I’ve been playing with the new camera. Boy, is it a nice piece of equipment! These are a few of my outdoor bird houses. Steve made the ones on this post several years ago. He didn’t paint them blue, I did. Color is good!

Birds have never lived in them but the wasps like them a lot. Our driveway is at the back of our house on an alley. This bird-house-post is at one corner of the driveway, across the way from the new raised beds.

Steve’s brother, Charles, is a dentist in Oklahoma City. He made this marvelous bird “hotel” birthday present for Steve and me.

We mounted it on what is a ladder to nowhere. (It is actually all that remains of what used to be a climbing structure for kids.) I hope the birds love it. Charles – you did great!

Here’s an update on the raised vegetable beds we’re building. We filled the beds with a mixture of soil, compost, expanded shale, and other organic additives that I can’t remember. You might notice that my hair in the photo is even shorter these days. I’m loving it!

I hope that we have time tomorrow to install the soaker hoses. I’m getting ready to leave for the Jinny Beyer Seminar on Sunday and I’m running out of time to get it all done.

I have high hopes that we can grow a lot of vegetables in these beds. I’m certainly having fun going through the seed catalogs!

I’ve had some questions about the kind of camera I use for the blog. I’ve been using this 12.1 mega pixel Canon PowerShot SD950 IS. It’s a camera that fits in the back pocket of my jeans and it takes amazingly clear photos. That said, I have needed a more professional camera for photographing quilts.

This week I got a Nikon D90. It’s pretty amazing. My husband, Steve, will be the one of us that take the time to figure out everything this camera can do. I have figured out how to turn all of the features to their automatic setting. So far that’s working for me.

I decided yesterday to test the camera on my (moving) grandson under the fluorescent light in my studio combined with daylight coming in the door. I set the camera to auto and the sports setting (that’s the one that uses a really fast shutter speed).

Jack did not pose for any of these shots. He was in motion. I’m happy because it’s really hard to get a picture of this boy – he never stops moving.

It is my hope that you’ll see even better pictures on our site now.

Japan from Eric Testroete on Vimeo.

I found this slide show at Abbey Goes Design Scouting. Eric Testroete took the photos from his trip to Japan and made a slideshow/video from them and set it all to music. Each image flashes by so fast that individual shots are hard to pick out, but the overall impression is pretty cool. The Vimeo site looks easy to use.

Imagine, if you had the discipline to photograph all the steps that went into making a quilt, you could build one of these slideshows and, perhaps, see the process in a new way. Or you could take a photo a day of your child (or children) and watch them grow. Really, I need a lot more time!

I received the following email from Dena today:

I am having a Piece O’ Cake dilemma and could use your advice. I’m appliquéing a block that will have both regular appliqué and reverse appliqué on the same piece. Your books & DVDs are still in storage so I can’t refer to them for the convex & concave process (and I just can’t recall which comes first).

Should I appliqué the outside circle first or the reverse appliqué on the inside first? The background and inside the design are the same material.

Thank you for any help!

This was my reply, and I see now that I need to add a bit more info:

Hi Dena:

I wouldn’t try to cut these shapes with their 1/4″ seam allowances and then applique them. They’ll be too prone to stretching.

I’d make a finished size template of each piece and trace that on either a square or rectangle of fabric that is about 1″ bigger on each side than the shape you are working on. I’d do the applique, press, and then cut out the shapes (with their seam allowances) and sew the quilt together.

You’ll waste some fabric this way but it will be a whole lot easier to applique.

And here’s some additional info: I would generally do the reverse applique first but that could change depending on the specific design. When sewing concave and convex curves together, sew with the concave (inner curve) on top.

Happy stitching to one and all!

Becky

I’m sorry – I’ve been so busy that I’ve forgotten to blog. I have no excuses. So, what have I been doing? I’ve been learning QuickBooks (which Linda knows inside and out, but I do not). I’ve been machine quilting, but not as much as I should. I’ve been working on supply lists.

I’ve been preparing for the LAST Jinny Beyer Seminar in Hilton Head. I am so thankful that I was asked to teach for her at this event. I hope to see some of you there! Karen Stone is teaching too (among others) and I’m looking forward to getting to visit with her.

Steve and I are building raised beds. Steve has access to lots of cedar trees that need to be cut down. So he went out with his trusty chain saws (the big one and the less-big one) and slayed some – it was economical and green.

Late this afternoon we got the first load of soil mix and I was shoveling. It’s going to take a little more than 3 pick-up loads.

I hope each and every one of you has had a good week and, as Arnold says: I’ll be back.