Birds, Bobbins and Birdbrains

I have a half an hour before I have to leave for my big Performance Test.

Figured I needed to get the Birds on the frame yesterday.  Took me forever! 

I got the backing on and it just wasn't sitting right.  No matter what I did it kinked.

So I took a blue marker and made some lines where it was off and took it to the machine to do some take up sewing. 

Ah, tres bien!  Don't you hate that?  You think you get the back all worked out straight and then it doesn't work out?  It really makes it worthwhile though, when you spend the extra time making it work out.

And I am one of those people who hate those details.  I generally let the "quilter" make it work out!  LOL.









Then I debated on what color I needed to make the back thread.   I chose a yellow poly I have worked with before and have a love/hate relationship with.  I liked the yellow, and the sheen, and the fact that I only had 4 free bobbins. 

Does your bobbin case look like this?

So what do you do with all your leftover bobbins?  Do you just buy more empty bobbins?  Do you take off the leftover thread and dump it?  Do you just keep them like this? 

I have a lot of that teal blue because I ran bobbins then changed my mind about the color I wanted on the back of the quilt somewhere in time.



Like this one.  After I got the first bird quilted, the block had a yellow cast to it, and I wanted it to be white.  Maybe it was my imagination.  Maybe it was real........but I spent half of My 600 Lb Life ripping it out!

Soooooooooooo

And I took all the thread off the 4  bobbins I ran and refilled them with white cotton. 

I will re-do the block with white thread today and see if it still looks YELLOW to me and see if I just need new eyes.




 This is the basil that was so tiny when I planted it!  Growing like a weed!  I pulled some leaves and  brought them to my PT people yesterday.  The chalk seems to be hanging in there with the rains and sun beating on it.  Kudos to PATTY!

DiNozzo.......says, he is NOT the dog eating the lettuce on the lower level of the herb garden. 

But he did ask for me to plant some tomatoes this year......

Number 8, Please Step Forward!

Judy at Patchwork Times has pulled number 8 for the next UFO to work on.

And I will use this and the Asterisk quilt for REME Guild as my One Monthly Goal for March.  I can't figure out what color to make the center.  If this continues, it will be plain blank.

I am pleased to introduce to you (drumroll please)

 Nummmmmm - berrrrrrrrr 8...........


The Bird Quilt! It is my new favorite thing in the world!  (get it??)

It has several names,  and I guess now I really should figure out what to finally call it, for once and for all.

The Daily Bird - because every day in December I made a new bird and there are 31 of them in the quilt.









 Bird Is The Word - If you remember, every bird had his (or her) own story.  It was sometimes a color story or it could be a person story.  Or just some crazy imaginings in my head.

And if you are my age, you might remember this ditty:

The Bird is the Word     oh, you gotta watch this to the end!
Frank  used to imitate this guy all the time.  Must have been in his manic episodes!  



But if you are younger, you might remember this one, and think it was written for this episode of the Family Guy:

bird is the word 



or this one......  bird is the word

OMG.......now the stupid thing in in my head forever.

Definitely found the name, huh?   Now to find the quilting design.  Lynne, how did you quilt yours?

Rainy Day Sewing

The  Block Lotto is back in full swing.  If you played with them before you might want to head over and see what is happening now.  There are guest Lotto Masters who guide the months rather than Sophie doing all the work.  New and fresh. 

So this month is using up some orphan blocks and scraps.  I was going to do more, but I ended up with 5 blocks.  The orphans need to be 3 1/2 unfinished and my orphans are all larger blocks.  So I used up these 5 for the pot.

Not particularly  my cup of tea but I will offer them up as donation blocks for the kitty.

I spent the afternoon clearing up some of the clutter I created on my sewing table.  Boy, is it a mess!

One of the things was the back that needed to be sewn for the Daily Bird. Basically what I do is just hang up the quilt top and cover it with the backing material.

Then I fill in the gaps! 

I generally add a white or ecru square for the label information.  I like that better than sewing on labels at the end.    See the birds through the label? 

You can see my One Road Through Town piece that will be in at least one show this spring.  Maybe two.  I will have to see what it gets juried into. 

I got another tree block done tonight.  Nothing on TV,  so I just sewed.  The block is next to Red.

I will even them out when they are all done.  

Here is the whole layout so far.  The long piece on the right will be the border.  I will start laying out the words soon. 

AND.......you will be pleased to know.  I think I have my next quilt chosen.  My friend Bertha in California sent me the templates for the one she did.  I will have to ask her if I can post it.  It is amazing.  More on that later though.

I had the book it came from, but of course it flooded. 

And I need to quilt a few things before I get too far ahead on the tops........not that
I am not far enough behind in everything, but you know what I mean........

Cold Birds.......

The temps reached all the way to 29 today.  Positively sweltering.  We are now heading toward 48 hours below freezing.  My fountain is almost solid, and the dog water has been solid since Monday.

I picked up frozen poop all day. 

I am putting the birds together.  I must have made a million HSTs.  Every time I thought I had the spaces filled, I would see more to fill.  I was moving them around until they had a comfortable place to nest.

Interestingly the twins did not want to be next to each other.  And the Love Birds...Oh my!  They wouldn't leave the nest long enough to get any HSTs!

I hit on a great fabric sale and bought 4 yard lengths for backings.  This grey one I bought 8 yards.

I am thinking the yellow birds, well, will be for the Daily Bird Quilt.










Here are some other fabrics that came in the shipment somehow.  Also in 4 yard lengths, go figure.

The solid grey is actually a pale aqua, maybe a teal.....which is more green I guess.

I started filling in the holes and some birds got an extra layer of HSTs.

I couldn't get these two silly birds to stand correctly.   They wanted to hang  off the side of the design wall.

Some got  a surrounding of HSTs.

Still clinging to the side though.

 I decided to add a date and my initials to some of the larger spaces. It was either that or  more HSTs.  I intended to try some branch blocks, but totally became obsessed with making those HSTs. The 2 really does look weird, though, huh?

Here is what it currently looks like.  I hope it is not jumbled looking.  What do you think?

I am going to use  this as my OMG for January!  Go see the rest of  everybody's goals for the month.








I started putting the blocks together in larger blocks.  Here is my first corner.



Geez, those Love Birds................look at the mess they made on the floor.....

A Daily Bird and Quilt Inspiration

There is quilt inspiration everywhere if you have the idea to look for it.

While we were in Nova Scotia i saw this incredible design.  It was in the town of Millbrook just north of Halifax as we were heading back to the city.  The Mi'kmaq Museum had just opened the week before we arrived.

Click on Mi'kmaq to read about their culture. 

A great find in the museum was this spectacular quilt.  The children of the Reservation were asked to draw pictures of their lives and the summer games held each year.

Their pictures were made into a quilt!

Some pictures were really insightful and artful in themselves.

And there was this huge Indian outside.  That is Frank standing beside him looking teeny tiny!

Looking up, I loved the use of fabric, probably canvas.

The birds wold have a lovely time cavorting in that sunny atrium.



The Daily Bird is so up to date, you would not believe it is me doing this.

This Dove flew in just today.  Well, last night actually.  In the middle of the night he comes whooshing in the window.

I see why he came, it seems he needs some sort of surgery to correct his gay leg.  It is a serious problem as it looks like it has fallen off the poor guy.  I wonder how that could have happened.

I asked him if he had been in a fight or something, he vehemently stated he was a Dove of Peace.  Hmmmm.

Drew Brees' Knees

Last year Frank bought me that Laser Christmas Light Show.  Last year we were (unhappily) living in the camper, if you will recall.

Who knows where it went after Christmas was over.  I had even forgotten we had it.

Tonight Frank comes in with the laser light, but it is somehow violently detached from its stand and has no clicker to control the various displays.

So it is stuck on the green/red show, which is fine.  And he screwed the light to a stake and stuck it in the ground.

So this is what we look  like now.  One long string of lights, one laser light show and one backlit Swissy Christmas flag.

And I am happy.  We have Christmas lights at least.  I guess next year we will have to put up a tree for the grandbaby.

Tomorrow is the CAAWS Volunteer Appreciation Party so I will be consumed with duties and work. 

 I met my cousin Karen at Middendorf's (my favorite restaurant)  an hour away.  She lives in Destrehan and we meet in fried catfish heaven every month or two.

She is an acupuncture vet and has cats.  One of her cats is Drew Brees and the other is Deuce McAlister, both Saints players.  Drew is black with a red collar.  And golden eyes.

Here is Drew Brees the Cat Bird.

I don't know if the real Mr. Brees has problems with his legs, but true to my stable of birds, my Drew Brees had problems with his legs.  Can you spot the problem?

Lordy, lordy.

Saturday we are meeting with Frank's cousin.   THAT ought to be interesting......

And love birds are coming for the love starved Julie.

Challenge Bird and Improv Quilts

(I am linking up with a kokaquilts' Sew Stitch Snap Share #18) click here to go to see the post

Do you see this?

I love Rayna Gillman and her Improv Quilts!

My friend Patty the Quilt Lady has a quilt featured in Rayna's new book.  And somewhere in there She and Rayna discussed me and the flood........and there was a book headed in my direction!

Thank you Patty!




I spent a couple of wistful hours reading and looking at the pictures, as you know you would, right!  This is while I was waiting for my Guildmates who never showed up..........

Patty signed the page her quilt is on.  I totally love it. 


Bird Challenge?  You don't expect me to pass up a Challenge of any sort, do you?  Oh, wait.......

You probably knew that, huh?

OK.  Bird.

This is Sawyer in his new wheels.  It makes vvvrooom-ing sounds when he pulls that gearshift lever.  Which he finally figured out how to do.

And the various things light up.  It is bright and happy and he loves those yellow eye things on the front. He leans over and looks at them all the time.

So I took the colors from his walker to make a Sawyer Bird.

His beak is dark blue like the bottom bumper.  And the lip looking things on the wing reminded me of the eye things that fascinate the boy.

And the legs are fat........just like Sawyer's little fat legs!  LOL.  

I seem to have an issue with something on every bird.  See the 'square' head.  It is pretty accurate, because Sawyer's head is a bit flat in the back.....

But I went ahead and ripped it out and fixed it........hmmmm.

I guess it still can be a bit less square, but then it wouldn't be Sawyer-Accurate, would it......

You really can't tell unless you look at the kid sideways.  That is his other grandma he is talking to here.




Don't worry, I will fill his head with all kinds of trivia and it will pop out round like all the other kids........at least by first grade, huh?

McGee Had a Great Day -- The Bird, Not So Much

I awoke to the sounds of African Wildebeests being slaughtered by packs of cheetahs, tigers and hyenas all at once.

The human voice amidst the sounds of carnage was loud and authoritarian; though it garnered no obedience.  I raced out as fast as my sleep-interrupted mind and cartilage-less knee would allow.  Which isn't all that fast.

The scene in the den was one of total chaos and destruction.  Frank had retreated into the kitchen to get a paper towel, DiNozzo was attacking Chloe.  Chloe was grabbing McGee's face. And McGee was trying to swallow something that was obviously larger than his throat.

Of course, Frank offered no answers to any questions I shouted.  I grabbed McGee and separated him from Chloe's grasp while Frank grabbed DiNozzo.  We moved them to opposite corners.  I finally understood from the guttural native grunts and pieced together words that McGee had a bird.  The bird had innocently decided to weather the blinding storm raging outside on our porch.

I was able to open McGee's mouth and shake out a fairly large fat sparrow.  Maybe it was a large fat wren.  I don't
really know, because it was immediately grabbed up by Chloe who was waiting just out of my peripheral
vision for this exact chance.

It seems she had gotten the bird first.  It commenced to fluttering in her mouth, surprising her.  So when she opened her mouth, McGee was right in there to grab it from her.  She was not happy and retaliated, hoping to slash his throat and gain back her prize.

DiNozzo was just not happy he missed the whole beginning and he had grabbed a piece of McGee's haunches and tried to make him give up the bird by making him yelp.  It wasn't working until i got there.

Chloe is much more difficult to make open her mouth.  Being 9 years with us and having eaten her share of poop, she was very used to me trying to get that out of her mouth. She had developed rock solid jaw clenching muscles that served her well in this case.

NOT!

But somehow the bird was released to the floor (at least it was not on my new expensive oriental rug) and Frank grabbed it gingerly with his Select A Size Bounty paper towel (he had selected the smallest size, you understand, he is pretty cheap).  But the bird must have touched his finger and he yelled like a girl and dropped it on my new expensive oriental rug.

Right into DiNozzo's waiting maw.

I was pretty sure by now the bird was fairly well dead.  It had gone through all three dog's mouths and probably commited suicide in Chloe's poop mouth.  I know I would have.

DiNozzo was divested of the bird after I grabbed his upper jaw (don't ever grab the lower one or you could break it) and pried his mouth open.  Amazingly, the bird fell out on my new expensive oriental rug.  Quickly and without thinking -- much --I grabbed it barehanded.

I had won the coveted prize!  Never had I dreamed 15 minutes earlier that the question of what to do with a bird in hand would be my driving focus.  "They" who say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush never woke up with bassets.

Everyone was fine, not a mark on anyone.  Well, except for that bird.  I am pretty sure he didn't make it.  I put him outside over the fence just in case he made a miraculous recovery as an Elijah bird.  I doubt it, but one never knows.  I have seen opossums return from the "dead".

I, of course, did not return to sleep.

I Have to Do Something BIG!

I have to do something big.  Really big.  I have the start of another nude, which I think will go on the front of a purse.  Yes. I am confident enough to put a nude on my purse and walk about town! LOL.

And, as Anne points out, she has points!  LOL.  I am anxious to see what Anne comes up with for her nude.  Maybe lounging in the desert sunset, with a greyhound by her side!

I love the dog I did here.  I took a picture of DiNozzo walking away, which wasn't easy, believe you me.  They never want to leave me alone........and I cropped it, and blew it up to desired size.  I printed it in black and white.  I love the way it turned out!  Just love it!  I may have to give up Nudes for Dogs!

While I was at Hancock's yesterday waiting for Press and Ann for dinner, I found a marking pen and eraser that I will try.  I need to
make the lines to quilt upon that will define the figures.  Like her butt and DiNozzo's butt, yes he will have a butt too!

And the big think I need to work on is getting the Halloween quilt basted and the Mystery quilt basted and the other Mystery quilt finished.

That ought to kill about 150 yards of material as they are all huge quilts!  I told ya, BIG

Remember the blue Bunting I caught at the bird feeder when I got rid of the pesky rodents squirrels?  Well, I took a Craftsy class and learned how to pixelate a photo in     Excel of all places.  Amazing.

So you should see that quilt grow and expand in time.  In the future, in the future.