reeds here and getting ready to pounce (which he did).  He then wandered back to the reeds and hiding again.

He's heading back here and you can hardly see him even here!  

All in all, it was a great trip and two days was perfect, giving me ample chance to see the places I wanted to see.  Finding places to eat was the biggest problem so I was glad I had packed a cooler with some snacks which held me over until I got home.  The weather couldn't have been better for either segment.  It was overcast for Mattamuskeet which made it much easier to see the birds and it was sunny and almost warm for the Outer Banks portion.  The last time I went, it was pouring rain and I almost totally ruined my camera.  Lisa and I are planning a trip together next January!!

City Lights is Finally Sewn Together!

I am very happy with how City Lights turned out and will keep it in this horizontal orientation.  I think the green represents trees and little park areas while the blue areas are ponds.  The rest is made up of shopping centers and tall buildings casting shadows.

This is the vertical representation.

I finally ironed the gradated Boysenberry to Basic Blue.  The deepest shade is 10% Boysenberry and 3% Basic Blue.  It is really rich and dark as are the 5% and 2.5% Boysenberry.  The Basic Blue is 3% in each piece.

 This is the 2.5% Boysenberry and 3% Basic Blue.  I really liked this one and the next one which is 5% Boysenberry and 3% Basic Blue.

I thought this one was very rich looking!

This is the Strongest Orange overdyed with the 3% Sun Yellow.  They are all ironed now and that is the most fun part of the dyeing process!!

Here they are all stacked up and made me think that I need to do gradations between all the different colors.  I know I have a yellow to green one but that leaves green to blue and an orange to red.  Hmm.

Some Dyeing and Moving Ahead with City Lights

Well, in a few days I have finally made progress on City Lights.  Each day I think I have made enough four patches, only to still have empty spaces!!

I try to take pictures at the end of each day.  I only work for about 2 hours in the afternoon but if the weather is really bad, l may be found downstairs a bit more!

Almost done!!

Well, finally all the patches are done but far from being sewn together.  Let's hope for no big breezes!!  That is one jigsaw puzzle I don't want to put together!

I decided that I liked this orientation better and more in line with the title as it is more a landscape!

I got together with my dyeing buddies yesterday.  They did some extreme overdyeing while I just did some gradations.  This one is a gradation of Boysenberry with a 3% solution of Basic Blue added to each pot.  They are really a bit darker than this picture shows.

This was a gradation of Strong Orange with a 3% solution of Sun Yellow overdyeing it.  I really prefer to do it in one step but got lost in the process.  Again, think they are darker than the picture shows.  I wanted to do these as a sunset quilt is in my future.

A Major Shift in the Birds of a Feather Quilt!!!!

Just a peek at the fireworks pictured later in the post.  We actually stayed up until midnight as we can see the fireworks from our porch!

You can see I totally changed directions on the Birds of a Feather quilt deciding (like one of my commenters suggested) that it was really two quilts.  I tried to surround the little appliques with more black but that just looked clunky.  So I decided to cut into some of my hand dyes and surround the appliques and make the whole quilt a lot smaller so that the appliques would not get lost.  They are only 4 inch square - I surrounded them with a little black so that they would be 5 inches finishing to 4 1/2 inches.

The following pictures are all from the Kure Beach fireworks which happens every other year about a half a mile from the house.

It is always fun despite the struggle to stay up until midnight!!

 Now to go back and use all the squares left from the other attempt!  It begins...

 It's growing.

Back to the sewing machine to make some more blocks!!  I already have a name for it -- City Lights!