Sometimes I Just Need a FINISH!!

Do you have days when you just need to finish something?

I did yesterday!!

My studio is still torn up because spring has arrived and with it comes the season of bird migration.  

 I want to be outside enjoying all the "firsts of the year" -- crabapple blossoms ready to burst open.

 Or the meadows of a local park dotted with mist-bejeweled webs of orb spiders!

I want to sit and watch the pine siskins draining the finch feeder at the rate of about 1/2 pound of seed a day!?!  What began a week ago as 1 bird off and on during the day has become a flock of 12 to 15 birds for most of the day.

This feeder has not been vacant for over a week.  There is cracked corn and a wealth of fresh dandelion seeds in the surrounding lawn, but they only have beaks for the finch feeder.  Northeast Ohio is their wintering range according to Sibley's Guide to Birds but I rarely see them until late April/early May and then typically just for a day or so as they are return to Canada to breed.

A local birding acquaintance, Jon Cefus, shared this lovely close-up with me.   

Siskins are related to goldfinches, same size, but don't have the striking colors and can be easily mistaken for a sparrow.  For such a social bird, they are a bit cranky at the feeder with lots of bickering about who gets to sit on which perch.  The amount of yellow (see the wing bar) varies and they have a thinner, pointed beak unlike the other small finches.

 

Fair weather and southerly winds brings birds into our area over night during the spring so every morning brings the possibility of something new but with only northerly winds for the past 12 days, we aren't seeing much action and are getting a bit restless.  So yesterday, my birding daughter and I headed over to Northwest Ohio and Magee Marsh for 3 hours of up-close birding on a boardwalk through a lakefront marsh forest remnant that is one of the top 10 birding spots in the USA.

We had a modest 50 species and only 8 warblers but there are always interesting "firsts" to enjoy.  A whip-poor-will might have been a first for both of us -- we've heard them on trips in the southern US but I can't recall actually seeing this night insect hunting bird.

And then there was this tidy pile of feathers -- looked like a thrush was someone's breakfast. 

I wonder if anyone saw the event?

However, my lack of stitching progress is also frustrating so yesterday I decided a FINISH would be just the thing to settle my restless spirit.  So when we returned home, I set to attaching the lining to the dilly bag I've been piecing for the past month.  It's Brigitte Giblin's Nundle Dilly Bag pattern which she says should take about a week -- perhaps the decision making about the fabric slowed me down?

It turned out larger than I expected so I've decided to give it to my knitting daughter for her birthday.  I added two pockets -- a long one with several divisions for needles and a smaller one for miscellaneous bits.

It was an easy process to make the lining, add the pockets, create casings and ties.  The lining is interfaced to give the bag more body.

The only problem is that I can't seem to get a good picture of the bag which is large enough to hold enough yarn to knit a sweater.  Perhaps my iron gives you some perspective.

I think I'll make another one by machine and see how the Set-In Piecing Simplified technique works for a shaped piece like this.

 

So it was a very good day -- the best of both my worlds -- a day of birding and a stitching finish!  The frosting on the cake was looking up from my computer just now to see the first of the year ruby-throated hummingbird sucking nectar from the feeder. 

 

Maybe today, I'll paint . . . . .

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

Did you miss me?

A couple of you have contacted me over the weekend wondering what happened to my usual Friday post?  Well, check this out and you'll begin to understand.

 

The studio painting project has become something of an avalanche.  I got out alive but my camera is still buried in there.  The video is an experiment with my Kindle Fire -- sort of amusing, don't you think?

 

I have managed some stitching every evening for the past few days -- I'm making Brigitte Giblin's Nundle Dilly Bag (find it HERE) which is an English paper piecing project.  This photo shows my progress to date (phone camera this time).  My color/fabric combination is more subdued, perhaps more American, than Brigitte's pattern suggests.  I have to admit I don't get how to do that Aussie Bohemian look.  But I already have plans to make a second one by machine using Marti Michell's templates and the Set-In Piecing Simplified technique featured in my DVD and will take a stab at a more something fabric mix.

I also scored a "finish" -- my March pull for the 2016 APQ Resolution challenge.  My APQS George is not in the studio so I can work there unencumbered by the piles of treasures.  This is my son's Ohio BiCentennial quilt designed and pieced by his mother in 2003 which was coincidentally, Ohio's BiCentennial.  

 How do you label pieces that take 13 years to finish?

 I kept to my comfort zone quilting designs, arcs and straight lines.  I used the strategy for laying out the simple border design that I shared with you HERE.  Comforting to know that it works!

And then there was the weather?  Spring is in full swing after 3 weeks of cold days alternating with mild days.  The woods are calling me and there are new birds in my yard everyday.  Sunday afternoon, I worked in the garden all afternoon and witnessed a first (for me) ever event.  American toads found my garden pond three years ago and Sunday afternoon they returned! 

And I was there to see it all. 

These two embraced for 3 hours and left several hundred eggs along the edges of the pond. 

How could I stay inside sorting piles with that going on?

Can you see both toads?  I spotted the female first and then realized there was a second set of eyes -- the smaller male -- on her back.  They were still singing on Monday afternoon and "first of the year" migrant birds were showing up at my feeders -- pine siskin, purple finch, and yellow-rumped warbler for the curious -- so not much was accomplished.  Nice thing about stitching, it doesn't go anywhere while I'm off cavorting!

 

I hope you are enjoying the change of seasons in your part of the world!!

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

Selfish Sewing?!?

Over the past year or so, I've developed a blogger friendship with Australian quilt maker, Carla at Granny Maud's Girl.  Carla and I met during the 2015 Stash Bee and made blocks for one another.  For 2016, Carla decided to focus on a bit of "selfish sewing" and is doing a monthly feature, "Bee, Myself, and I" to share her selfish success -- you can read about it HERE.

Since most of my stitching this year has been focused on "goals" -- some for the 2016 Finish Along and some for the APQ 2016 Resolution challenge, I like the sound of Carla's idea!  So my selfish sewing this month has been to do something I really want to do with NO deadline!! 

And here it is!

I've been sitting on my hands about starting this project ever since I first saw it on Brigitte Giblin's website.  It's the Nundle Dilly-Bag (see it in glorious color HERE).  It's English paper pieced which I find relaxing and a good size bag at 22" across and 16" tall.  The hexagons are 1 1/2" so it will be a quick project.

My color inspiration came about while working through the blue shelves in my stash -- weeding out pieces, sorting what I keep back into stacks by value (light, medium, dark), and generally tidying the shelves up.  This morning glory print from Hoffman Fabrics surfaced with a bit of nostalgia about the old days when I owned a quilt shop.  As you can see, it's a subtle print -- the leaves are more gray than green and the ivory background keeps the contrast of the print soft. 

As I folded and sorted, I set aside any blue that looked good with the morning glories -- the darks were the most difficult to select since they look harsh but they might be needed so I pulled a few. 

I pulled some prints that will be interesting to fussy cut. 

And this "stripe" has possibilities suggested by Karen at Faeries and Fibres in recent post about using stripes in hexagons HERE.

This print is a charmer and there is a big hunk -- good addition -- lining perhaps? 

I want a bit of another color that will maintain the soft look -- I considered grays and greens -- greens won.  

This is one of my favorite prints from King's Road Imports back in the 90's -- I hope I can work it into my piece!  I hoarded a good size hunk of every color way they printed.

So here is the beginning of the base of the bag.  Not so sure about the dark hexies at this point, but the easiest way to be sure is to try.  You know that a basted hexie will never go to waste even if it doesn't make the cut!! 

I'm looking forward to hearing what Carla and her other friends have been up to for their selfish sewing during the month of March!!

To see what the other quilters have been doing for their "selfish" sewing, go HERE.

I hope your weekend has all the stitching time you want!

Mary Huey

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