Flight

"Flight" is the sixth of my twelve by twelve series.  I have not quilted the bird or moon yet but hope to later today.  I wanted this one to be more abstract and angular and wanted the wing to be the focal point.  I am not sure this background is working with this as I am now seeing fences or structures which make no sense with the moon being in the foreground. 

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Today we remember our troops and all the men & women who gave their lives for our country.  We thank each one of you for your sacrifice.

Clay & Coneflowers

 Had my grandson, Clayton, for an overnight.  He was lots of fun and is just so cute.  His brother had to stay home with his other Grandma because it was his last day of preschool.  My daughter in law wanted to take my son out for an overnite in honor of his 35th Birthday.

After we dropped Clay off,  I finished up my coneflower piece.  Now all I need is to attach the binding.

My sister surprised me on my birthday with this beautiful fabric she brought back from her recent trip to Hawaii.   Nothing better then fabric for a gift.

Coneflower progress

Still working on coneflowers.  Took a quick photo before leaving the studio to go to work, so I apologize for how bad it is. 

I had a wonderful birthday with my DH.  We went out for dinner and it was delicious.  Outside of the window we sat by was a pond with nesting Canadian Geese.  They were all out with their broods basking in the sun and walking the shoreline.  We had delicious bruschetta followed by an Arugula Salad.   The entree was a delicious Walleye on a bed of wild rice.   I was so full I could not have any cake but Bob had them wrap up a double chocolate cake with pistachios for me to eat later.  Such a nice birthday evening.  I had no trouble eating that slice of cake either.  Mmmmmmm!

Flowers Flowers Everywhere

 It has been a week of gardening.  First at my mothers and then at my house.  The garden is beautiful and the Lupines are in full bloom.

 The poppies are all open and looking spectacular in orange.

The tree peonies are also opening and are huge in pink.....

 and fushia.  I love how you see the big bud and the next morning it is wide open and gorgeous.

 All of my pots are full and I hope a nice contrast of greens and burgundys.

This is a new grass we are trying.  It reminds me of chives but is much larger.

I did get in the studio yesterday afternoon and fused this flower on.  Today I quilted all of it except the lightest purple petals which I will do in the morning.  Life is good.

Coneflowers Added

Began adding coneflowers to my 12X12 quilt .  These are the background ones so I made them darker.
Fun to be working on coneflowers again.  It is lone of my favorite flowers.

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY

A very happy Mother's Day to all Mom's.  I hope your day is full of happiness and fun!

Coneflowers Started & The Wonder of Nature

 I am beginning work on my next 12x12 quilt.  This one will be full of coneflowers.   I begin by taking my quilted background and cutting strips of grasses to add to it.

 As I fuse on the grasses I quilt them.  This makes it so much easier once they start overlapping each other.  No stopping and starting over and over.

 When I am happy with the layout and the amount I stop and now I will start making the coneflowers that will be on top of this layer.

I heard about a Redtail Hawk and Great Blue Heron nests that Cornell University Ornithology Lab had put cameras on to watch them laying their eggs and raising their chicks.  I had to take a peak since you can watch this live everyday.   Now I am hooked on watching not only them but also another two eagles nest in Minnesota & New York.   It is fascinating and I have learned so much about these birds.

 Here I am quilting and watching the Great Blue Heron's nest and her chicks.  They are older now so she is not laying on them like she did in the first few weeks.

 They are awkward and clumsy but oh so sweet and already know by instinct so many things.  The nest has been attacked numerous times at night by owls.  So far the parents have been able to fend them off.

 This is the Mother eagle with her one surviving chicks in Minnesota.   There was a terrible thunderstorm that went through and one of her chicks was blown out of the nest while the other shown here got stuck down in a sink hole of sorts caused by the deluge of rain.  The parents were unable to get this baby out of this hole and he was dying so the DNR went up and pulled him out and took him to get him back to good health.  After two days they returned him to the nest and everyone hoped the parents, which had stayed in the area, would return.  It took 24 hours of this chicks peeping until they felt safe returning.  Now she is ever vigilant and the eaglet is growing and safe.

Then there are the Urban Red Tailed Hawks who return to the same football field light and make their nest.  They are near Cornell and there is lots of car, bus, and student noises all around them as they have their own little world high above.  The three hawk chicks are just beginning to grow pin feathers and their beaks are changing from white to black.  I feel so lucky to be able to watch all these birds in their private world high up in the trees or a parking lot light structure.

Stepback

 Here is our new "pantry".  It is an 1850-70 stepback cupboard.   We first loaded the old Pastry Cabinet that was there into the pickup truck.  It actually was done in two trips to our store.  We set it back up there and priced it before we came back here.

Then we lifted the top half up on the bottom.  I am good at lifting but the bottom half is chest high so
lifting it up there was a challenge but Bob is strong and kept it steady.  Then it was time to fill it up.  It took all that I had in both the pastry cabinet and the bookshelf plus one kitchen cabinet.  We are very happy with this new look.  It was worth all the work and the rain storm yesterday.  I  only wish there was some way to know who had this first and what they did.

Crow On Limb

 After our "great adventure" this morning (I will tell you about it later) I got up in my studio and began construction on my Crow.  I started with a black background using the outline of my drawing.

I drew out all the shapes of the feathers from my drawing and selected fabric in the shades and tones that I needed building the bird in layers starting with the bottom layer which in this case is the tail feathers.

Once I was happy with the fabric selection I fused it down and placed it on my background.  This entire process took me about 1 1/2 hours.    I added a few more leaves and now will finish quilting them and the crow.

Before starting this we left at 8:30 AM for Green Bay to pick up the stepback cupboard that I mentioned yesterday.  The forecast was for late morning showers so we were trying to beat the rain.
Before we were half an hour out it began to rain.   Not only was it rain but it was RAIN!  the type you have to almost pull off the road for.  When we got to the house of the person that was selling this, Bob and the guy that was there started to wrap both sections in tarps.  The top would fit in the back of our pickup but hung out a bit.  The bottom was put on the trailer wrapped as best as possible and bungee corded down.  Bob was soaked because all of this took almost an hour.  The rain kept up all the way home.  Now we had to unload.  Luckily our neighbor across the street saw us and came over.  He is about 28 years old and has been so nice to help us when he sees we are over our head in trouble.  haha.  So he and Bob got it up on the porch where we were going to leave it to dry out but the rain just did not let up so Bob and I brought it into the front of the house and this is where it is sitting trying to dry out as you can see.

This is the back so don't worry and think .... are you nuts????  Wait til you see the front.  The wood is butternut!  It is definitely old and pre 1900.  It has a wonderful patina and I can not wait to set it up.
It definitely needs a bit more drying to do though so probably will do it tomorrow sometime.  We purchased it for about 1/4 of what it is worth.  A real find. 

Crow

 Today I had the morning free before leaving for work so I quilted the branches of my new piece.

 This is how it looks from the back.  Sometimes the back tells a story too.

 Still had time to quilt the leaves.  I like to use different colored threads that enhance the object. I love how the leaves are transformed when quilted.

 Last night I sketched out my "character" I wanted to add to this piece.  I wanted a crow with a look on his face so he would be checking out the viewer.

 I took my sketch and transfered it to tracing paper and then used the tracing paper on top of the quilt to decide on placement.

 I think I am leaning toward this one.  Fits the branches quite well.

I have to finish quilting the leaves before working on the bird tomorrow.  We are picking up a beautiful 1800's step back cupboard up in Green Bay.  It may become my new pantry if I like it.  Why buy new when you can have a piece of history instead.  It is 7 feet tall so it will fit in my kitchen.