Mission Texas-Day 1

Late last week we headed south to Mission Texas for another visit. Weather was not the greatest but then it wasn't hot either. A little overcast for Galen's pictures and with it being on the cool side the butterflies and dragonflies were not very cooperative! But it was a good get a way and he did get a new lifer or two when it came to birds.

ChachaLaca

ChachaLaca

Altamira Oriole

Inca Dove

Great Kiskadee

Red wing Blackbird

Green Jay

Golden fronted Wood Pecker

Orange Crowned Warbler

White eyes Vireo

American Pippit

Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird

Long billed Thrasher

Harris Hawk

These are from day 1 , there will be a Mission continued. But right now I should get us lunch!

Design Wall Monday January 22, 2018

Checking in from Mission, Texas. We drove down on Friday for a few days. Last week was a fairly productive week as far as sewing. I managed get all my blocks (42) made for Stay Centered.

                     These are just the red and blue sets of blocks. Yes, they are scrappy

I brought along 5 quilts to bind. I finished Barn Dance.  I am very happy the other quilts are not 96 x 96! Seemed to take for ever to get the last step done-hand sewing the binding to the back!

My friend Kerry did the quilting for me.

     https://www.tincanquilting.com/

We are away for another week. Brought my sewing machine along so I hope to get Stay Centered blocks sewn together. Of course the 4 other quilts to finish binding. Between birding with Galen, going to the Rio Grande Valley quilt show next Friday hopefully I will get lots of sewing done in the evenings!

Back to SmallQuilts DollQuilts

Design Wall Monday-January 15, 2018

Hard to believe that January is half over! Last week was a busy one for us. The Christmas decorations are down and put back into storage. Always sad to see them come down, things look bare for a day or too!  The sauerkraut was finally canned.

7 quarts and 14 pints. That should do us for a while!

I did finish the top I showed last week.

Higgensville Fences! 

Am loving how it turned out. Will make this one again I think. Great way to use a jelly roll plus accent fabric. Yes, the wind always picks up when trying to take pictures outside!

Of course there is always the unexpected. Went to get something out of one of our garage freezers for dinner Wednesday, late afternoon. Food was getting soft. Shut the door again, made sure it was shut. Went out a little later to check it out. Not good. Early Thursday morning-freezer shopping at Lowes. Yes, they had what we wanted and yes they are in stock. Will deliver on the 18th! Not good enough! Our sales man, being very nice, wanted to check something out. One of their trucks coming in with special orders was delayed. Since they were going to be canceling a lot of deliveries, the delivery supervisor changed the date on ours to first thing Friday morning. That I could live with. Our big boat coolers came out of storage, food from the good freezer was put in those and the stuff starting to defrost into the working one. We looked at this as being positive, it happened while we were at home and we were able to do an inventory of what was there. Something I had been neglecting to do. Oldest is in the front of the freezers. Thank heavens for food saver and will not need to buy meat for a while!

My next project is a new quilt top called Centered by Sparrow Quilt Company in Alberta, Canada. It is a scrap quilt using 2 1/2 inch strips. I have most of it cut.

this is the store picture.

We are in for some wintry weather starting tomorrow. Sounds like good sewing weather!

Am picking up my Barn Dance quilt this morning from my quilting friend. Can't wait!

Over to Small quilts to see what others are doing!

Monday January 8, 2017

Here we are the first full week of 2018 is over! For central Texas we had a cold week. Too many hours below freezing. I imagine we lost a few plants but that does happen sometimes.Most of what we have planted will take a few hours of below freezing, but not 60 hours straight!  And the blue jays and woodpeckers went through 20 lbs. of peanuts. Kept us quite busy refilling the peanut feeder! We kept the small heater we had for our big fountain so we put that in th small birdbath that has running water! The birds loved it!

Have been sorting through things and came across a UFO from 2008. Not sure if I started it then or at a later date. But the pattern has the date on it. It was a strip club pattern from my LQS-Honey Bee.

                  I had the accent squares cut but not the rest.

                      The darks from the jelly roll

                                                      Blocks A and B are sewn

                                              This is the top before borders.

                                              Next week I will be able to show a finished top!

On Friday we took a drive East of us to look for Harris Hawks. We see them on the coast a lot but not very often in our area. No luck finding them but Galen did get a great shot of a Red Tail Hawk.

Later on in the day he went down to our lake to look for small birds. Did not see much. Came home and in the trees by us a flock of Cedar Waxwings and a Red Shoulder Hawk. As quite a few of the neighbors also feed the birds the hawks are often in the area looking for a meal.

Cedar Waxwing

Red Shoulder Hawk.

That does it for me.

Linking up with SmallQuilts

The Last of 2017!

It is hard to believe that 2017 will soon be history!  For us it has been a busy year. Instead of working on the inside of our home we had work done on the landscaping! We start year 19 at this address and I can honestly say this is the longest I have ever been in the same place! Growing up we moved a few times, same area but different homes. After marriage there were a few job transfers. The last transfer my husband had brought us to Texas and here is where we stayed. Back to landscaping. Trees that were small when we moved in have grown quite a bit. Grass that liked sun, does not like shade! We like the shade, so grass areas are much smaller-more rock and mulched beds. That was the 2017 project. Hopefully no major projects for 2018!  We both could use a break. Even though we had others do the work it is still a disruption.

We did manage some trips around Texas for Galen to add to his list of birds, butterflies and dragonflies. Some new lifers and or for different county sightings! I usually end up driving, makes it easier for the photographer! When I can I normally have quilting along. Sometimes it is binding a quilt, other times if we are staying in a motel for more than a night, my machine. One trip I spent the entire time removing paper from the backs of blocks!

On the quilting front I did manage to get some completed and some to at least the flimsy or top stage. With the advent of Hurricane Harvey I dug out a few UFO's got them finished, quilted and delivered to Quilts of Compassion. All in all 11 totally completed quilts and if I didn't miss any - 5 tops. They will become finishes in 2018!

                        But first I almost forgot this quilt Galen's Christmas present! The pattern is from Equilter.com. One of their free ones. Decided since Galen's passion is birds he needed an Owl quilt. Fun trying to work on this and hoping he didn't decide to venture upstairs to see what I was working on.  But managed to pull it off and yes he was surprised and likes it! That was my November/December finish!

                                                        My last 2 tops for this month.

                                                                Layer Cake Pop

                                                              Soiree

     Who knows what 2018 has in store for us. But I am sure it will be another interesting year!

On that note our wish is that we are all able to meet any challenges head on, do the best we can and have a wonderful 2018!

Linking up with small quilts, doll quilts

Design Wall Monday-12/18/2017

Thought it was time to play catch up and post again!  I finally managed a few evenings of sewing. Being in a motel room in the evenings and no distractions makes it easier to actually get something done. We went to Rockport, TX last week. Ground zero for Harvey's first landfall. It is one of our favorite spots in Texas and wanted to check out how they are doing 3 months after the hurricane.  If you wish to read about and see some pictures click on this link.  There are also some great pictures of  Whooping Cranes and Sandhill Cranes my husband took.

Rockport, Texas

Now for sewing! I had a kit from the FatQuarter Shop that was perfect for motel room sewing!

Hard to tell from this picture but it is called Layer Cake Pop. Uses half a cake and a jelly roll of background. One night I got everything cut and then next 2 sewed!

One block made. 19 more to go!

After this is out together below is the UFO I mentioned the end of November. Started this one on one of motel stays during a remodel in 2016. It is called Soiree and once again uses a layer cake. Think this was also a kit from Fat Quarter shop. I don't always buy kits but sometimes they are great to take along on a trip

I am hoping to steal some time from the busy holiday season and sew!

Saying Merry Christmas to those who celebrate Christmas and Happy Holidays to those who celebrate a different holiday. And best wishes for safe travel.

       Over to Design Wall Monday to see what others have been doing!

Trip to Rockport, Texas

We decided to take a break and go to Rockport for a few days. It was ground zero for Harvey's first hit late August. After checking we knew that some places had reopened. It was hard to see all the devastation but they are slowly getting things cleaned up and getting places open. They are making headway but it will be several years probably before they are truly back.  Business that weren't too badly damaged are open, others are open in a trailer. Then there are some that it will take time. The Fairfield Inn across the street from the La Quinta where we stay had a lot of damage. Some restaurants are open, other's are open using a trailer for cooking and have tents up for seating. It was sad to see the damage to the trees. Those will not be replaced. The Coastal Oaks are part of the charm. The Heron Rookery along the coast road is still there but not as full and the birds will be building new nests.

Driving into town we passed a spot where they have been collecting all the debris from homes and farms. From here it is hauled away. It is a never ending job right now. We drove past this spot the next day, they had hauled just about all of it away but bringing in more at the same time.

A sight that was repeated often

A very common sight, the buildings may have survived but the roofs need tarps until the roofs can be fixed, Of course that means the inside has a lot of water damage. 

When we were here in May we found this place on one of the back roads along the water. It is an interesting place.

Shrimp farming

It did not make it through the hurricane

The boat storage at the Marina at Paradise Keys. This is where the guys have gone out when on a charter 

As I said it is going to be a while before things are rebuilt.

The reason we were there besides wanting to see how they were rebuilding. Were birds!

Galen got some great close ups of Whooping Cranes

And with the Sandhill Cranes. Great size comparison

A Northern Harrier

And a few more Sandhill Cranes

Tri-colored Heron

We have plans to go back the beginning of March. There will be more migrating birds and hopefully the weather will be good for butterflies and dragonflies. I take my quilting along so I stay busy in the evenings while Galen sorts through a lot of pictures from the day!