Watching Nature

A couple of days ago I discovered little birds alighting on the sunflowers to feast on the seeds. Since it was such a beautiful day, I lay on the grass with my camera trying to catch one in the act. Couldn’t stay there long ’cause the grass was itchy but got one in flight.

 

Then I discovered a very large mushroom. It’s about the size of a softball. Plan to watch it to see how it develops.

Challenge #7-Music “A Nightingale Sings”

The latest Uncommon Threads challenge was Music. While at our retreat last fall,I played with some “birdie” fabric and lacy stuff that Merrilee brought, then put it away. How serendipitous! I pulled it out and created my challenge from what she gave me.

The dots are beads and the blue wings are hand embroidered with metallic thread. A real nightingale is just another brown bird, but with such a beautiful name I think it should be more colorful! My free hand machine quilting is getting better but still not what I want it to be.

The title, “A Nightingale Sings” is from the title of the song, “A Nightingale Sings in Barkley Square.” You should hear Nat King Cole sing it. Oh my! You can view the rest of the groups’ work here.

Heading South

We’re fortunate to be in the migratory path of many birds and the monarch butterflies. About a week ago we looked out the living room slider onto the lake and saw some thing huge and white floating in the lake. We grabbed the camera with the telephoto lens and jumped in the car. When we go to the bridge we could tell that it was Snow Geese. What you see in this picture represents only about a fourth of the total number.

The picture is a little out of focus ’cause the lens is heavy and I forgot to grab the tripod but you get the idea.

Then today the Canadian Geese were flying over head, wave after wave of them. It’s a spectacular sight.

And this group came right over the house. They make such beautiful formations.

Heron At Sunrise

The latest Uncommon Threads Challenge was “Peaceful Waters” which happens to be the title of a song written by Roberta Ranney’s husband, Bob.

I used this pictures of a Heron that I took at sunrise last year down at our neighborhood boat ramp.

I could have tried dyeing fabric for the background, but that seemed tedious so I found some hand dyed that I bought a number of years ago and have been saving  for a special occasion. This is the occasion. I printed the heron onto fabric and then machine embroidered all over it and fused “him” and the dock to the background.

You can see all the Peaceful Water challenges on the Uncommon Threads blog. Click here.

Back in the Groove

 

There has been an unfinished art quilt on my design wall all summer. Finally, I am trying to finish it.  The machine embellishment is almost done. Whether you recognize it or not, this is a dandelion.

And this is a grackle.

I love grackles. Some folks think they are a nuisance, but I think they are comedians. This may become my signature bird!

 

Machine Enhancement

It’s been a long time since I’ve done any machine embroidery and I’d forgotten how much fun it is. After printing the grackle on fabric, I highlighted the bring colors with freehand machine embroidery then ironed wonder under to the back of the bird and fused it to the art quilt.

The blue and yellow at his feet has been cut away before fusing to the background. Here’s a detail:

He shows up on his background much better now. I also, just slightly, painted/rubbed a little interference gold on the stitching to make it a little more sparkly but that doesn’t show in the picture.

 

Ideas are Slow to Come to Fruition

This current project has beenon the back burner for months. Finally, I said, “Just do it” and now I think it’s coming together. There has been a lot of sewing and ripping and more ripping, but just to have it up on the design wall where I see it every day is actually comforting. What started out as a rather gloomy piece has become uplifting; certainly color wise. The most pressing decision at the moment is deciding which bird to use. They are printed on paper so it’s easy to move them around.

Bird #1

Bird #2

I think just going through the exercise of writing and publishing this post has helped me decide.