Mail

I had a great mail day yesterday.

I won a cone of thread from Shawn Bailey at Thread Tails on a blog giveaway.

It is King Tut…. and I may use it on my One Block Wonder quilt I am working on.  I never considered green for that quilt, but it works!  I love how well this thread runs on our Gammills.  Thanks so much Shawn!

I also got great mail from my 4 (almost 5) year old granddaughter, Elizabeth.  She sent me a wonderful card.  I didnt take pictures of the envelope or the outside of the card, but here is the inside:

In case you need a little help… it says:

Elizabeth

!ouY knahT

Grandma Gayle

her Mom wrote out Thank You Grandma Gayle for her…… she already knows how to write her own name.  Actually, she has written my name different times too, but didnt remember how to spell it.  So she was copying the words thank you.

She was thanking me for the Valentine’s Day cards I sent to her and her little brother.  (William is year and half)  So….. I asked Elizabeth what she did with the money I sent.  (3 dollar bills in each card…. yeah, I’m cheap.  They have everything under the sun already)

E    I put it in my bank.

G    What did William do with his?

E    Put it in my bank.  (giggling)

G    You mean he put it in HIS bank?

E     No, I MEAN….. I told him to put it in MY bank!  (now laughing)

uh huh.  She has the world wrapped.

Dove on steroids?

Steve and I dont think that bird in the previous post is a dove.  Not a pigeon either.  Looks like one, but honest….. it’s at least twice the size of a normal mourning dove.  We have lots of mourning doves.  They live in our Blue Spruce tree.  We see them and hear them daily.

The bird we saw the other day is a touch smaller than a full grown red tail or sharp shinned hawk.

So….. any more guesses as to what it is?  A dove on steroids?

What is it?

Can anyone help us figure out what this bird is?  Ive spent hours and hours yesterday and today trying to figure it out from my bird book and the internet.

A young hawk?  A young kestrel?  Other guesses?  Educated answers?

It was right outside our back door in the cherry tree yesterday.  We watched it for about 20 minutes.  Not skittish like most hawks who have been very skittish this time of year.  I think it is their mating season.  I know it is nesting and mating season for owls.

And here is my sharpshinned hawk that likes to hunt in the thicket for mice and chipmunks.

Isn’t it beautiful?  I love to watch it fly too.

Leaving in my sleep

I will be leaving in my sleep this week:

Maybe the correct spelling is leafing.  Lots of white background on this quilt…. all getting a leaf fill.

Fat Tuesday

In honor of Fat Tuesday….

one of my tributes to New Orleans …..

“Masquerade”

Snow Dyed fabric 2

Not sure what I will do with this fabric, but probably put it in some art quilts.  And the red is going to be a back for next year’s show quilt I think.

These are all the ones I did yesterday.

The blue one is Steve’s favorite.  The last one is my favorite.

And here is my OBW in progress.  Not sure if I will add some cubes to it…. or just make it into a regular hex star SnW (stack n whack).  Have to look at it awhile and let it talk to me.    I love this fabric, darn pretty, but it is so darn busy laid out this way.  But then, all OBWs are busy, right?

Guess What I Did Today?

Guess what I did today…….

You cant tell?

Really???

It was a PERFECT day.  It has been snowing non stop for 2 days.  Wont quit till late tomorrow.  Perfect day for a jammie day in my studio!

I cut up the rest of my fabric for my One Block Wonder (OBW) quilt I am working on, and made another 48 blocks.

And I did some more snow dyeing of fabric.  Hey, if it’s gonna be crappy weather, why not take full advantage of it?

And Steve made supper.

Perfect day!

Photos of fabric tomorrow.  I’m too tired to go shoot em and load em to the computer tonite.

Oh!  And perfect too because I heard from several friends from my hometown…. friends I hadnt heard from in many years…. because I found them on Facebook.  There are lots of people I dont care about finding… and would rather they didnt find me too…. but these few were terrific to find!

Yep, a great day.

To top it off?

My granddaughter called me up.  Nothing like a phone call from a 4 year old to brighten someone’s day!  Thanks Elizabeth.

Raffle Quilt Done

I finished the raffle quilt yesterday.  Someone else has to bind it, so these pictures are from when the quilt was hot off the machine.

Lousy pictures…. and I hadnt even been drinking.  Oh, I dont drink.  I must have had tremors or something.  Sorry.

And here’s the back.  I like it!

The technical part:  Quilter’s Dream Puff batting, So Fine thread, all work done freehand…except for the vein of the feathers in the setting triangles, that was done with a ruler.

Dying??

I know I am older……

heck, you can even call me old……

yesterday I got a series of phone calls that have me wondering if someone else knows more than i do about me…..

10am  call selling estate planning services

noonish  call selling nursing home insurance

3pm  call selling funeral services

I gave up and quit answering the phone yesterday!

And FYI…. I dont have time to die.  I have too much dyeing and sewing and quilting to do!

And I need to see more birds….

like this woodpecker

And this bird that I have been watching for several days.  I dont know what it is.  He is VERY fast…. and he always knows if the camera is directed at him and flies away.  Ah, but I finally got him…… patience works!

Street Walking

No, not THAT kind of street walking.

I have been trying to get out and walk a few times a week since our road is no longer covered in 3 inches of ice.  It isnt a very exciting walk, and I can only go about a half mile, but I have been finding it enjoyable.

I took the camera with me Monday on my street walk.  Here is just a taste of what I saw:

This is the new road going back into our neighbor’s woods.  The road goes a LONG ways back.  They cut out all those trees to make way for the heavy equipment for drilling a new gas well.  The well is drilled, fracked and probably all connected up to the new gas lines now.  We saw them laying gas pipe last week.  At the bottom left is where the porta potty was.  It has been there for about 2 mos.  And Saturday it was tipped over, laying down on it’s side.  Monday it was gone.  Spose those workers are just shitting in the woods instead now?  I bet they are.  Glad my well is UPstream, not downstream from the way the water flows.

I saw lots of birds on my walk….. here’s a cardinal that was singing to me.

I have been fascinated by this next shot.  I have been taking the shot in my mind many times this winter.  I think it reminds me of the San Andreas fault in California.  I have taken pictures of the fault many times, and it just makes me think of that.  Of course, this is not a fault in the ground, it is just a ditch that the farmer made to help water run off his field better.

Lots of marshmallows left.  (wrapped baleage)  These give Steve hay-envy.  They give me ….. umm, …. nothing.   Cept they make an interesting shape in the crooked rows.

This beautiful field is planted in corn or hay every year.  Last year was corn, as you can see.  When they plant this field with hay, it is a combo of clover and orchard grass.  This field used to be part of a huge potato farm years ago.

And most exciting of all on this trip was seeing green:

I dont know what that is growing in the ditch along the road…. probably weeds.  I dont even care what it is…… it’s GREEN and GROWING!  After 2 mos of snowcover, it was a delightful sight.

And tonite’s forcast?  5 new inches of snow.

Thanks for taking a walk with me….. back to quilting!