expirationdates

Winter Wonderland

We got 4" of snow on Sunday night.  It's so pretty out here when it snows.

And so silent.  It's warming up now so it won't be around long.

I was trying out my new camera today and I took this picture of a Black-capped Chickadee.

I was playing with the zoom and was about 20' away.

It's not that great of a picture but I post it because the next picture is a great one.  I was snapping away in burst mode and I got him just as he was flying away.

Can you see the shadow image he left behind?  I can see where his legs were, it's very strange.  I don't know if this is "bird dust" or what but I found it fascinating.

One more "not so great" picture is of several hundred Pine Siskins eating something off the roof of our container.  I took this through the window and just caught the corner of the roof before they took off.

I know a lot of you know we spent four days on the Pacific coast in the Kalaloch/Ruby beach area and I swear I'm trying to get the pictures ready for posting.  It was an awesome trip, the weather couldn't have been better.  I'm trying to get the 1000 pics we took down to a reasonable album of 75 or so. 

How To Make a Rag Quilt

My Sis-in-Law turned me on to these quilts.  She sent me a Christmas themed one which I love.

She wanted one so bad that I made her one for Christmas.  It was so much fun that I decided to document it and share how to do it.

First you need to decide your color or pattern.  She likes bright tropical prints so that is what I chose.

After I ironed the fabric I used my rotary cutter to cut 10" squares of several colors plus the same amount of flannel for backing.  This will give me an 8" finished area since I will leave a 1" seam allowance for fringing.

Since I used flannel to back it I chose not to put batting inside.  I wanted a thinner blanket type quilt but if you wanted a heavier quilt you can put thin batting inside.  It has to be something like warm & natural as a poly batting won't fringe.

I stacked them with the backing in the order I wanted them in the quilt.

I chained the squares together as I sewed an X pattern from corner.

After I did this I wished I had either started with a smaller square or did some more quilting on it.  The X seemed a little light once it was done.

When you put your quilt together you sew it wrong sides (backing) together, leaving a 1" seam. I fringed my seams as I went along.

Use a sharp pair of sissors and cut down to your seamline a very narrow fringe, it does not have to be perfect but be careful not to cut through your seam.

I used a pair of spring loaded sissors which is a lot easier on the hands.

You have the choice of binding your quilt in the normal way or fringing all around which is what I did.

When seaming the fringed rows together just pull it to the side when sewing over the cross seams.

This is what the quilt looks like after sewing, before the magic.

Once it's all finished you throw it in the wash.  The washing and drying will really soften up the fringe.

 

When it comes out of the dryer is it all soft and fuzzy.

The entire quilt took five hours from cutting the squares to getting it in the washer.  It was a lot of fun and pretty easy.

Fun With Jane's New Camera

OK Jane is busy busy busy, so I am going to hijack her page and make a post.  I have about 10 minutes before she figures it out so here goes.

For Christmas she got a new camera.  It is the latest version of her old camera from Panasonic (DMC-FZ18).  I am sure she will post a full review in the near future.  I took the camera on a walk around town this week.  There was some cool stuff out there if you looked around.

The main selling point of this camera is the 18X zoom (the old camera was a 12X zoom).  We will make use of that this weekend down at the coast but this was just an outing to get familiar with some of the cameras features and settings.

Crap! that wasn't even 10 minutes.  Oh well- this is a picture to show the zoom.  This is a pumpkin at about 150 feet.  These two pictures are taken from the same spot.

 

Now that I am busted there are a lot of editorial comments coming in.  Too bad, I leave editing to the vindictive.

Yes the tree is still up.  We were waiting to get the new camera.

We call our dogs weasels, but this is more like the real thing.

Who is pulling the strings around here?

Our town is known for the old houses.

And ferocious guard dogs.

OK the pressure is too much.  I will reliquish control.