Hummingbird Convention

As everyone knows, the hummingbird feeders need to be filled occasionally. After cleaning and filling the feeder, you take it outside and hang it up...


Then you get a chair, your camera, and get ready for a Hummingbird Convention! Here are the first arrivals



Then a couple more guests arrive...

Then a few more.... But wait, we aren't done yet....

I count 11 hummingbirds in this picture. (look at the bottom of the feeder, just to the right of center, and you can see the tip of a tail. That makes 11!

Now just a moment of peace. Two are even sharing!

I hope you enjoyed my hummingbird convention! I can hear them discussing who's turn it is all day long.

What I've managed to do!

Well, I finally have taken a moment to take some pictures, and download them off the camera so I could share them with you. First I'll show you three blocks that I've made. I joined a neighborhood group, and we are all doing Sawtooth Star blocks. Yes, I know. I already had too many projects and should concentrate on what I've already started. But getting to know ladies who quilt AND live near me is wonderful. (No, I'm not ready to confess how many on-going projects I have, but I have started listing them all out on a list. It is a little scary!!

So the first block: This is the first one I made. Now green is not my color, and I even had to borrow some material from one of the other ladies to have enough greens. You see one of these fabrics in the star points and center of this block. Didn't the colors come out great on this one??

Now, this is the second block I made. (yes, turn your head to the right, I didn't notice that the block was sideways!!) The fabric in the center (besides being on its side) is the fabric I started with when I picked my colors/fabrics for this quilt. Most of the fabrics have come from my stash - I'm proud of that - But I did need to purchase about 6 fat quarters for the backgrounds. I want this to look scrappy, even the backgrounds!

Hmm, this third block is a little blurry. Sometimes I like the look of this block, and sometimes I don't. Not sure why. Again, the green in this block is another scrap given to me by my neighbor. It has little dots all over it, in various colors. The photo is just not quite in focus. Oh, and I love this background fabric. Is is a washed floral print. Very pretty fabric.

Last week when we went to Phoenix, I took my tatting with me. I have to admit that this photo is out of focus too. (Yes, I guess you can tell that by looking!) Anyway, this is the same pattern that I've done before, but I added beads to it, and joined the 12 repeats into a circle. I think it would make a nice Christmas tree ornament, or I think I will keep it to put on a crazy patch pillow the next time I make a few of them. The grid the tatting is laying on is 1 inch squares, so you get an idea of the size of the tatted circle.

Well, next post I'll try to have some pictures of the one block wonder blocks I made in a class a couple weeks ago. I really am liking how they were turning out. And yes, I've added this project to my list of "things to do".

Oh, on the quilt for my nephew: The label is on, and I'm about 1/2 way around sewing on the binding (by hand) One or two more sewing sessions on it and I can mark it done on my list. I'm so excited to have it done.

Till next time!

A little bit of progress...

So now the boulders are done, the quilting is done, the binding is made and sewn to the front of the quilt. Oh, I also got the little bridge I made attached over the stream, so the road does not go through the stream, but over the bridge. I'm thinking of getting a permanent ink pen, and shading the boulders/roads. My quilting thread is such a close match to the dirt fabric, it is really hard to see the roads and boulders!! So what's left?? Sewing the second side of the binding, and attaching the label. I made the label months ago, and saw it recently, so I should be able to find it fairly fast, even with moving to camp and then back again. I'd stay up and do a little more, but....

Tomorrow we head down to Phoenix. I will be taking all the reports, books, files, deposit receipts, etc, etc that I have from camp. Then I told Bonnie that I would work with her on getting the credit card info sorted out. This year due to one thing and then another, we spent the first 4 weeks of camp with NO credit card processing. Oh, we took the cards, and wrote them on slips. But by the time the stuff got taken to Phoenix, and processed, Bonnie is having a dickens of a time sorting out what each ticket paid for, so she doesn't know what account to credit the money to. So I'll be working with her tomorrow while Steve is at his meeting. I guess I'll have to take our dog "Jenny" in with me, as it is still WAY to HOT to leave her in the car.

So - off to bed with me, and probably no progress tomorrow. It will be late before we get home, I'm sure. Hmmm, I think I'll take my tatting with me, and work on it in the car. That might be fun!

Just a little bit of quilting

OK, I finally got into my sewing room, and worked for about an hour on a quilt I'm trying to finish up from last Christmas. Grief!! But I'm pleased with what I did. It's for a nephew, and has construction trucks on it. Some of you have probably seen the fabric. Anyway on the ends, I added more "dirt" and I added a lake on one end. I just finished quilting the "waves" into the lake. Hopefully tomorrow I can get "boulders" between the "roads".
G'night all!

A little bit more about camp

As I'm still working on the camp paperwork and the house (I've not even started on weeding the yard!!), I've not gotten anything done in the way of sewing or tatting to show you. So I thought I'd share a few things about camp.

This picture shows a part of our new lake. It is man made, so it is not very large, but those trees you see are on the island. It is big enough that we were able to offer rowing and canoeing merit badges. Oh, and the name of that boat - "Jim O'Boyle" is named after the scoutmaster my kids had that helped both of them earn their Eagle Badge.

Next Picture:

In the shadows of this picture are 2 very large elk. You will probably want to make the picture bigger to get a better look. There were about 6-8 elk just relaxing under the trees. They were only 25-50 yards away, but that was close enough for me. Boy were they beautiful! And just to prove we really were at the Grand Canyon, here is a picture.

And one more picture for your viewing pleasure. We had an International Scout this year at camp. His name is Laiyin and he is from Jakarta, Indonesia. Here he is, presenting an award from his country to our Camp Director. He also had one for Council that he presented to Suzanne. What an honor to be given such an award.

Laiyin was a wonderful representative from his country. We learned many interesting things, but what I found most unusual is that Laiyin LOVES McDonalds french fries. In fact he says that there is a McDonalds on every corner in Jakarta, and at the movie theater, you don't order popcorn, you get an order of McD's french fries!! (that is the part I found unusual) It is great learning about different cultures!

Well, I hope even tho this was not about quilting, etc, you found it interesting.

Hugs!