Baby Wrens...and Peaches..Oh, My...for the 4th of July

The wrens are eating like little pigs and they are starting to flap their wings in the nest...so it won't be long before they fly off. I thought you would enjoy a few closeup photos of them before they leave.

The Southern Illinois peaches are starting...and I made the first fresh peach shortcake (the kind with the thin batter, spread the peaches over the top, and cover with boiling water with 1 cup sugar dissolved in it. Yummy!

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Exhibits at The National Quilt Museum

Wow...yesterday after work I stopped at the National Quilt Museum to see the quilt exhibits. If you have not see these exhibits...you need to. I think these three exhibits are some of the best ever displayed at the museum.

The current exhibits are:
Best of Show: 25 Years of Excellence - this is an exhibit of all of the past Best of Show winners from the AQS Quilt Shows. What a great tribute to the quilters from 1985 through 2009. You have to be in awe of this workmanship.

New Winds from Asia - quilts from China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan
This is the only showing of these quilts in the United States. You have to marvel at how successfully these quiltmakers have been in using what I would call difficult fabrics to work with - kimonos, obis, and other fabrics that tend to move around. Wonderful color and creative designs in this exhibit.

European Art Quilts V - a juried exhibition by some of the best art quilters from across Europe. This exhibit is meant to initiate discussions on current affairs around the world. The ingredients for these quilts include materials determined by the availability and traditions in the different countries. I saw lots of slicing and dicing in these quilts, and especially enjoyed one that included fabric beads that formed a circle.

You can get more information from the quilt museum's Web site: http://www.quiltmuseum.org/exhibits_current.htm . Don't delay in seeing these exhibits - the first two are on exhibit until July 6 and 7. The European Art Quilts will be there until August 10.

These exhibits are worth a trip to Paducah to see.

Bonnie B

Baby Wrens and Other Visitors

Our wrens have a nest of little ones now and are busy feeding them. And I've snapped a few photos of other birds which have visited our backyard.

We're still having temperatures in the mid-90's so we've not done much outside. Wayne put new blades on the lawn tractor. Even in the early morning, it was warm out there.

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Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, Alabama

I just returned home from teaching at the Alabama Quilt Symposium that was held at St. Bernard Abbey, in Cullman, Alabama.

The students in my classes were great and I hope they picked up some tips for borders and edges for their quilt projects, and the Fun with Nine-Patch class was just that...fun. Most of those quilters had half of their quilt sewn together, and a couple had their whole top done. One quilter said she had never accomplished that much in a class before. Hooray! Our classes were held in the Retreat and Prep School buildings at the Abbey.

Also on the grounds is the Ave Maria Grotto. After driving past it a couple of times I knew I needed to find some time to go see the whole thing. I did, and here are some photos so you can see it too. These 125 miniature stone and cement structures are the handiwork of Brother Joseph Zoetl, a monk of the Abbey for almost 70 years. His monastic life was spent at the Abbey in daily hours of prayer and in laboring in the Abbey power house. When not busy shoveling coal into the furnaces, he took time to construct some miniature buildings, using stone, concrete, and unwanted donated materials, broken plates, costume jewelry, ceramic tile, beads, marbles, seashells, etc.

He gathered his ideas for his creations from extensive readings of history and the Bible. Of all the replcas constructed, he had seen only about six of them; all of the others were constrcted from photos or from printed descriptions.

They are amazing. He even included the Statue of Liberty as a tribute to his adopted country; Hansel and Gretel visit the Temple of the Fairies - note its beautiful little children and the awful dragon, which is bound by a heavy chain!

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Paducah Murals

The murals on the Paducah floodwall tell the history of this community. They provide a pictorial view of the city way back when.

Once in a while we go down to snap some photos in front of some of the murals. Don't miss seeing them when you stop in Paducah. Just head downtown to the river - you can't miss them!

Bonnie B

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The Nest Building Saga Continues...

Today is Memorial Day and it has been raining off and on, so I took advantage of the weather to do a bit of birdwatching from my favorite swing on the back porch. The wrens were very active today...even during the rain. Here's a pictorial view for you to enjoy.

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Gluing Things Together

I just found this site that gives you a variety of options for using the right glue to attach one thing to another.

Here is the site: www.thistothat.com

You just put in the two types of items that you want to glue and it will give you a variety of options of glues to use.

Neat site. I've added it to my Favorites. You never know when I'll need the answer to a glue question...

Hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day holiday. My sister Marcia was born on the "real" Memorial Day - May 30, so this is odd to be celebrating on the 25th.

Bonnie B

Nesting

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Today we are burning more piles of sticks in our backyard. I shot a couple of photos of my fire tending. My time in the Girl Scouts indeed is serving me well in how to stack those logs up to get them to burn good. While I sat there tending the fire piles, I enjoyed listening to and watching the frolic of the birds in our backyard. So you know me, I grabbed my camera and shot some new photos.

We have already had one hatching of baby bluebirds in our bluebird house. Once they left, Wayne cleaned it out so they can use it again. When he did, the structure of the nest is amazing. It is mostly made with pine needles that are all interwoven to hold it together.

Today the bluebirds have been stopping by the house to set up housekeeping again. Our bluebirds stay all year long.

The wrens have been building in the wren house too. They aren't as neat as the bluebirds though - look at how the sticks hang out under the roof. Maybe those are just draft dodgers from a crack between the side wall and the roof. Isn't it interesting how they can find those gaps?

I caught a photo of one of the wrens stopping by, and then quickly flying into their house. This house hangs on the clothesline pole so we can watch first hand from the deck all of their comings and goings.

And then I snapped some of the other birds that stopped by for a bite to eat this morning...mourning doves, blue jays, indigo buntings, cardinals, brown thrasher, chickadee,American robin, Eastern bluebird,tufted titmouse, house finches (momma was teaching her little ones to forage for food in the grass), American Goldfinch, and red-bellied woodpecker....and I saw all of those different kinds just this morning.

Mother Nature at her finest!

Interview on Sew-a-Quilt.com

Gloria Massard of www.sew-a-quilt.com just posted this interview she did with me. She talks about the many things that I'm involved in -- as a teacher, author, quilter, traveler, photographer...and the list goes on.

Here is the link:
http://www.sewaquilt.com/bonnie-browning-interview.html

Thanks Gloria. Good job!

Something New Has Been Added

I am using a new way to share my photos - Smilebox. Hope you enjoy the photos...and the music too.

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Take a Look at our Backyard Visitors

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Azaleas in full bloom and animals are picnicing in our back yard

The azaleas are in full bloom - the hummingbirds love to land and check out the nectar of their blossoms.

To view any of these photos larger, just click on the photo.

Tuffy is the resident cat. His favorite window on the backyard is one of the chairs or the floor on the back porch. From there, he can see all the comings and goings of the birds and squirrels at the feeders. There is a new puppy next door - they haven't met nose to nose yet!

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We feed our birds year round, but it is always fun in the spring when those that fly south return for the summer...or even for just a little while as they head farther north.

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The squirrels share the squirrel feeder pretty well. One can go upstairs to the sunflower seeds and one can stay downstairs with the corn.

The hummingbirds are back and drinking like they haven't had any nectar for a while. This one let me get pretty close with my camera.

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The grosbeak come in the spring and then head out. While they are here we certainly enjoy their color. Look at how big their beaks are - makes it easy for them to crack into corn and seeds.

Here is a photo with a couple of male grosbeaks (the colored ones) and a female (the brown one). They are about the same size - just different coloring.

We don't see many blue jays here, but this year we've had several at our feeders nearly every day.

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We have lots of goldfinches now too. The wrens are back and starting to set up house in our two wren houses that hang on the clothesline. And, we finally have a pair of bluebirds that have taken up residence in our bluebird house. It was new and I understand that they don't like new wood for their homes. This is the first year they have taken up residence in the Brownings backyard.

25th AQS Quilt Show is Now History

Wow...what a busy week we had. The 25th Anniversary Quilt Show closed at 5 p.m. last night. And Wayne and I were able to sleep in past 6 a.m. this morning. My feet and knees still hurt but I'm taking it easy today.

We began on Friday, April 17, as we moved into the newly-renovated Julian Carroll Convention Center (thank to the City of Paducah) to prepare for judging the quilts. The judging was done on Saturday and Sunday as Libby Lehman, Yvonne Porcella, and Mary Sorensen viewed and judged all 16 categories in the contest. Mariya Waters from Australia won Best of Show and she arrived at the show on Wednesday morning. What a delight, as she accepted the honor of winning this top award, talked with visitors about making her quilt, and enjoyed visiting Paducah. Wait until you see the photo of this quilt in the next issue of American Quilter magazine - you'll see the miles and miles of hand couched thread around every applique piece in her quilt!

Monday and Tuesday were set up days - getting the quilts all hung and vendors set up. Did you all visit all of the vendor areas, from the Expo Center, to both levels of the Convention Center, the Galleria near the Patio Dining Room in the hotel, and of course, the Vendors on Kentucky (Finkel Building) where we had even more vendors and the AQS/Collector Books "hurt book" sale? I bet you didn't buy just one book!

The show officially opened on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. Thousands of quilters were waiting to view the winning quilts. Congratulations to all of the winners in this year's contest. Wednesday afternoon, Nancy Zieman hosted the afternoon tea and shared tips for making landscape quilts and some other quick projects. The evening program, the 25th Anniversary Celebration, sponsored by Janome, included Keith Harrell as the keynote speaker, introduction of the past Best of Show winners, presentation of the awards to this year's winners, followed by a reception for all who attended.

Thursday was the Quilt Auction at the Four Rivers Center in the Afternoon. That evening Eleanor Burns regaled the audience with a look back at her past 30 years of Quilt in a Day - she even admitted when there were patterns that took more than one day. GRIN

On Friday afternoon, the AQS/Hobbs Bonded Fibers Fashion Show included both the models wearing their fashions in the contest, and the Quilted Elegance Fashions by Rami Kim during the judging intermission. All were a feast for the eyes! The Ricky Tims Concert, sponsored by Ken's Sewing Center, featured Ricky playing the piano, his mini piano, a recorder, flute, and a trumpet. We are lucky to have all of this talent wrapped in one of our quilters. We already have him scheduled for next year...so if you weren't here this year, put Friday evening on your calendar for next year.

The Brunch & Fun with Helen Squire on Saturday morning was like something from outer space - you should have seen Helen's GREEN hair. She shared tips for getting all of our UFO's quilted.

And, so now, we move on to finalizing our plans for the Knoxville (July 22 - 25) and Des Moines (October 28 - 31) shows later this year. The Knoxville registration is open online (http://www.americanquilter.com/) and we are working on the registration materials for Des Moines so they'll be available soon.

Dogwoods are Starting to Bloom

This week the first of the dogwoods started to bloom. Look at how pristine these blossoms are. The redbud trees are all in full bloom now too, which means that they will probably be finished by the time the quilters arrive for the quilt show. Hopefully the azaleas will be showing off their color for the quilters then. The AQS Quilt Show is only 18 days away now. Do you have your plans made to be here to help us celebrate our 25th anniversary, April 22 - 25?


Look at this beautiful peppermint striped dogwood that I found today. It was at a home in the Downtown Artist area. I've never seen one that looked like this. I am calling it Peppermint Patty - have no idea what it's real name is.

Progress Report - Limbs & Sticks from Ice Storm

My sister, Karen Franzen, and her son, Mike, drove down from Iowa on Wednesday. They helped Andi & Dennis Affholter drive their car back to Paducah; Dennis was loading the last of their furnishings from their home in Keota. Karen and Mike spent all day Thursday and until noon on Friday helping Wayne get the last of our sticks picked up. They worked on the pine trees in the side yard, and burned several of our piles of sticks. We only have six piles in the back yard left, plus the piles in the front yard that the county is supposed to pick up. If they don't, we'll burn those too. Thanks, Karen and Mike! It would have taken Wayne and me all summer to get those sticks picked up.

Here's a photo of Mike on the dock at Kentucky Lake. The crappie were really biting. Yummmm, crappie is my favorite fresh fish. And when you catch a mess of 55 of them like these guys did, that is some good eating. And what is prettier than a view of Kentucky Lake in the late afternoon. Even the birds knew fish were being cleaned, as they hovered overhead waiting for the remains.

These are the tree piles of sticks that we burned on Thursday night. We took a break and went to Kentucky Lake and then to Catfish Kitchen in Draffenville for supper. It took until after 1:00 a.m. to get them burned down so Mike and Wayne could go to bed. We only burn two piles at a time and we keep the hose out there to water down the grass around the piles. Some parts of our grass are really. On Friday, the State ordered a "no burn ban" from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, until further notice. There have been people who started fired and it got away from them and burned whole fields or buildings down. We keep a watch on ours when we start them.

Here is what is left in the front yard. The county is supposed to come pick up piles that are next to the street. They use a piece of equipment that has a big pincher that scoops up these piles and drops them in a big truck to take to the tree disposal yard to be chipped into mulch. Do you think the price of mulch will go down because there is so much available? We'll see.

Spring Flowers & Birds

Spring is here when you begin to see the color that the blooming flowers add to the yards. I've snapped a few photos in my next door neighbors' yard - where the daffodils, hyacinths, and tulip tree are all blooming.

The purple hyacinths with the yellow daffodils sure add a lot of color to the yard

Look at this pretty double daffodil...in peach and white. We certainly enjoy the perennial flowers that Lorraine (rest her soul) planted on her property. This is just one of several colors of double daffodils that she planted a couple of years ago. This year they are the fullest that I have seen them. Each clump is as pretty as the next.


The tulip tree (some call it magnolia) on the corner of our neighbor's property is in full bloom now. We haven't had any hard rain to wash off the petals...but we expect some rain this week so I had to go snap a photo of this beautiful tree this morning. Each blossom is opened full out.
Pretty, isn't it?

This is one of the two bluebirds that stayed in Paducah all winter. We have had a bluebird box on one of our trees for the past few seasons. This pair is now looking to build a nest in it. I understand that bluebirds don't like new wood so maybe the wood has weathered enough now that they can make it their home. This morning I saw one of them taking a bath in the bird water bowl. It was happily splashing around to get itself all wet.

We have robins that stay all winter, taking advantage of the bird seed and water that Wayne makes sure are available to them.

But it is always fun to see how red-orange their breasts get in the spring. Besides those that stay, we'll have many more fly back soon.

Spring has Sprung

The first sign of spring in Paducah is the daffodils starting to bloom. The Bradford pear trees are blooming too, but many of them are scarred from the January ice storm..so they look a little battered.

The quilts for the AQS Quilt Contest have been juried, and there are 400 excited quilters who can't wait for the judging to see if they won. The judging is done on the weekend right before the show.

We are busy working on the final details for the 25th anniversary celebration - do you know that more than 10,000 quilts have been shown at the Paducah show over these past 25 years...and AQS has awarded more than $2.5 million in cash awards to quilters across the U.S. and around the world.

Most of the classes are full, but there are still a few seats if you want to register for a workshop or two. You can always attend some of the lectures - that's a great way to learn more about that instructor's techniques.

Be sure to sign up for the 25th Anniversary Celebration & Reception on Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. It will be a special night. The past Best of Show winners will be honored - all but 4 of them will be here as guests of AQS.

And, I'm busy working on details...like finalizing the lodging list for the sponsors and teachers, and getting the BEO's (Banquet Event Orders - there's a slip for every room for every day) updated with this year's information for the hotel; and beginning the text for the Showbook that will be available at the show. There are things to be finished every day between now and the show.

Hope you all are planning to come join us in Paducah, April 22 - 25, 2009. If you need lodging, call the Visitors Bureau at 1-800-PADUCAH and ask about the AQS Home Bed & Breakfast program. We still have some local homeowners who are willing to host quilters for the show.

Rainy day here today...good day for a book and a nap. GRIN

Bonnie B

Picking Up Sticks - the BIG Cleanup

My sister, Karen Franzen, and her son, Mike, and granddaughter Kaetlin, came to Paducah to help "pick up the sticks" in our yard. She said the photos I posted earlier didn't give a true picture of how many trees and limbs had fallen. Maybe these photos will give you a better idea.

Katie (the assistant cashier), Mike (the manager), Karen (chief flunky), and Wayne (the boss - on the tractor) filled this trailer numerous times as they gathered the sticks into piles in the backyard. They decided they needed to have titles - so they came up with their own.

This is the back right corner of our yard. Several large limbs fell in this area.

We had some fun while they were here too. We went to eat at Patti's Restaurant on Thursday evening. Here Katie gets her first look at the 2-inch pork chop we all ordered. We ate about half and brought the rest home.

The side yard - several limbs fell on the roof of the house on this side. We also lost a big pine tree on this side.

The "crew" was able to get some of the sticks burned, but then the winds pick up and they couldn't do any more burning.

Central Paving is one of the sites that is accepting limbs if you haul them there. We drove by and saw this huge barrel chipper machine they are using to chop up all of these limbs.

And this is the pile that they still have to chip. To get an idea of the height of the pile, compare the pile to the large pieces of equipment sitting in front of it.

Mike starts sawing up the limbs behind the garage.

Mike used the chain saw non-stop to get it into pieces small enough for the rest of the crew to stack into piles to be burned in the back yard.

Here are some of the 25 six-foot tall piles of sticks in the backyard, all ready to be burned when the weather cooperates so Wayne can get out there to do it. On Saturday, when we wanted to get the last of the sticks picked up, it rained in the morning. So we went out to pick up some souvenir T-shirts and stopped by to visit the National Quilt Museum. By the time we arrived back home, the rain had stopped and the wind had died down so we were able to finish it. By the time we finished, snow showers started and the winds picked up again. The weather cooperated just enough for us to get the sticks all stacked and ready for burning.

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Karen, Mike, and Katie came on Wednesday and went home on Sunday. They helped us whittle this huge clean-up job down to a manageable size. Now Wayne can get his hose out there and start a couple of piles at a time to get it all burned.

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Thank you Karen, Mike, and Katie - we would have been weeks trying to get all of these sticks picked up. We had some fun, and we went to some of our favorite restaurants in the area too. We took their photo in front of the fire station in Possom Trot...and of Mike pumping gas at the Possom Trot gas station. GRIN! I guess they will have stories to tell when they get home.

Oh, and by the way, I also gave Katie and Karen some tools so they can do some quilting. Katie went home with some of my books, and some that have some good projects for her to get started. While they were here, we made a baked potato bag...and they went home with the instructions. Katie did all of the sewing to make it too.

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And now we are all exhausted...today was spent napping, watching the Nascar race, napping, napping, and napping.

Generators Off in Neighborhood

Would you believe that finally today there were no sounds of generators running in our neighborhool? Some of our neighbors had to have the lines rebuilt from their pole to the house and they are now getting to repair those lines.

Wayne and I have been working on picking up branches and sticks...and so far just about have the front yard done...well, if you can call two hugs piles in the front yard done. We could certainly have a gigantic wiener roast, complete with marshmallows. The county is working to get funds to come pick up the limbs...if they don't, we plan to burn them right where they sit.

Next we will have to start on the side yard where we had the most damage to our house - tore the cutters on three sides of the house on that end...and the limbs are larger than what we had in front. We also had damage to the gutter on one side of the garage, and quite a bit of damage to our garden shed in the back - one big limb broke down the double doors to the shed, and tore some siding off the front.

It will definitely be a while before we get this all cleaned up. Our insurance adjuster was here today and we should have the final report back from him in a week. The adjuster was from Montana, helping out with the storm damage in Western Kentucky.

Power is Back On

Our power came back on Monday night...wow, what a relief. Our home telephone (and Internet) are still down so if we aren't anwering your calls and messages, that's why. You can e-mail me at bbquilter@gmail.com and I can pick that up at the office when I check my messages there.

This week President O'Bama designated our ice storm a Major Disaster, which will allow the cities to get Federal funds to help with the clean-up. The Paducah fire and police have gone door-to-door checking on every household; we live in the county and the National Guard came through our neighborhood. This is the worst natural disaster ever in the state of Kentucky.

Here's a photo to give you an idea of what happened to the utility poles. This pole is located at the corner of the parking lot at the Paducah Expo Center. There are literally thousands of utility poles that have snapped in half, and in this case, thirds. There are 500 utility workers from nine states in town working with our local utility companies to help replace all of those utility lines before they can get power restored.

About half of our staff at AQS still does not have power back on at their homes. Cindy Carrico, our Assistant Show Director, counted 28 broken utility poles between her home in Fancy Farm and Mayfield, Kentucky - a distance of only 10 miles. That shows what a mammoth job these utility workers have to do to restore power. They are saying it will be March before Cindy's home has power again.

All for now...we have power and are warm again, and Tuffy has come out of hiding. GRIN

Bonnie B