Sandhill Crane Migration....

A couple of days ago we headed to Kearney, Ne to watch the Sand Hill Cranes as they feed in the farmers fields.  "They" estimate over 500,000 cranes stop there on the Platte River to rest and feed to be ready for their next leg of their migration.

   This was our 3rd or 4th time to take this trip to specifically watch the cranes.  I could sit for hours and watch them as they 'dance' and feed and then lift off and fill the sky.  That day, however was very windy and that hindered the cranes dancing.  

Once we turned onto the Fort Kearney road we saw a large group of cranes in the field.  We pulled over to the side of the road to watch them for awhile.  (This is a very common sight if you're driving along this road at this time of year).  I did manage to get a couple of video's.  Here's one.....

 Crane migration near Fort Kearney

If you're interested in reading more about the cranes I found this site to be very interesting..... 

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Sashing & cornerstones.....

When I started designing this quilt in EQ7 (using Carol Doak's finished blocks) I wanted to spread it out as much as possible to make it a large quilt so I chose to set the blocks on point.  Then the sashing came next.    I decided on a 5" sashing and a square-in-a-square cornerstone.  That's pretty simple!
Then I wanted to dress up the plain sashings a bit so I chose to paper-piece them.

 

 This is my original idea with the sashings and the cornerstones. 

  Once I started making the sashings and adding them to my design wall I realized very quickly that I wasn't going to like those cornerstones.  They just didn't play nice.  So out with that idea.  

I did want to continue the black from the sashings into the cornerstone.  

So ..... 

Of Course!!  

A nine-patch would be perfect!  

See how it finishes the curve of the sashing?  Love that!!

Here's how it works on one block. 

I'm going to link this to Judy's Design Wall Monday.
And....I'm off to get some more sewing done for this quilt.  Yep!  I think the quilt is happy now.  :-)

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Triangle Quilt Along....

So I was blog hopping the other day and came across The Sassy Quilter Triangle Quilt-Along. 

Right away I knew I wanted to take part in this.  I do happen to have the perfect fabrics for it too.  Connecting Threads (Riviera II)   It's an older collection that I used to make a Modified Bento Box.

A triangle quilt has been on my bucket list for awhile now so this will do nicely.  


I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

My Hexie project update....

It's been awhile since I've shown my large hexie project.  I've added three more triangles (along the right side) and the background along with them.

 It doesn't seem like much progress but I have been concentrating on making triangles.  I have these all ready to go. 

For now I'm linking over on Sarah's blog "Help for Hexie-aholics". 
Let's go check out what some of the others have made.

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

March Hexie Block....

 This month the Hexie BOM is a shamrock.  Very fitting.  I knew without even searching that I wouldn't have any fabric with shamrocks (clovers) or leprechauns.   But I did find some leaves that I like.

I have made up my mind for sure about using black as my background.  So now I'll be cutting and basting them in between making the BOM.  Maybe next month I'll have some to show.
I'm linking this block to the 2014 Hexie Yahoo Group and Esther's Work In Progress Wed.  
And this weekend I'll come back and link this up with A Quilting Reader's Garden.
For now I'm going to enjoy the sunshine. 
I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

My Design Wall.....

I now have enough of Carol Doaks blocks made so I put them all up on my wall.    Yes I do think I like this layout.  Now to plan the sashing and see what I can do with them. This is going to be J & Gs Wedding quilt. 

 And of course since it's Monday I'm going to link over to Judy's Design Wall Monday. 
Let's go see what some of the others have been up to. 
I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Finished top...

WooHoo!  The final border was added today and A & Bs Wedding quilt top is complete.  Off to my longarm gals next week so they can do their magic with the quilting.   While I will be waiting on them I'll get a label made and the binding cut and ready to attach.    
Haha I guess I really should have smoothed the quilt before I took the picture.   But I'm sure you get it.  

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda

Another Monday....

Ok so I've been MIA for a couple of weeks.  I know!  I do this sometimes.  And I have a pretty good reason this time.  [Don't I always?]  lol

I've been focusing on getting a certain quilt finished and I don't want to show a lot of it since I'm not really sure who reads my blog.  

But I can talk about it a bit.  I do have all of the blocks sewn together and was getting ready to attach the simple 6" border .... when I stopped.

You know "they" say that a quilt will tell you what it needs.  

Wellllll ....It was telling me to NOT just slap a border on this very pretty top.  So I laid it out on the floor so I could get a good look at it and thought it really didn't need a border.  

So there.  I made my decision.  

Folded it all up and was getting ready to take it (as is) to my longarm gals.

But NO!  That just wasn't going to be.  I kept pondering that quilt for days and days and then went back to EQ7 and changed the border design and suddenly I knew this was going to work.  One more border to get made and added and THEN it is going to my 'gals'.  I'm happy.  The quilt is happy.  

In the meantime I pulled out some of the Carol Doak blocks that I had made this last year and decided to make a few more.  I do love to paper-piece so once I got on a roll I had three blocks made in no time.

So now I'm heading over to check in at Judy's Design Wall Monday and see what other quilters have been up to.  

I bet they have much more than I do.  ;-)

I hope you're having a great day. Glad you stopped by.....Linda