Baby Pineapple Finds a Friend

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My baby pineapple sure has been growing.  See it's starting to grow its top?  Today when I was out watering I saw this little lizard was guarding it from bugs.  Hopefully the two will remain friends a while.

My grandfather had a name for all the lizards we have here in Florida.  Big or small he called them all Mr. Friendly.  That sure brings back memories.

Welcome Spring!

How has Old Man Winter been treating you?  Here we've had all sorts of inside, outside, upside down weather.  But some of my plants think it might be Spring.  Just check out my blooming pineapple plant.

Rare Visitor

Dina Yellow Butterfly on Meyer Lemon

This morning a Dina Yellow male butterfly joined me for breakfast. See how he doesn't have the dark fore-wing tip of the female?  It's times like these that I adore the zoom on my camera, as it allows me to see all the little details while not disturbing him from his rest.  It is rather windy today with the big ever green branches arching in the winds.  Likely my new friend needed a break.  How about you?

My Visitor Before the Teach-In

The Great America Teach-In is tomorrow and I think I'm ready.  This is how I envision the strips to come together.  The top will be prairie point binding to give the crayons their points.  I will be adding a fabric to the bottom of the quilt of a currently unknown color and appliqueing a pencil in the teacher's favorite color with her name and the class information on it.  It is sure to be a fun time.  The quilting is my favorite part of this quilt as I will be quilting each child's name onto their selected strip so instead of a traditional crayon label it will be the child's name stitched onto the fabric they liked best tomorrow.

This morning while waiting for the bus to come I spotted a visitor on my neighbor's fence.  I think it was going after a snake the way it danced around on the ground.  This hawk stayed long enough for all of the children at the bus stop to see it and better yet long enough for me to run inside after the bus departed to take these pictures for you.  This is a fully mature red shouldered hawk and likely a year round resident here.  Still it is amazing to see such a powerful hunter so close up.  I'm so glad cameras have zoom!

Southern Giant Darner Dragonfly

Today when we were just about ready to call it a day this Southern Giant Darner Dragonfly alighted my neighbor's leg and was inclined to stay there for a bit of a rest.  She's not one for bugs so I saved this one from the wrath of a tissue and convinced him to alight to my finger and then eventually onto our Hibiscus bush.  Then I came inside and went digging for what in the world was this huge dragonfly, which was clearly bigger than my hand.  So here's what I can tell you.  Southern Giant Darner Dragonflies can be as large as 5" from wingtip tip to wing tip and this one was bigger than my hand!  They fly fast, nearly 60 miles an hour so it is very difficult to capture a picture of them, but it is very windy here today and this one clearly needed a rest.  When I went back outside, after reading how hard they are to photograph, I went back to the exact spot and sure enough he was still there.  Quite a bit better off for the rest too, because he took off across the street as soon as I came around the corner of my house.  Good thing for a zoom or else I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to get close enough.  Ironic as I couldn't get him off my hand to unload the car not to long before!

I nearly forgot to add these Darner Dragonflies are called thus because of their resemblance to a darning needle.  I don't see it do you?

The Miracles After The Fact

DD loves her new pj's, they are simply huge on her but she's happily worn them three nights running.  Oh yes and before I forget for all of you hardcore stick to the rules people - children shouldn't wear 100% cotton pj's unless they are form fitting.  Ah well, is what I have to say to that, at least she's happy and comfortable. Which is good because we're entering a little cold spell.  Yippie!  I got to wear long pants today!

You see Florida residents are a little crazy when it comes to the cold.  Winter sweaters, long pants, leather jackets and so forth, see very little time outside of the closet so as soon as the first cold breeze blows we all run to our closets to pull out our favorite warm things.  Granted by the end of winter I, like you really want to have a burst of warm days in order to get my shorts and put the on again.

After tucking DD into bed two nights ago this is the face that greeted me, I saw her tucked in the shadows.  Tiny has discovered how to cuddle with the quilts in progress even when they are on the frame, and of course I had to take a picture or two and show them to you.  Yes the lighting is bad, but it was bedtime and that's my excuse.  For the record Tiny is watching DD in the kitchen who snuck out of bed for a drink of water while I was taking this picture.

Do you recall those plants DD and DH planted?  Well this is the one little cucumber that survived through the slight neglect of us forgetting the seedlings were there.  Now that it's in a nice big pot with the trellis I'm starting to wonder if we might actually get to experience fresh cucumbers in December.  Yes I know the flowers will have to be self pollinated by humans who care or else it's doubtful we'll see much of anything.  I have grown veggies before you know.

Swatch Day = My Custom Meerkat Fabric

I don't know how many of you have ordered custom fabric before.  I have and it's one of those things that seems to have it's good with the bad.  I'm not going to bother listing them but I did want to show you the delightful swatch that showed up on my doorstep on Monday.  I could not be happier with this print.  See below the original picture I used in my Meerkat post the other day?  Now look at the scan of my wonderfully new Meerkat Fabric on the left.  I scanned the fabric this time instead of taking a picture so the lighting in the room wouldn't adversely effect the colors.  If you wondered the lines in the picture that you see is actually the weave of the fabric itself, the scanner didn't quite know what to make of it.  For the fabric I went with something they were calling a light canvas linen, which should hold up nicely to all of my happy gazes.  I think it might become a pillow for the couch.  Aren't those designers always telling us to fill our home with things we love?

From this printing the things that stand out most to me are that I didn't doctor the print much, I just went with the original photograph (pictures posted to blogger have a lower resolution automatically than the original) and tweaked that for size.  I just love the way his markings printed out so wonderfully rich and right on.  The shrub and green plant life are rather out of place from a Meerkat's natural environment, but for a vacation picture, not to mention fabric for a vacation memento, it's marvelous.

The Meerkats and The Rabbit

That sounds like the title of a children's book.  But it actually really happened and I saw it with my own two eyes on our vacation to Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom last month.  I planned our trip around their Resort Early Opening Days, so Animal Kingdom was our last park day.  I of course love the fact that they have Meerkats and for the second time I planned to simply sit and watch them.  Of course I didn't know I'd be sick and running a fever by then or else I would have planned a shorter vacation, but my short time with the Meerkats was a treasure all the same.

We started out our morning leaving our hotel.  We stayed at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside on the off chance you were wondering.  That particular morning was yard work day, and all the wonderful mouse employees were hard at work mowing the grass, trimming bushes and so forth.  The resident rabbits were out in force and I think we saw three of them before we left the hotel.  But those aren't the particular rabbits I'm talking about.

The bus came and we were off, I was sick but I didn't care.  I was finally going to see my beloved Meerkats again.  Why mine?  Well I don't know, they aren't really mine, but all Meerkats especially Suricata Suricatta charm my heart.  The plan?  Ride Kilimanjaro Safaris and then take the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail of course, because the later is where the Meerkats are!

When we got to the Meerkats it was still nice and early.  Not cool weather but certainly not the sweat dripping temps of an afternoon in July and who cares anyway because the viewing area for the Meerkats is covered. Nice of Disney to plan that resting spot for me! The last time we were there it was much later in the morning and only two lone males (all the Meerkats in Disney's Animal Kingdom are boys) where out.  But this time more of the gang was visible.  I was surprised that while it was July and clearly hot Florida weather (Lake Buena Vista had Record breaking temps when we were there) yet the Meerkats appeared to have their winter jammies on and thereby looking a little shaggy.  What a charming change!  Now would you believe while these boys were on their guard watching the sky, a rabbit had hopped it's way into their enclosure?

Often when watching them on TV and/or having gone without seeing them eye to Meerkat in a while it's easy to forget they are only 2 to 3 pounds.  Small!  Tiny even, makes my Tiny cat look huge.  Now Meerkats are territorial.  There's no doubt about it.  They have to be coming from the desert as they do.  They spied that rabbit, who was truly as big as they were and so they set  about the business of chasing off the rabbit.  Now I'm sure Mr. Thumper was a bit frantic trying to recall how he/she got in there and more importantly how to get out!  But I was delighted - Meerkat mobbing behavior, what a treat!  Yes, Thumper got away safe and sound, why were you worried I told you the rabbit as big as the Meerkats!  So then of course Meerkats went back to being watchful Meerkats.

Of course while that was going on one fellow "guest" thought the Meerkats were going to eat the rabbit and disgusted herself so badly with her lack of knowledge that she had to leave the area.  Really.  I guess she missed Animal Planet's Meerkat Manor educating us all that a Millepede is an awesome and filling meal for a Meerkat or that they will eat ants in a pinch?

Maybe I'm awful but I think any animal willing to stand up to the most deadly snakes Africa has to offer deserves some respect, especially if they are only 10-14 inches when standing.  Would you stand up to a Cape Cobra?  When my pain is soaring I feel like I have a snake in my veins hissing, spitting, and sometimes even verbally striking out at my loved ones as I watch with my own eyes.  Wild Meerkats fight the literal battle while I fight the analogical one within my own skin.  But don't pity me, instead think of other people with chronic pain that have yet to find a mascot for themselves.  Trust me every little bit helps and I don't feel the breath of the snake as often as I used to anyway.

Mystery Quilter!

Happy belated fourth of July or an even more belated Canada Day.  How about this?  Happy July!  This is a great month.  The heat is sweltering the entire northern hemisphere and we can for once all agree on the weather.  This is the same month my darling daughter was born.  She came a week earlier than her due date the same as I myself did, which was truly wonderful because I was more than a little sick of being pregnant at that point.  All circumstances considered (such as my post pelvic trauma and current disability for those of you non-followers) my most favorite OB-GYN was on vacation through my due date and promised if DD hadn't been born by the time he got back we would have a c-section August 3.  Oh yes please let's plan a big major deal such as having a baby on my Anniversary!  NOT!

Instead I had the most amazing doctor in the history of doctors.  She was trained as a midwife first and then became a doctor - how cool is that!?  I'd seen her in my office visits before then, but didn't see her for the amazing woman she is.

So now that you've had way to much personal information about me.  How about some birthstone trivia July birthdays have Ruby as their birthstone, my second favorite, only to my own Sapphire - which are really the same exact thing.  The only difference is that Rubys are red sapphires.  Hadn't you ever noticed that Sapphire come in every color except true red?  So now it's time for my MYSTERY QUILTER!  Here is an example of her quilting.  Any guesses?

How about Now?

It's DD!

Spring Has Sprung

For the past month or so my Magnolia tree has been looking rather pathetic, I kept telling myself it was because the buds that loose a leaf as they come into bloom, but still the tree was a sad sight.  Earlier this week I noticed a bloom had opened up but it was to high for me to photograph, and the next day when I thought I'd give it a try anyway the flower was already fading.

Don't you just love a Magnolia Tree in the Spring?

Let me take a minute and tell you about my Magnolia tree, when we were closing on the house we have now DH and I drove past a nursery vendor with a trailer full of plans set up on the side of the road.  Now we are a "drive by couple" and we will slow down and look at things like that as well as yard sales and so on.  If something catches our eye we will stop and if not we just keep going.  We were completely past the turn, when I spot the Magnolia Tree.  I holler and we drive around the block and head back.  Now I can tell you for a fact these trees are normally quite expensive, upwards of $100 for the size of this lone tree.  But what does the man tell us?  A mere $25!  I was so floored all of my bargaining instincts flew right out the window.  Yes please!  Here's the money!

So we closed on the house and within a month or two settled our tree in the front yard.  Magnolia trees grow very slowly and I'm not certain how old it was when we purchased it but it was about 6 feet tall at the time. It's been in the ground here for 8 years now.  It didn't bloom it's first couple of years because the children in the neighborhood would come up into our yard and steal it's leaves off!  But now we have a nice picket fence and the tree has been blooming every year since.  I call the blooms dinner plate size, pie plate size also comes to mind.  Surprisingly my neighbor has the same exact subspecies and her tree has been in the ground for about 20 years.  They are no match for the Beauties you see in Walt Disney World, but they are pretty and very Florida in their own right.

What does Spring make you want to do?  Perhaps you're a Spring Cleaner?  I think we all are to some extent.  For me I want to root up the flower beds and plant something lovely.  It's so hot here in the summer flower choices have to be carefully selected or else they wont make it through the summer, which is the case with many of the beautiful spring flowers in our nurseries right now.

Meerkats Invade?

My Sewing Area in the Kitchen

I'm tempted to call this Post: Who wants pictures?  But I wont. Though if you're one of those wanting to see pictures you're in luck; the computer and the camera seem to have reconciled at least for the time being! First things first. My before Picture! Have you ever wanted to know what my sewing area looks like? Oh yes, there it was. The mess level is entirely dependent on where I am with a project. The middle of the project? Messy.  Finished? Clean. We're not done moving everything into the new sewing room, so you wont get to see that for a couple of days. But I thought I'd go ahead and show you the before hand picture now.

Two Blue Dresdens on Black

I've been really wanting to show you these Dresden Plates on the black and gold swirl. I am down to stitching my very last one. So I thought I'd share some pictures with you. Now wait! What's what on those blocks? I can just see a little something there... Oh I see the Meerkats are invading. Well if that's all. It's a running joke with DH that I want to go to Africa and pick up Meerkat fecal. What can I say? How can I argue? If it meant a two day flight there and a three day flight home to go see meerkats for two weeks I'd pick up anything. Hey I'm a mother, it can't be as bad as other things I've dealt with, and besides Meerkats are only about 2 pounds full grown. What is there to fear? Except perhaps being marked with... Yeah, well now you know why DH teases me. Oh yes and the flights really would be that long in case you were wondering. Furthermore those little Meerkats are mine not Jessica's. Though I do find them in the oddest spots after they go play.

Meerkats on the lookout of my Dresden Plates

Dresden Plate Handwork in Progress

These are what the blocks look like as I work on them. Just when I was getting all bittersweet about being on my last one I discovered a single blade has a cut in it. The cut is somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" in.  The cut is clearly where it does not belong. I'm thinking rather than fixing it with a bit of wonder under I really need to yank the entire block off, take the center circle out take the offending blade out and stitch in another. Then re-sew everything. Sounds like a horror. But advice is what you ask for when you know the answer and wish you didn't so I ask, what do you think?

Zaphod's 12th birthday

My all time favorite famous Meerkats had a bit of a celebration the other day.  Zaphod just turned 12!  That is a wild accomplishment for a wild meerkat. Everyone is now looking forward to his continued health and well being for if he lives to be 4448 days old  (Feb. 12) he will be the oldest Meerkat ever to be studied in the Kalahari Meerkat Project - Go King Zaphod!


Yes Zaphod is still the dominate male of the Aztecs with Monkulus (Maybelline to you North American Animal Planet Watchers).  You can read all about Zaphod's birthday here.


Now here is the heart stomping news Caroline Hawkins and her Oxford Scientific film crew who brought us Meerkat Manor as well as Meerkat Manor: The Story Begins has been back to the Kalahari Meerkat Project and has been filming for a 3D Movie! 3D Movies give me a headache, but I think I'll take a Tylenol when this movie releases.  National Geographic plans to air it in 2D so I'll be able to watch it then too.  Of course the best source for all this info is the Friends of the Kalahari Meerkat Project.

Good Morning Florida!

This morning I turned my back for a moment to check on a fabric measurement and when I came back to the kitchen window it was Grand Central Station at my bird feeder.  These are red wing blackbirds (all males on the feeder) that I know from experience migrate through here each year.  My mother lives about 20 minutes North East of me and she had red breasted robins that visit her.  What do I get?  A Hoard of Red wing Blackbirds.  LOL our feeder has been so lonely for birds even an occasional dove has been welcomed.

Some couldn't stand to wait their turn and began picking ravenously at the ground.  Now will you believe me if I tell you these two pictures combined only show about half of the flock total?  When I noticed some were sitting on an empty bird bath I thought they might like a drink to go with all that food so I went out and filled it.  Being a flighty bunch they've left but I'm sure they'll be back.

Freemotion Quilt-a-Long Update Kitty's Delight

Back of Strip Quilt

We're at the halfway point for the freemotion Quilt-a-long, so I thought I'd share some photos.  First off I have no idea how it happened, but I never photographed the back for you.  So here it is.  The strips go the opposite way of the strips on the front.  So if the back runs top to bottom the front runs left to right.

Front of Strip Quilt

I've picked a name for this quilt so rather than continuing to call this little ditty of a quilt the freemotion Quilt-a-long Quilt I'm going to start calling it Kitty's Delight, don't worry as the indexing wont change. If you click the image of the back of this quilt you will see two cat fabrics.  Those combined with the butterflies and the sweet spring colors remind me of spring breezes which my own Sunny loves so much. 

Spiral Border Quilting

Now for my quilting details.  The first thing I freemotioned was the border spirals you see above.  I think with just a little bit of alteration they will look like waves, which could turn out very handy in future quilts.  I also really like the way this looks it feels a nice to my fingers as it looks to my eyes.  Yes I tried them wide, tight, and I tried them circular, but I like them a bit loose like this.

Broad Orchid Quilting

Next was to make a symmetrical shape to fit within a set space.  After realizing that daisy type flowers work best if you stitch one petal at a time going starting north, then south, east and west and go back and do sw, se, nw, ne, and so on it really helped keeping me consistent with my petal sizes and shapes.  I'm not much of a daisy person so then I started to play with quilting orchids.  I really like these results.  

Skinny Orchid Quilting

Some orchids have skinny petals, and some have nice fat petals.  I'm a fan of the fat petals myself, but have been captivated by skinny petaled flowers as well.  I quilted these orchids by making my northern most sepal (petal) first, then moving on to the east and west petals.   Next I moved to the lip (the petal at the bottom) and sized it roughly to the type of petal I was making.  I moved to the sepals diagonal up and lastly I added two above for a nice balanced look.  Sure not all orchids are like this, but I think when it comes to quilts most people will see them as orchids or lilies regardless of how accurate something is quilted.

Spider Web Quilting

While I was quilting my thoughts turned to my youngest brother and his love for nature in the raw.  So I tried my hand at a spider web.  I think this design is better suited for a nonsymetical area where the achor points would appear more natural and I'd like to try it over a bigger area where I will have more time to freemotion the machine into those gentle dips you see in a spider's web.

Sunset

This evening I couldn't help but notice the night sky.  Before I went outside the entire sky was covered in clouds like these.  As my feet touched the ground outside I saw first one and then two - a double rainbow - of course by the time I had the camera in my hand all that was left to take photos of were the clouds.  Next time I'll be more prepared. 

I worked on the quilting Christmas Row Robin Quilt today and I should have all the stitch in the ditch that I want to do done either tomorrow or Monday.  After that my other machine will be home from the repair shop (it's third trip in two weeks) so hopefully I'll be able to wrap up the job with a bit of echo freemotion quilting.  Only time will tell of course.

DD had a great birthday and this was by far my favorite photo.  Those little hands are growing up so quickly soon all the of the babyhood left in them will be gone forever. 

Of course some of you might like this jumping for joy photo better, and be certain to check out my great new windows behind her!

To Much of a Good Thing

I have created at least 4 or 5 different layouts for that fabric, and I'm still no closer to figuring out an answer to that pretty fabric.

Late last week Lady Bird brought her babies to see us.  Turns out she has three, two boys and a girl, I can't imagine and I'm rather glad they're her babies and not mine. 

Lady Bird's Daughter was not interested in be photographed and hid behind the bird feeder nearly the entire visit.

It was early in the morning when I saw this beauty out my back door.  This is a Gulf Fritillary on one of our Passion Vine Plants.

These guys are called Carolina Chickadees and they have built a next in the tree outside my DD's room.  It's sweet to hear the little ones chattering.  They are so little and so fast that it's hard to capture one of them in a picture let alone the two.

We also have the Tuffed Titmouse showing up with their little ones.

Isn't that picture funny?  It was one of my attempts at the Carolina Chickadees, and the look on the face of that Tuffed Titmouse was so comical at the swift departure of the Carolina Chickadee, I had to show you.

Today I took the leap and settled down with some of that "found" yardage.  Truly I knew I had it, the fabric was leftovers given to me and I was certain I didn't have enough to make the long sleeved + long pants pjs for DD like I wanted.  It never occurred to me I suppose that I had enough to make a nightdress.  Night dresses are DD new favorite thing.  She will wear them whenever I let her and will go hunting for one when all she has is shorts and tops in her drawer.

So on to the sleepwear!  I went looking for a pattern for this really I did, but I couldn't find what I wanted.  I know so picky!  So I settled down without even a scrap of paper to help me.  Why do I do this to myself?  At one point after I cut my fabric I looked at it and thought, I have no idea what to do next!  Thank heavens my brain reconnected!  The bodice is square with a bit of ribbon embroidery on the right side.  From there the skirt is full and flows not from gathers but instead from gussets: two big ones in the front and three in the back.  I love how it opens up when she spins around.

 

More progress has been made to the house.  All of the painting is done except for my front door, did I mention it's going to be Poppy Red?  I'm thrilled over that.  DH is working on installing the second window of the day.  Which has us at 2 + the door installed and that 3rd one going in.  It's going faster that I'd dare to hope but we do have many windows.  Each bedroom has two and the living room has five.  Yes FIVE!  While I'm certain you're thinking I'm sure lucky to have DH, perhaps for once it'd be nice to think about that the other way around.  That he's lucky to have me. 

After all I picked the paint, I went to the store and got the paint.  I spent months researching windows and then made a decision and ordered them, I selected the new door and ordered that too.  All while taking care of a child that is rather to much like myself.  LOL.

Yesterday evening an entire family of Cardinal's came for a visit.  As they are a family of six it was like Sonic during dinner rush for birds.  Both parents where working hard to feed and keep track of four little ones.  Clearly there were two boys and one girl.  Didn't get a good look at the last one as it was staying a little further away, but I watched mom and dad feed them all.  When everyone was nearly done the male took the extra step to feed the female a tidbit.  Very cute.  This photo is of the mom and the two boys.  Can you see them all? 

Rest easy my friends and let us all be glad we don't have four children all the same age.

Turtle Beadwork needs Your help

I've been doing a bit of beading on the Appliqué Turtle Pillow. I just added the outline around the shell. But now I'm not certain where to go next. Can you help? I have just over an entire tube of the beads left from outlining the shells, which is not enough to outline each piece of shell. I'm not certain where to add those other beads, or should I just take them back and trade them in for something different. What do you think?

I also finished quilting the cat quilt. I ended up adding more quilting than I thought I would. Choosing to quilt around each cat as well as each block. I like the puffy look you see because the quilting.

The baby orchids arrived Wednesday and were all carefully planted by DH. Isn't that mounted one the cutest little thing? As that's not where I'd intended to put it, I think that spot under the grow lights might be to much for my Laelia purpurata var. carnea, so I'll keep an eye on it for a couple of days and if it doesn't like it I'll move it off to be with the Laelia purpurata I already have.

So what's in the humidity tray? Cattleya loddigesii var. alba as well as Cattleya harrisoniana, the hassisoniana's are the oldest being nearly 3 years old. I know! What a shock. We've also had them the longest as they arrived for my birthday last fall. I know those plants very well, as each one is a little different. My current favorite of those is one with 8 leaves that is one of the biggest and reaches as tall as it can towards the new light, but there is also one that arrived with a broken leaf tip (Which it has since lost) and I really enjoy watching how well it is doing.