Update on the Young Eagles in Decorah

The eagle cam was shut down on July 7, but click here to get the latest on the young eagles and some photos too.

I hope you enjoyed getting a close-up view of the hatching and raising of these young eagles as much as we did.

Is it hot where you are?

Happy Sunday...it is another hot day here in Paducah, where the temps have been in the high 90's for the last several days. Rain, rain, come again some day to wash this heat away. The grass is dry and crinkles when you walk across it.

It's been a busy few weeks since I last wrote a note here. The AQS Quilt Show in Knoxville was July 14 - 17 and I'm finally catching up with laundry, work, and my e-mails.

We don't have a garden this year but sure are enjoying the fresh veggies and fruits from the Farmer's Market. We can get fresh-picked peacher from a Southern Illinois orchard that has a stand here in town...look at these beauties. Peach cobbler, here we come!

Since it is so hot outside, I decided this was indeed a good weekend to do some sewing. Starting to sew on a new Xquisite scrap quilt in a whole different color scheme for me - browns, creams, teals, and some greens. Well, the teal is one of the colors I use a lot, but not the others. It will definitely have a modern look to it.

Hope you are staying cool, whereever you are....

Happy 4th of July - Patriotic Quilts

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Happy Birthday America!

In Memory of Deanna

On Thursday, my longest friend, Deanna Tumey, passed away after her battle with pancreatic cancer. This is my tribute to my dear friend. Our sincere sympathy goes out to her partner, Karen. We will all miss Dee.

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Celebrating This Week

Wayne and I celebrated our anniversary and my birthday this week. We went to Patti's Restaurant in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, for dinner on Wednesday evening. This is the first time we have eaten in the Crown Room -- look at the beautiful stained glass window with the crown in it. And there were beautiful dolls hanging on swings from the ceiling, in cabinets in the corners, and displayed with quilts throughout the room. It is a fun room to dine in. We had our usual 2-inch thick pork chop (and brought half of it home) and a piece of their mile-high lemon meringue pie. YUM.

 

Most of the dolls were at least 12 inches tall and many of them were at least 36 inches tall. Look at the beautiful dresses and hats. The flowers and the white twinkle lights add to the charm of the Crown Room.

 Quilts with pink in them were draped along the walls, and there is even one on the ceiling.

Can you believe that we have been married 47 years? And I'm only 49 again, and again...... grin. Our waiter was kind enough to snap this photo of us... after they sang "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."

And now some news from the home front:

This is one of the baby wrens - I snapped this photo the evening before they left the nest this week. They were sure noisy. Now we have some more wrens that have built a nest in the other wren house. See how they fill in the gaps of the bird house with sticks. It always amazes me how they get those long pieces in there and get them maneuvered into place.

Have you been watching the eagles in Decorah? Just click here and it will take you to the eagle site; you'll be able to see right into their nest. The first of the eaglets was born April 3 and the other two were born during the following week. The eagles usually stay in the nest 10 - 12 weeks, so they will be flying away soon and then they will be shutting down the live streaming video of the nest. Here you can see the oldest eagle trying out its wings. They will take about three hops across the nest flapping their wings. Guess this is how they practice getting the air under their winds in preparation for flying away.

I took this photo this morning. You can see how they have changed from my earlier posts. Their beaks are changing to a gold color instead of black. They can now use their feet to hold the fish that the parents bring them and tear off the flesh themselves. Look at how long the talons on their feet are already.

It has been amazing to watch the adult eagles build, and continue to add onto the nest to accommodate all three of these young ones. Usually the eagles will have two eggs, so this was extra special to see how they raise three eaglets.

It has been fun to watch this nest of eagles -- from the parents sitting on the eggs, to the hatching, and watching them grow. It will take until they are about five years old for their heads to turn white to look like the American Bald Eagle that we all know. Thank you to Luther College for providing this bird's eye view so we can watch these majestic birds in their natural habitat.

Hope you are staying cool... it is hot here in Kentucky. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Happy Memorial Day from Kentucky

Wayne and I are spending the weekend here at home...and it's a much needed weekend without any travel plans. We are roasting a turkey on the grill, potato salad is made, and Andi and Dennis are coming over for dinner later.

Wayne has been busy this week mowing the yard. With rains in between mowing spells, it's been hard to keep up with it.

Tuffy thinks it's a good day for a nap....

.........And he settled in to take one on the back porch.

Today I took my camera out to shoot some photos of our hydrangea bushes - they are in full bloom now.

Love those bright blue flowering heads on them.

And the lilies we bought for Socks are all in full bloom. Don't they look like someone painted them? They are exactly that rosy color with the dark red splotches. There are about ten stalks on each plant this year.

Wishing you all a safe holiday weekend.

And Happy Birthday to my sister Marcia!

Wayne and Bonnie

Bonnie Browning Appearing Now on www.TheQuiltShow.com

Hello:
My program #609 is now appearing on http://www.thequiltshow/ with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims. They asked me to put together a group of photos of some of my quilts and other projects. Hope you enjoy seeing what keeps me busy when I'm not working on AQS Quilt Shows. Many of the quilts and projects have patterns in my books; other are just fun projects that I've made. If you want to order my latest book, Borders & Finishing Touches 2, which was featured on the show, you can order it from the shop at TheQuiltShow.com or from the American Quilter's Society.

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Update on the Eagles

Wow, you won't believe how fast eagles grow. Here are some photos that show you their size when they were first born...and where they are today. These images are from the Decorah Eagle Cam near the Fish Hatchery in Decorah, Iowa.

April 7, two eaglets had hatched.

April 10, all three eaglets have now hatched

May 1, feeding time by both female and male eagles

May 4, taking a nap - every day the adult eagles redo the nest,

shredding cornstalks for bedding

May 4, some family time - check out those feathers on the oldest eaglet, changing from down to feathers; boy they eat a lot of fish

May 4, they tend to lay in a pile - one adult is always nearby

May 6, what are these big feet for...they are very wobbly when they try to walk

May 6, wings work...now if I only knew what to do with them

In less than one month, they have grown from just being hatched to this size. Amazing, and what fun to watch via the Decorah Eagle Cam. You can watch too, here is the link: http://www.luther.edu/eaglecam/stream/

Beautiful Irises...and More

The house next door has been sold and the new owners are a couple that just loves flowers. We are so glad because for years we enjoyed all of the beautiful flowers that Lorraine Ingram cared for in her yard.

After I broke a belt on the lawn mower...so I couldn't mow like I had planned, I did a little weed-whacking with the trimmer. When I was thoroughly covered in dirt and whatever else I kicked up with the trimmer, Wayne suggested that we go over so I could meet the new neighbors. I washed my face and arms, and grabbed my camera because the irises are blooming and I wouldn't miss this opportunity to take a few photos.

I thought you all would enjoy seeing these beauties too.

Hope you enjoyed this bouquet of flowers. Remember your Mother on Mother's Day. We hope our Mothers enjoy the real flowers that are on their way.

Bonnie's New Sewing Machine...well, Old Sewing Machine

I have a new sewing machine. Well, it is new to me. When I was a little girl, one year for Christmas I received a hand crank sewing machine...and I still have that machine. Here it is:

And it is a little bit rusty...but then, so am I.

Recently someone on Facebook was talking about the "big" hand crank old sewing machines. I joined the discussion and said I was looking for one of those machines because I wanted to make a lamp out of it...and that I didn't care whether it worked or nor. Diann Becker from PA saw my comment and told me she had one and that she would bring it on the bus to Lancaster if I wanted it. Of course, I said, "Yes, please bring it with you." And she did. Thanks, Diann. And here it is:

It is a Frister & Rossmann hand crank machine, made in Germany. From the serial number, it looks to date between 1896 and 1914. So now that I owned this machine, I needed to find out more. We know that in  
1846 Elias Howe invented and patented the first automatic sewing machine for practical operation.

Frister & Rossmann started life near Berlin, Germany, in 1864. The two business partners, Gustav Rossmann and Robert Frister had started their sewing machine business by copying existing machines such as the American Wheeler & Wilson and Willcox & Gibbs under licence from the original manufacturers. Their first sewing machine, the A1 was simply a Wheeler & Wilson clone machine. However its success was unsurpassed, hardly changing for around 50 years. For decades Frister & Rossmann were the largest producers of sewing machines in Germany. By the early 1880s they had made a staggering quarter of a million machines, and by 1903 the great company had produced over one million machines.
 
Frister & Rossmann machines are known world wide, and similar models are better known in Australia and New Zealand as The Globe, and in America as Jaguar and Kenmore machines. Frister & Rossmann continues to hold it place amongst the premier sewing machine names in Great Britain.
(Frister & Rossman Info Source: http://www.sewalot.com/frister_rossmann.htm)

You can see from the photo I shot of the machine, it also has a box of attachments, some bobbins (good thing because they are very strange looking), several feet, and the instruction manual.
 
Now curious as to what kind of working it order it might be in, I took the machine on Saturday to Keith English of English's Sew & Vac here in Paducah. His motto on TV is that they "sell the best and service the rest." So we'll see if it works when I get it back. Keith said his granddaughter says he can fix anything. Now that is putting the pressure on. : )
 
Think I still will make into a lamp, but will put a wooden base under it to run the fixings for the lamp so the machine can be removed if I should want to take it to a demonstration some time. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it is good running order. What a fun new machine I have - and it remains to be seen if it will actually sew or live out its life as a lamp!

Backyard Birds at the Brownings

Tonight after work, Wayne was helping the neighbor, so I grabbed my camera and sat in my porch swing to watch the birds. I saw ALL of these birds tonight as they visited our feeders in the back yard. Hope you enjoy a bit of spring in Paducah and seeing all of the fine feathered friends...and one squirrel...that happened along this evening.

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Vendors Relax on Boat at Kentucky Lake...and more

I thought you all would get a kick out of this tape from WPSD TV Local 6 about the vendors who stayed on an 80 foot houseboat at Kentucky Lake, and about the fancy portalets that we had behind the Pavilion this year.

Click here to view the tape.

Bonnie B

The 26th Paducah Show is Now History

Wow, what a busy week. We moved the quilts into the Convention Center on Friday, April 17, and it has been a whirlwind ever since. Judging took place on Saturday and Sunday; the quilts were hung on Monday and Tuesday...and the vendors set up then too; and the winners in the quilt contest were announced on Tuesday evening. The show opened on Wednesday and closed at 5 p.m. on Saturday. It was a busy week of quilts, quilters, classes, special events, and best of all - seeing quilters from all 50 states (plus Wash. D.C.), and 14 other countries around the world.

Wednesday was a very early morning - I was up at 3:45 a.m. so I could pick up Sue McCarty, the Janome Best of Show winner, and we did live broadcasts from the Expo Center from 5 to 7 a.m. Quilt Judge Libby Lehman joined us for the broadcast too. From then on, it was nonstop. We had three great evening performances on the stage at the Carson Four Rivers Center - Kaffe Fassett, Eleanor Burns, and Ricky Tims.

Kaffe Fassett and Liza Lucy sign a copy of their new book, Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts, for me.

The National Quilt Museum had their annual quilt auction on Thursday. I was the lucky bidder for two quilts and a really neat ironing/cutting board cabinet from Tracey's Tables. Ah, now I will HAVE to clean up my sewng room.

So today is Sunday. Wayne was up early to go to the Pavilion to help the last few vendors load out. He, Kelly, and John will be there for a little while this morning doing that. And me, well I went back to sleep and woke up at 10 a.m. What a luxury after all my early mornings this past week.

So what's next? Registration is underway for the Knoxville show that will be July 14 - 17, and we'll be finishing up the registration materials for the Des Moines show, October 6 - 9. And we are working on all four shows for 2011. I hope to see you at one of our shows soon. For all of the latest information, you can go to the AQS Web site, http://www.americanquilter.com/ or check out the blog.

Have you entered one of your quilts in an AQS Quilt Show? You can't win if you don't enter...just ask Sue McCarty, our Janome Best of Show winner this year in Paducah. This is the first time she ever entered one of the AQS quilt shows!

The Dogwoods are Blooming!

Today was my day to go take some new photos of dogwoods for us to use in our quilt show materials. How do you like this one?

I love the red dogwoods.

And look how pristine this white dogwood is? When they first open full out, they are just beautiful too.

Other flowers are blooming too - here we have a variety of tulips, phlox, and a white dogwood tree in the background. Don't you just love SPRING when the blossoms add color everywhere?

Look at this pretty iris I found blooming - look at those yummy purples!

We drove on the Dogwood Trail, and the dogwoods look like lace as they line the streets. If you are in Paducah, don't miss driving the Dogwood Trail, in daylight or at night when the homeowners light their dogwoods and flowers. It's pretty either way.

The AQS Quilt Show is April 21 - 24, and I hope to see many of you here.

There will be plenty of beautiful quilts to see in the quilt show.

Bonnie B

Meet my Cousin Margie

While we were in Lancaster, Wayne and I had dinner at Annie Bailey's with my cousin, Margie McFayden and her husband Jeff, and her mother Shirley Kirkland (our dads were brothers). It has been years since we have seen each other...but you wouldn't know it by the way we talked and talked. Margie and Jeff live in New Jersey, and Margie plans to be back next year to the Lancaster show to take some classes. She has a brand new Janome sewing machine and is looking forward to learning all about how to use it and to make quilts.

As children, I was always the tall one and Margie was the short one...nothing has changed there. GRIN

It was really fun to have a chance to get together and catch up. It's a good thing that Jeff and Wayne are the quiet type - they could hardly get in a word. We will plan to do this again soon.

American Eagles!!

This week we have been watching the Luther College Eaglecam...and this morning we saw the first eaglet - there are two more eggs to hatch. It's amazing to watch these magnificent birds in action.
Enjoy the show...

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Think Spring...and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The flowers are starting to bloom here in Paducah. That brightens everyones mood. Hope the sun is shining where you are.

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Omaha - Turkeys, Deer, and Great Classes

This week I taught for the Cottonwood Quilt Guild in Omaha, Nebraska. Wayne and I drove and along the way enjoyed seeing lots of wild turkeys (was hard to get a photo of them though at 70 miles an hour), deer playing in the fields (I did capture a photo of some of them), and hundreds of geese flying overhead. There was enough snow in the fields that it was pretty easy to spot them.

One of the many groups of deer we saw along I-29

By the time we arrived in Omaha on Saturday evening, there was a fine snow coming down. The problem was it snowed all night long that way. By noon on Sunday, the wind was blowing the snow so there were white-out conditions and we couldn't see the cars parked in the parking lot at the hotel where the class was held - lucky for us, it was the same hotel that we stayed in.

The classes were great - on Sunday, we did the Windmill Twisted Log Cabin - this is the quilt that I showed on Simply Quilts; that quilt received more mail than any other program on the show. Several of the ladies finished one complete Windmill. Here's a photo of them showing off their work at Show and Tell during the meeting on Monday night.

Show and Tell: It's always fun to see how different they look when different fabrics are chosen. I can't wait to see their quilts finished.

Sunday evening Wayne and I had dinner with Gary and Susie VonWeihe, who live in Council Bluffs. Gary and Wayne were stationed at Richard Gebaur Air Force Base in Kansas City. Can't believe that was 40 years ago, after Wayne returned from Viet Nam. We enjoyed getting to see how the Gerber baby has grown up with teenagers of her own. We always called Robin the Gerber baby because she looked like the baby on their labels. Gary and Susie have three other children...and a total of nine grandchildren. We had a fun evening together.

Then on Monday we did the Xquisite Scrap Quilt class. I always encourage people to bring what they have in lights, mediums, and darks. We went through my process for sorting the fabrics to get the values in the right piles. Then to just pick up a value and sew it to another square, using my formula. And they learned some tips for trimming and pressing too. About an hour before the end of class I take everyone's blocks and lay them out on the floor to show some of the variations you can make with these blocks. I did make believers out of them - value does the work and color gets the credit - if the value is correct, then it really doesn't make any difference what color the fabric is. See for yourself....

Quilt laid out using blocks from all of the students in class in the Sunshine & Shadow pattern

My Getting It Straight lectures on Monday evening and again Tuesday morning were well received. I hope everyone picked up a tip or two for making their quilts turn out flat and straight. And I even took a couple of photos of the snow piled in the parking lot of the church where the guild meeting was held. You definitely have to scoop and plow the snow they get.

Thanks, Cottonwood Quilt Guild, for inviting me to Omaha - snow and all!

Wayne and I enjoyed some nice sunshine for the drive home. Left Omaha with 14 degree temps and it was 35 degrees when we arrived back in Paducah on Wednesday.

Today (Sunday) we are enjoying 65 degrees here in Paducah and have the door open to get some fresh air into the house. Spring is on the way! Come on Spring!!