Cape Chick Weekend X

It was a very quiet weekend this year.  Most of the gals could only come down for a day trip and everyone had cleared out by Sunday afternoon.  Still, a good time was had by all.  It was wonderful to see my friends - it had been over a month since I had had the chance to visit with any of them.  Far too long.

Since the majority of people were down for such a short time I asked what they wanted to do for the day.  Consensus was the craft fair and the sand sculpture contest.  Once everyone arrived, we took off.  Nearly all of us came away from the craft fair with goodies: earrings, cards, a mobius scarf (I wish I had seen those when I was there!).  I picked up the stylin' hat.  Then we headed to First Encounter beach.  We arrived early; the contestants were only about halfway through their creations.  We took the opportunity walk the beach and returned just before judging began.

Our favorite was Gullzilla:  A giant seagull (complete with real feathers in it's sculpted wings) swooping in to destroy Cape Cod.  The Cape was nicely done, we got a kick out of the Eastham Windmill being attached by a T-Rex.  So tiny compared to the oversized gull.

Right next to it was another sculpted Cape Cod.  It was beautifully rendered, but it was hard to compete with this entry.

Tomato Sauce

A year or so ago we decided to make our own tomato sauce.  I don't recall exactly how it came about, but I bet it started with a disagreement on what sauce to buy at the store.  I asked a local farm if they'd sell me their reject tomatoes for sauce.  They did, and in the late summer I took home about 40 pounds of tomatoes to make into sauce.  It was lovely stuff.  Rob was so bummed in June when I used the last of it.

We froze the sauce last year, which was great - except that I had trouble stuffing everything I wanted into our small chest freezer.  We researched canning the sauce, even going as far as buying jars, but the tomatoes ran out before we gave it a try.

This year we learned canning.

So Snoozy

Napping is a wonderful thing.

Unusual Beasties

Neighbors down the street have a pond on the edge of their property.  They've been trying to convince the Canada geese that frequent their yard to hang out elsewhere.  There's been pie plates tied to stakes and shiny ribbons.  It worked for a while, but the last week or two the place has been goose central.

A few days ago I noticed a pair of swans joined their group.  And then a cormorant, which I found more surprising.  I've seen swans visit the pond before, but never a cormorant.

While walking by Sunday evening, I had my biggest surprise:  an alligator.

Say what?!?

Yup.  Rob wondered why I had suddenly stopped and was laughing and pointing at the pond.  OMG, it's an alligator!

Stained Kites

Stained Kites is done!  And I finished it in August.  Woot!  I'm pleased with how it came out, so I'm going to babble and post lots of pictures (click on any of them if you want to see more detail).

I tried so many new things.  Half of the kites were quilted in patterns I had never tried before.  The rest were variations of stuff I've done on other quilts.  I did some McTavishing, several patterns I've admired on The Inbox Jaunt and a few designs I found while googling "freemotion quilting."  I quilted three or four kites with what I call an Easter egg pattern because that's what the finished area looks like.

First time with feathers - and it looks good!  It took two attempts.  I ran the spine along one side of the kite the first time, which made for very long feather loops.  They were terribly wobbly and I ripped them out.  Then I put the spine down the middle; the shorter feathers were easier to deal with.  I am improving at quilting back over a line I've already stitched.  Which is probably why I haven't attempted feathers until now.  Being able to accurately stitch over stitching makes my pebbles look better, too.

Anticipation

Boadicea loves her morning greens and pepper and afternoon treats.  However, I think her favorite time of day is when I refill the hay.  Once Boadi hears me pull out the hay box and rustle the hay, she bolts upstairs.  The nose waves about and she gets that jaw limbered up (I call it pre-chewing).

Hay!

I rotate between the two hay racks.  Whatever is left on the third floor (if there is any) gets tossed out.  Then I fill the third level ring with whatever is in the first floor hay rack (sometimes adding a bit of fresh stuff, if it's nearly empty).  I finish by adding fresh hay to the first floor rack.

The funny thing is, Boadicea waits on the third floor for the leftover hay.  I guess being able to jump into the hay is more appealing than working the fresh stuff out of the downstairs rack.

Wedgwood Update

Wedgwood has been with us just over three months now.  She's really fitting in.  The little stinker still beats up on Boadicea from time to time, yet she hates being separated from Boadi.  Go figure.  It's like Wedgie feels the need to keep an eye on her.  It's pretty funny.

She's still very talkative - mostly whining, but occasionally there's some genuine wheeking in the morning.  Wedg is far more adventurous with food than Boadi ever was.  Boadi had to check with Cannoli every time I introduced new food.  She'd only eat it if Cannoli was eating it.  Wedgie has no such qualms.  If it's in reach, she'll eat it.  Her weight reflects that!  She is a meaty rodent.

It's Getting There

Progress, little by little.  I quilt four to five kites an evening.  They're not perfect, but when I step back and look at them, I say: hey, that's not bad!

It's been interesting.  Some thread that I thought would show up, doesn't. (I really thought orange creamsicle on light gold would show more.)  Colors that I thought would be overbearing, aren't (salmon pink on white).  I am so grateful I didn't try to quilting Key West Memories because I have fought with ever single screenprint kite.  They all have skipped stitches and shredded thread.  I had to rip the blue one out twice.  The last time I ran into problems like this, a smaller needle did the trick.  This time, as I quilted the very last Key West print, I discovered a larger needle prevented the skipping.  What a pain!