Meet the Hummers

Sitting on Millie's chair which had
been put outdoors temporarily.

Richard has been feeding the birds again. Well, he never really stopped. But he's now feeding them to keep them safe from hunters. You see, dove season has begun. 

Doves on the barbeque pit? Not a little ironic, right?

For someone who was a hunter, he sure is working hard to keep his fat doves happy at home. With no intention of shooting them himself, of course.

Two of the four feeders at Will and Stacey's house

And then there are the hummers. We apparently live along the flight path of migrating hummingbirds. A couple of weeks ago we got a Facebook video from our oldest son. He's holding two hummingbird feeders in his hands while the birds are swarming him and eating from the feeders. 

Only six in this grainy picture.

Richard has been outdone! He is now filling the feeders several times a day. The one just outside the kitchen window needs sugar water at least four or five times daily. I think I heard him talking to them, but I won't swear to it. 

My job in all of this, you ask? Well, I get to enjoy the birds. Song birds regale me as I walk through the yard. The doves coo when I sit in my favorite chair in the shade. And I can stand at my kitchen window and enjoy the antics of those flighty little hummers. They are something to see. I take pictures upon pictures, but I can't seem to catch them doing something really funny. 

This feeder is just outside my kitchen
window. I can watch the hummers
incognito while standing at my sink.

I saw one stand on another's back and both drink from the same spout. A female somehow poked her beak into the crack along the top of the feeder where the lid is screwed on and flew around the feeder sucking the sugar water from the crack as she went. She did not break stride or have to right herself. How do they not get dizzy? I get vertiginous just watching them!

They are interesting little fliers. Too bad they've already begun moving to more southerly homes. Almost all those territorial males have left, so the females are gearing up for their flight. Richard has devious plans for next summer. Will and Stacey had better stock up on sugar!

Thread Cabinet ~~ Richard's Finish!

My husband. My wonderful, loving husband. Forty years we've been husband and wife. 

He's is one put-together guy and knows oh-so-many things. Sometimes I think he just knows all the things. I have no clue how he can know or understand all these concepts and mechanics and stuff. 

He can fix a leaky pipe, cook a meal, cut down a tree, explain a football game. He can tell you how safe (or in danger) you are, how to fix just about anything mechanical, figure out interest rates, grow a garden to feed the neighbors. I've barely begun, but I'll stop because there's something wonderful that I want to show you.

Most recently he's been showing off his carpentry skills. It's taken a while but finally, it's finished. Even better, his carpentry has been working for me!  

Check out the drawers in my cabinet: thread drawers, you see.

There are five drawers, each one with three shelves. The number of spools depends on the size of said spools, but I've put at least 10 on a shelf. Which means it can easily hold up to 150 spools regular embroidery spools. 

The drawers pull out completely so I have easy access to the spools at the back of each shelf and can see all of the colors at once. (Isn't that a cool feature?!) Don't look at the paint job. That's my mess. Rich wanted to clean it up, but I insisted that he deliver the cabinet instead. I'm leaving it. And that's the end of the discussion.  

I've arranged the spools by color, of course. The librarian in me insisted. It's the same system I use for fabric...white, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, navy, gray, black. Sort of ROYGBIV, Mary style.

The cabinet sits on my sewing table close to my embroidery machine. Custom made for that spot, which I chose. It's a great improvement over the open system that I had before, thanks to Richard's thinking: the cabinet has doors to keep dust and light out. So now do you see why I give such accolades to the man with whom I hope to grow old? 

Crazy at Walmart

Our local Walmart is making some changes. Well, apparently lots of changes. One of the many is that they are closing down the fabric department. Bad news, good news. 

The bad news is long-term: some of the elderly who sew won't have easy access to fabric. The closest is about a hour away and few drive through Alexandria to get there.

The good news is short-term: fabric is on clearance. For $1 a yard. Yes indeed, you read that right. $1. Per. Yard.

Now I'd heard that there was a big clearance. But I wasn't impressed when the sale was only a dollar off the regular price. 

But when Mrs. Flora called and told me that the store had gotten in additional fabric to clear out, I had to find out what kind of fabric. Let's just say I came away with a few pieces. For a total of about 40 yards. Oops. So much for the fabric diet. Haha. 

Some of it I have specific plans for. I cut out a skirt the same day. 

Other pieces are already folded and in the stash. 

Other pieces are sitting on the worktable waiting. I'm not sure what they are waiting for but that's okay. They are bound to start niggling at me. Does fabric sitting out do that with you? Quibble with you about just what it needs? 
(or maybe a quibble)

Krotz Springs Quilt Guild Show

Some of my favs. I love the colors and patterns.

Krotz Springs always has a great show. First there are plenty of quilts to see and several vendors, who are all members of the guild. Second, they have trunk shows throughout the day. 

I'm not sure how one decides whether the quilt(s) belong in the show or in a trunk. I assume the quilts that are hanging are quilts  finished in the past year, but those in trunks could have been made at any point in time. There are usually three or four trunk shows, so the members take turns presenting their trunks.

Some of the many quilts made with
reproduction print fabrics.

Pam and I try to arrive early to have enough time to view everything before the trunk shows begin. Once those are over, and we've visited enough, we go to the only sit-down restaurant in town and have a great meal. Today we both had chicken-fried steak. Yum!

Having a show in a venue that is not quite large enough presents a few problems, which the guild has managed to work around but not really solved. The quilts line the walls, the vendors sit at tables only a few feet in front of the quilts and the trunk show/entertainment happen in the center of the room. Chairs lined up in the very center provide seating throughout the day.
  

Still, I don't like that I can't get close enough to most of the quilts to really look at them. One reason that I love shows is that I have an opportunity to scrutinize the work. While that sounds that I may be the quilt police, I only want to learn. 









I like figuring out the blocks, looking closely at the quilting, appreciating the applique. The women in this guild are especially talented. Their works are exquisite, so it would be a wonderful opportunity to learn. 

I suppose we all do our best, and for Krotz Springs, this is their best. The venue is great in every other way, and certainly it would be impossible to hold anything out-of-doors in the 100 degree heat. So we visit with old friends, see fabulous quilts, shop, and enjoy the show and fabulous door prizes. What is your favorite part of a quilt show?

Storage in the Studio {scour and scrub}

I've wanted to do a little cleaning in the studio for a while now. The problems of stuff piled and stacked in every inch of real estate overwhelms me. Additionally, there are things that simply do not belong in the studio. Period.

The new cabinet the middle part
with drawers is what we started with.

I started working on the problems a few weeks ago when I asked Richard to help me. Now, Richard is one of those people who is patient and loving and truly wants to help. Now. Right NOW.

After painting, there's lots of storage in this baby

I tend to forget that he's a "get it done" guy, because he often anticipates my needs, and they just sort of appear when I need them. In this case, there's no way he could anticipate what was happening in my head. Let's face it: my head. 

Right next to the long-arm, it holds all of my thread, rulers, and tools
for the long-arm and a few other items like interfacing and Heat and Bond 

So I asked for help: please take this little bench with the drawers  and build it up so there will be a base with more cabinets on the bottom and a few shelves on the top of the cabinet.  The base came in that afternoon, and I had to stop everything to get it in place. The following day we had plans or an appointment, so it took two days to get the shelves in, but then he had to take them out and do some more work. He's OCD about things being "right." 

I convinced him to help me paint, which means he painted most of the cabinet because I was too slow and didn't do it correctly. But they got painted and look great. 

Oh my! What a little paint will do! I haven't completely finished putting things away in this cabinet, but Richard almost filled it with things he decided needed to be put away. Let's hope I can find it! No matter, I have a wonderful, loving husband.

Houston IQA {3} Ribbons!

Every quilt on this post is a ribbon winner. That's about all I can tell you. It's possible to look them all up in the catalog, which I always purchase, but if I take time for that, you get fewer photos. I'm going with the photos. You can look up the winners in the catalog which is now online. 

Janet Stone's Garden Variety Sampler which won Best of Show 

And a tighter look at parts of the quilt...

My personal favorite part of the quilt is the topiaries.

Did you notice the sheep?

Can you just imagine!

Old Man River Quilt Show ~~ Natchez, MS

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Natchez Quilt Show with a van of very funny ladies. Most of the "Busy Bees" are from the Fifth Ward area of our parish, but because they could not fill all of the seats on the van, they invited members of my quilt guild. Rather than drive as we did last year, Pam and I decided to take the van. 

We arrived early which gave us several hours to spend at the show; then we went to a sweet little quilt shop. More on that and more pictures from the show later in the week (I took well over 100) So I'm going to share a few of my favorites with you tonight and come back to them when I can finish the editing.

I brought a book along to read during the drive thinking that because I knew so few people, I wouldn't chat very much. Well, I didn't get much reading done. I was having too much fun talking and laughing. I took the opportunity to make some like-minded friends. I'm fairly sure I'll see them again, perhaps on a bus or van heading to a quilt show.

Here's hoping that you enjoyed my little quilt show. There were at least 100 or so quilts and I wanted to really look at a few. I took detailed pictures of some, but mostly I walked slowly and appreciated the beautiful work. Talk about inspired! I just wish I could do some of this work. 

Two things left: don't forget the poor people who are dealing with the flooding along the Gulf Coast. The rains continue and more people are being displaced. It's a horrible situation for tens of thousands of people.

Lastly, come back in a few days for more of these gorgeous quilts. Before going, do me the favor of telling me which was the last quilt show you attended and where it was. If you wrote about it on a post, feel free to include the link--I'd love to run over and have a look. Thanks y'all!