Rocking and Rolling

Frank and I had finished up the frame this morning.  When Margaret arrived she approved of our work.  After loading the head on the carrier we leveled the frame to the machine.  Frank crawled around on the floor like a 16 year old.  I was

proud of him.   Later he told me he smashed his finger on something and was in considerable pain. I had no idea.  He said it was a matter of manly pride, he sucked it up and persevered like a real man!

When everything was to her satisfaction, Margaret showed me how to thread the machine.  And the bobbin.  Then we loaded a practice piece and played with tension adjustments.

It ran like a purring kitten and was quieter than a snoring basset.   I was so incredibly pleased.  I will quilt all my quilts on it.  The quilts will now be perfect.  And all my friends (and even my enemies) will love them and I will win all of the contests now.  Of course for the price I paid for it, I could have bought exceptional quilting services for many years to come. But I digress........


Then we put the camera in place.  I forgot to take pictures of the back where the camera is set up to view the pantograph on the shelf.  The monitor you see on the front of the head is where you see the video of the pantograph from the front of the machine.

The camera is not from HandiQuilter.  I bought it from R&S and is called QuiltCam.  You can see it by clicking here.  This will take you to the website.  I paid the show price and got a great deal!

When Margaret left, she was right, I felt like I understood the first steps of what I needed.  I immediately made drawings of the way the quilt was loaded.  And immediately after that, taped the drawings to the frame.

I am never going to remember how to do this any other way!

This, however, was how the bassets celebrated.

Reflections, Camera Zoom and Cat Heat

Happy New Year!  Soon........

It has been wild around here with the 4 dogs.  But now they are about exhausted and are sleeping. I hope that means that the next 24 hours will be easier!

I have 35 blocks from the Reflections quilt completed.  I worked most of the afternoon when I was not getting up and removing dog's ears from dog's mouths and refereeing free for all runs through the house.  It is cold outside and they go out for a bit but want in pretty quickly.  If the cat goes out they all jockey for position to be the first dog out with the cat......for obvious reasons.

Sorting the fabrics for Reflections was in the high mid level of difficulty because you had to decide if a fabric was light or dark.  Often there was no cut and dried decision.  So you can see that the quilt so far is not totally dark and light.  There are medium blends in there as well.  I have yet to add the very light center to any of the blocks, I think I will get it all together and see what they look like with that stark contrast.  I may want a lower contrast for the center.

Or none at all.  We shall see.

The cat is so cold that she hugs anything with heat.  She has been sleeping with DiNozzo, who is terrified to move once Cali settles in with him.  He knows she is no benevolent tyrant and will take his nose off in a flash second.  Chloe has shown him her cat scars on her elegant nose.  He learns quickly.  Frank also knows not to push that cat off his computer and to use words that do not use letters under her.  She likes the fan port of the laptop.  At night, she curls in his lap sucking his heat into her fur.




I was intrigued to see this new piece of artwork Carrie had in her entry way.  Can you see what it is?  It is Paint Chips!  That girl is really talented.  I wish I had her way with color and invention. I need to copy it in a quilt for her birthday, maybe she would like that.  She has not liked anything I have made so far.  I am sure you have daughters who like your stuff, is that even possible?


Oh, and I wanted to show you some of the pictures with the zoom lens.

 This is the high power wires that mark the boundary of Baton Rouge proper.  We live on the Baton Rouge side but the street beyond the power lines is what is called "the Parish".  Outside of city limits, they have the Sheriff rather than the BR Police but most everything else is the same.

No one lives in the "no man's land" beyond our property to the property of the people in the next subdivision, which is Millwood.

Here are the lines close up.  This is where the red tailed hawks often sit looking for small things to eat for dinner.

 And this is looking out to my deck and Japanese Garden area, now stark and cold in winter.  And this is the closeup of the bird bath and the loon rock.  Pretty sharp!  Nice focus in that zoom shot.  Much better than the old camera!  So it was a good deal to get the new one.

We are waiting for the ball to drop tonight, and I will be sewing!

Have a safe celebration, where ever you are!

glen

A Quick Look at Digital Cameras

I will take up the Artist Statement in the next few days, I want to do some research and find some really nice examples for you.  Then creating one you can use for the rest of your art career will be a doable project.  It can be tweaked to fit a project or be an overall statement of what you do.

But now, I want to answer some of the questions I have gotten about a good camera that is not too expensive.  I am not a camera expert, but I can tell you what I like.

I used to have a full manual camera.  It was a Canon AE-1; the workhorse of the camera world. The array of huge lenses complimented any picture I could see through the view finder.   But it was clunky huge to take along on vacations. for nearly 20 years, I saw many places through the eyes of that camera.

I bought my first digital about 10 years ago. For the next year I lugged two cameras everywhere because I didn't think I could get as good a picture with a mere digital.  I had two pictures of everything.  Then one day I dropped my AE-1 and light seeped through the body.  It still sits in my closet, lonely and desperate.  And I have gone though three digitals.

With digitals you can take huge amounts of photos, delete what you don't want.  I did this with my AE-1 but the film  and processing costs were astronomical.  And you really could not tell what the picture was going to look like prior to processing.  Digitals are virtually free unless you print; and you can print only what you want after you have cleaned it up! Or added effects even.

My first digital was a small Canon.  I outgrew that camea and gave it to Carrie.  She lost it.

My second digital was a Nikkon.  I gave it to Carrie when she left for a 6 week European backpacking trip after college and the minute she got off the plane in Spain gypsies slashed her pants pocket and she lost the camera.  Or so the story goes.

My third digital was the Olympus.  It was in the carry on bag when I got on a cruise ship and the glass in the back got busted.  An odd happening, but I needed a camera and bought one from the ship when we were at sea.  I got a fabulous deal on a better camera.  It was a Sony and it would sync with our Sony TV.  That was the one that just died.

Now I take pictures every day.  And on vacation I take maybe 1000 pictures.  The cameras go with me everywhere and get jostled and sometimes handled roughly.  So I can't complain about how long they last, well, I can if Carrie loses them........but that is another story.

My advice is to get the best camera you can for the money you wnat to spend.

I look for the megapixels - this one has 18.  The last one had 14.2.  That means your picture has more "dots" and gives you more clarity.  If you go 10 or above you will get a nice picture.  However in the link the picture there was taken with 1.4 megapixels.   I'd still go for about 10 or above.

I also look for zoom focus - this one is a 20X.  THe last one was 10X.  I crave the longer zoom lens.  But if you are only going to do family stuff and not so much landscapes, you can go for a lower zoom.  I need to take a couple of zoom pictures for you today and let you see the differences in the longer zoom.

I want to make sure I can carry the camera in my pocket or tote and not lose it or get tired of carrying it, or not have it when I want that special picture.  So size matters!

The next thing I think about is money and quality.  Well, actually is it the first but the other things are important too.  If you buy a Nikon, Canon, Sony or Ricoh, you cannot go wrong.  If you get a bad one it is a fluke and they should accept the exchange.  These are all good solid camera companies, like Toyota and Honda are to cars.  Quality, workmanship, sturdiness, ease of use, all are found in any of these.  In fact, I consider them interchangeable 

Money, figure out how much money you want to spend, and head to the store.  There are a ton of other features but they are all fluff, add to the price and make the camera heavier.  Some are good or fun things to have.  Like the panoramic feature that lets you take a wide wide angle shot.  Or the movie feature, where you can actually take movies as well as still shots.  Both my Sonys had these and they were fun.  I rarely used the movie and occasionally the panoramic feature.

Some cameras put words on the shot, but I can do that in my software (you can too, you just may not know it).  And some auto correct light/dark/exposure/shaky hands.  Just decide what you like and choose from there.

Here is are some wonderful sites that compare cameras side by side:

http://snapsort.com/

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/camera/specification/compare.html

My camera is a Sony Cybershot and cost $349.  You can get a nice digital for as low as $79 or a really great EOS Rebel cameras (I drooled over one before i made my decision) for $500-700 now.  Incredible to think the EOS Rebel was close to $2500 just 5 years ago.  I was really drooling then, and considering it so that made it in reach now!

I hope this has helped.  I can get more technical but, really, this is what you need to consider when you look for a camera to play with on a daily basis.

Once you do find one you like, take a photography course from your local college, camera club or library.  It will be the best thing you ever did!

glen

Good Luck or Bad Luck?

I don't know whether to call this good luck or bad luck.

We feed a lot of birds here in the back yard and outside my kitchen area.  I have at least 4 feeders that, during the summer, I fill daily.  I can actually fill them twice a day most summer days!  At an given time I can have 50 to 80 birds either on the feeders or the ground scrounging for the spilled seed or for the larger black sunflower seeds kicked out by the smaller birds looking for the tasty millet.  One day we counted 15 varieties of bird and three varieties of squirrel!

When we went on vacation last year, I had someone come and fill the feeders every day.  But they told me the feeders stayed full after the first day.  Hmmm.  When I got home, there were no birds to be seen, anywhere.

The answer became clear tht afternoon.  A red-tail hawk positioned himself in the tree above the feeders and waited.  He had had free access for 10 days with no interruptions from dogs or people and he took full advantage of it.

Slowly the birds came back but not in as great numbers, so he must have feasted on bird for a while.

Every once in a while I see the hawk in the tree, or in the driveway trees.  And more often than that I will see a pile of downy feathers on the ground.  I once watched an owl get a squirrel dinner on my front lawn!


So when I looked out my kitchen window and saw the foot tall hawk sitting not 8 feet from the house, watching the kitchen feeder, I ran for the camera.  I think it was either a Red Tailed Hawk or a Swainson's Hawk.  Both are spectacular birds.  But they do eat my feeding birds.

You wont' get to see pictures because the camera has given up the ghost.  So I am not sure to call it lucky that it is so close to Christmas and my birthday so I can get a new one, or to say I am unlucky now that I will get a camera for my birthday since it is so convenient.

I can't complain, I have used this Sony Cybershot  across the world, taken 1000s of pictures with it and it hs served me well.  I take pictures every day and carry it in my purse with me all the time.  It sits in my hot car, and takes spectacular photos every time!

On the other hand, you would think that after 58 years, I would be used to having a birthday so close to Christmas, but I am not.  I really hate it.

Because, you know, any other month of the year, I would have just gotten a new camera anyway!

glen