Eagle Watch

I have spent time lately watching the live Bald Eagle Cam of the nest near Decorah, Iowa where the same pair of Bald Eagles have nested this year.  The photo above I captured from the live video this morning and you can see it snowed overnight and was still snowing some yet this morning.  I believe this is the female eagle.  The female has sort of gray patches of feathers along her eyes and is much larger than the male.  The male’s head is much more tidy and he has an all white head.  His eyes are just a little different than the females too...told you I spent a lot of time watching this pair of eagles.  This is the male below.I will share with you how I got the photos of the eagles.  To capture a photo from the live video I first enlarged the screen by clicking on the dark rectangle at the bottom right of the live video screen.  See photo below.  This opens another window that is just the video.The next step is to click on the print screen button on your computer keyboard.  My desktop works a little different than my lap top so will explain both.  On the desktop I just click on the Print Screen button (will probably be in the top row of buttons – mine is on the top right hand side.)  On my laptop I have to hold down the FN button on the bottom left hand side and then click on the Print Screen button.  The Print Screen button is often times abbreviated to "Prt SC" if you can’t find it.

Step 3 is to paste the photo you just captured into a Word program or photo program.  I use Photoshop Elements where I crop it and sharpen it a little if needed then save it.  The close up photos were captured when the Raptor Resource people zoomed in on the Bald Eagle with their camera that is mounted in the tree above the eagles.  The amount of detail on some of the video is amazing as you can tell from this close up photo.  This morning they zoomed in on the female on the nest and were zooming in on the feathers on her back and you could actually see the eagle moving as it breathed.  Amazing to be sure!

If you stop in and look at the video make sure you scroll down and see what else is on the web page.  There is a Facebook site that has updated info, a Social Stream of chatting visitors, captured videos, info about eagle nests, young, eggs, etc.  I can spend a lot of time just watching and reading the Social Stream of chats and the other information on this website.  I am typing this post up on Friday night for posting on Saturday and the chatter is that if the female is going to lay another egg it will probably be tonight.  Will update you if that is the case.  As you can see from the photo above there are only 2 eggs in the nest right now.  This was captured after the male left the nest and the female came back to sit on the eggs so was uncovered only a minute or so.  The third egg was laid around 8 pm on Friday night.  Here are several more photos I captured during the day on Friday if you are interested in seeing them.

Decorah Iowa Eagles VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Take a look at the website ( www.upstream.tv/decoraheagles )and you too might just become as addicted as I am to watching these magnificent birds.

Until later,
Lynn

Another Win

I have never been so lucky in drawings as I have been this last year.  I have won a free copy of a magazine, a small bag, bookmark and book, a pretty spool and now I’ve won a wonderful pattern by Quiltworks.com.
Actually I won it on their Facebook site and it is a Judy Niemeyer foundation pattern for Glacier Star.  This has the foundation papers for the quilt and is packaged in 6 large ziploc bags so it was quite the package when it arrived in the mail.  One of my sisters also won a pattern so it was a nice surprise for both of us.  I don’t know when I will make the quilt but it is a very nice prize to win.

I guess I will keep entering these give away contests as you never know I just might be a very lucky girl from now on.  Wonder if I should start buying lottery tickets too….Na, will save my money for quilt supplies instead!

Lynn

One to Send, One to Keep

I really liked the postcard I made and sent to our relatives in Hawaii so decided to make one for us as a memory keeper of our trip.  As a reminder, here is the one I made to send.

One thing I did not tell you was that when I make postcards to send I make them to fit inside a computer card envelope….you know those computer cards printed on a piece of copy paper that is folded in half both ways.  This envelope is 4 3/8” x 5 3/4”  but make your card to fit what ever size envelope you have, minus a little to make sure it easily slides in and out of the envelope.  The cards stay clean when they are mailed inside an envelope and you won’t take a chance that all your hard work gets ripped up or ruined in the machinery that sorts the mail. 

To make this second card I used the same design, same fabrics for the leaves and flowers but did choose different light blue fabric for the background.  Since it doesn’t have to fit in an envelope I made it a little larger – finished size 5” x 6”.  Here it is all fused onto the Peltex/Timtex (don’t remember which it is) all ready to quilt.  It will be trimmed to size after the quilting. I used the same threads to quilt the card as the smaller one….YLI Silk thread.  I just love it as it is so beautiful and the colors are so luscious!
I chose to quilt this card differently than the first card.  I quilted a leaf like the fused leaves then quilted bubbles in the background.  I do like to quilt around all the edges of the applique shapes and also like to echo quilt around all the shapes.
I did finish the edges differently on this piece and like it better than the zig-zag edge.  It just looks more finished and neater.  Using a wave blade on my rotary cutter I cut a 1” strip of my background fabric that had fusible on the back.  The top and bottom strips were fused on the front first and were cut about 1/2” longer on each end.  I wrapped the ends around the side edges of the card then fused the binding to the back of the card.  This finishes the corners of the card.  The side pieces were fused to the front and cut the width of the card then fused to the back.  The last step was to straight stitch around the card catching the fused binding.  A very neat and tidy edge to be sure.

I do love this little card quilt and it will help us remember a great vacation.

Lynn

PS Check out the previous post for more hints and tips on how I made this postcard at the following address  http://nebraskaviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-happened.html

What Happened?

It started out so innocently…I was anxious to get to sewing again after being away from it for a while and had a project in mind.  A good start don’t you think?  I decided to make a postcard to send to our cousins – the ones that hosted us for a weekend while we were in Hawaii.  A small project and the best part I could finish it quickly too.  I settled on a pattern I got from the internet – free graphics of hibiscus and leaves.  I printed the free graphics on paper, enlarged it and used it for the patterns for my applique.  Applique pattern acquired on this webpage
Next step – pull fabrics.  I decided to use batik fabrics as I love the way the colors blend dark to light values on just one piece of fabric.  These are the choices I came up with as a start for the postcard.  I always make adjustments to my fabric choices as I go along as sometimes the colors or values don’t play nice with each other when it comes down to the correct size pieces.  As you can see I did eliminate two of the greens and just selected different areas of the one green fabric for shading of the leaves.  I think the values work ok but will know more after I cut the pieces out of the fused fabric.

I cut the shapes and arranged them into a pleasing configuration.  I did use tweezers to nudge the petals and leaves into place as it is much easier than using my fingers.  As you can see, the final design is a little different than the free graphics design I printed. At this stage the flowers and leaves are just fused to the blue background fabric.  I cut a piece of Timtex larger than the finished postcard and fused the backing fabric to one side.  I quilted around the applique shapes then quilted the background with a combination of feathers and echo quilting.  I used silk thread as I love the weight and the sheen of the stitching.  When the entire postcard was quilted I trimmed the postcard to size and fused a message printed on cardstock to the back and trimmed it to size.

The last step was to zig-zag around the outside through all the layers.  I used burgundy thread – it is OK but after it was finished I wasn’t sure it was the right thread color choice but once the stitching is done with the paper cardstock it can’t be redone.  I sure wouldn’t want to try to hit the holes in the paper a second time and new holes would pretty much tear the paper.

I am sure you are still wondering about the title of this blog…..take a look at the photo below.  Disaster has struck my sewing room.

I will admit that just doing the postcard didn’t make this whole mess.  I left my finished cup of tea on the table, another lens for my camera in the small blue and black bag and an extra battery for my camera.  The bin that I pulled the postcard fabric is still sitting on a stool and is overflowing, boxes from new shoes with one of my purse/bags on top.  You know when you are in a hurry how you change bags and go on your merry way, well I never got back to it to take it to it’s storage place so there it sits.  Am thinking of doing another project where I need wide neckties so have 3 or 4 draped over thread boxes.  An open closet door and another purse/bag that got set aside after using it hanging on cupboard doors.  I really must put those bags away!  Peeking out behind the tea cup is a ball of yarn and a partially finished dishcloth. 

Of course I was using the sewing machine, iron, starch and the ironing surface but everything else could have been put away and I sure would have had a lot more room to work and not have to walk around an obstacle course to get to the iron.  I don’t know about you but when I am in a zone to create I just forge ahead and clean up afterwards.  If I stop to clean before I am done I just loose my momentum.  Maybe I will get it cleaned up before I get another project started….or maybe not.  I certainly won’t show this photo again anyway!

Lynn