Blog on Fire Award

My friend Lois Arnold, AZ, gave me the Blog on Fire Award. Who knew there was such a thing.

One of the things you are supposed to do is tell seven things about yourself... so here goes:

1. Wayne and I have lived in Paducah, KY for 17 years (this week) and that is the longest we have lived in any city (except our hometown of Muscatine, Iowa).

2. I have collected crock chicken waterers for years. Most of them have some kind of indigo blue design painted on them. And what does one do with crock chicken waterers, you say? Well they make great conversation pieces, and aren't good for much else unless you raise chickens and need to water them.

3. I'm working on my 10th quilt book, and may sneak in another small one before I get it finished. My books are published by the American Quilter's Society (AQS). By the time I finish the Lone Star book, I'm going to have a magnificent collection of Lone Star quilts - just bought another one last week to use in the book. I've been employed as the Executive Show Director for AQS for 17 years now - who would have thought I would do this for 17 years? Still having fun doing it!

4. Since drawing is another hobby of mine, I'm heading to Rhode Island this fall to take a Zentangle Teacher Certification Seminar. Talk about something that is relaxing to do. One nice thing about Zentangle is there is no preconceived outcome, you just draw one line at a time. And there are no erasers.

5. We enjoy nature and feed a lot of birds in our backyard... and squirrels... and the neighborhood raccoons and ground hogs too. Often we can watch up to 15 or more different types of birds come to the feeders in the evening. Right now the hummingbirds are here enmasse fighting over the two feeders.

6. Teaching quilting is one of my great joys. Is there anything better than spending a day or two with a group of quilters? My class info is on my website, http://www.bonniebrowning.com/ .

7. It is so much fun to keep up with my long-time quilting friends, Lois Arnold, Lorinda Lie, and Jo Fifield on the Internet. It makes the distance between us so much shorter. And, amazingly, we are all still making quilts and are involved in so many other things.

Guess you now know a few bits of information about me that you may not have known. I use my blog to share what I am up to... so come back often. Hope to have some new quilt photos to post soon.

Bonnie Browning
Paducah, KY

A July Saturday in Paducah

This day started out like any Saturday... have some breakfast and head to Farmer's Market to get some fresh veggies. We hadn't driven out of Reidland yet when we came upon a Mama wild turkey taking her young one for a walk... across the busy highway. We stopped and let them cross. And, where was my camera when I needed it!

Then it was off to Farmer's Market to get some sweet corn and tomatoes. Stopped by the National Quilt Museum (which is right across the street from the market) to pick up the silver necklace that I saw in their newsletter. It is a heart that says Quilts inside the heart - one is now in my jewelry box. And I also picked up some of the museum's collection of dogwood fabric made by Moda. They told me that the supply is getting limited, so if you want some, contact the museum. They had 5" squares, jelly rolls, layer cakes (10" squares - that's what I bought), and some fat quarters and other cuts.

After a bacon and tomato sandwich for lunch - yum - it started to rain. I love to sit on our back porch when it rains. This photo shows how hard it rained.

Our backyard has lots of bushes blooming now. Here is how the pink crepe myrtle looks in the rain. We also have a dark rose colored crepe myrtle, and the Rose of Sharon buses are blooming too - they are a purple-ish pink.

My next bit of entertainment on the porch was watching the hummingbirds. We haven't had but about 4 hummingbirds up to now... but they were fighting in masses over the feeders today. Here are two of them going beak-to-beak over this feeder.

And now, I'm going to go Zentangle. If you don't know what that is, stay tuned. I'm heading to a seminar for teacher certification in Zentangle this fall. I see lots of applications for it in designing quilting patterns.

Have a great weekend!
Bonnie B

Miss You Maxine

Last week we attended the funeral of Wayne's Mother, Maxine Furnas Browning Martin in Muscatine, Iowa. She would have been 90 in December. While we already miss her, she passed away in her home, did not have any disabling diseases, and was mentally sharp. She passed away as she was getting dressed on the morning of Sunday, July 10. If we have to go, that would be my choice too.

Maxine leaves behind her husband, Buster Martin, one son - Wayne Browning, and her daughter - Kathi Beverlin, two granddaughters - Cherdyl and Chrystal, and one great-granddaughter, Jamie. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Carl Browning, and son James Browning.

She loved flowers and we often sent her bouquets of live flowers to enjoy. Maxine was well-known for making some of the best cinnamon rolls and pies around. There were always fresh cinnamon rolls waiting when we visited her. Usually our fall visits included a visit to our favorite orchard near Morning Sun, IA, to buy bushels of apples. She believed that an apple, or two, did keep the doctor away. Her apple dumplings were yummy!

My favorite memory of Maxine is the time she and I spent together making candy for the holidays. We would each buy 10 pounds of sugar and we made candy until the sugar was all gone. We made several kinds of fudge - the old-fashioned cooked cocoa kind, white chocolate fudge will lots of nuts in it, and peanut butter fudge. Of course there were several flavors of divinity - her two syrup recipe is still the best one, peanut brittle, date rolls, and whatever new kind we wanted to try. Our family and friends enjoyed lots of holiday candy from our weekend of candy making.

Peace!

Love Red, White and Blue

It is hard to believe that it is the 4th of July weekend already... and time for me to share some of my red, white and blue quilts!

Lady Liberty, Bonnie K. Browning



American Eagle, redwork by Bonnie K. Browning



Collection of Bonnie K. Browning



Quilt by Milford Valley Quilters,
Collection of Bonnie K. Browning



Collection of Bonnie K. Browning



Quilt by Florence, Alabama Quilters
Collection of Bonnie K. Browning



Collection of Bonnie K. Browning



Salute to Uncle Sam, Bonnie K. Browning

May you all have a fun, safe 4th of July holiday!

Birthday, Sewing and Eagles

I can't believe it has been so long long since I wrote on my Blog. It has been crazy busy at work. We are just finishing the Showbook for the show in Knoxville, July 13 - 16; and the registration guide is finished for the Des Moines show, September 28 - October 1. And, I just returned from three days of planning meetings for the 2012 summer show in Grand Rapids, MI.

And, then I had a birthday yesterday - had a nice leisurely day - stopped at Farmer's Market to pick up some home grown tomatoes, watermelon, green beans, and cabbage. Then did a little shopping, had lunch with Wayne at Tribeca, and home for a quiet evening.

Heavy rain and lots of wind woke me up about 5 a.m. so I got up. Decided I needed to make some new pillows that I use when I travel. They are shaped like dogbones and fit perfectly into a carryon.  I just finished making three new ones so I'll be set for a while.

Have you joined the new website, MyQuiltPlace.com ?  It's free and you can make your own page, add photos of your quilts, join or start interest groups. Check it out by clicking here.

Have you checked out the Decorah eagles lately. They are expected to fly away sometime this week. Right now they are sitting on the branches of the tree where their nest is. See how big the eagles are now. Click here to check them out.

That's all for now... hope you are having a great day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Memorial Day has always been a special day for us - to remember and celebrate my sister Marcia's birthday on May 30, and to visit the cemeteries where our families are buried. We also made an afternoon of taking fresh peonies to the cemeteries and visiting grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles grave sites.

And we always then enjoyed some traditional Memorial Day food - grilled chicken and ribs, home-made potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs, and yummy desserts. I have a dessert to share with you today.

Whoopie Pies


From Food Network Kitchens

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet.



Ingredients
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup natural cocoa powder, such as Hershey's
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons fine salt
18 large marshmallows (not minis)

Put the unsweetened and semisweet chocolates and butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl; heat at 75 percent power until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir, and continue to microwave until completely melted, about 2 minutes more. (Alternatively, put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with an inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching the water, and stir occasionally until melted and smooth.)

Whisk the sugar, eggs and vanilla into the chocolate mixture until smooth.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into another bowl. Gradually whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until moistened. Switch to a rubber spatula and finish folding the batter together; take care not to over-mix.

Use a small cookie scoop or spoon to drop a heaping tablespoon of batter onto the prepared pan. Repeat to make 36 cookies, spacing them about 1-inch apart. Bake until the cookies spring back when lightly touched, about 6 minutes.

Cool the cookies slightly. Transfer half of the cookies to a rack. Turn the remaining cookies on the pan over, so they lay flat side up. Place a marshmallow on top of each flipped cookie and return pan to the oven. Cook just until the marshmallow begins to soften and puff, about 3 minutes. Cool marshmallow topped cookies slightly, about 2 minutes. Top with the remaining cookies, pressing lightly to make sandwiches. Cool whoopee pies completely on wire racks. Serve. Store in tightly sealed container for up to 1 week.

Enjoy your Memorial Day, and remember our troops!

Blue Jays vs Hawk

Tonight Wayne and I were sitting on the back porch eating our supper when I spotted a hawk in a tree at the edge of our yard. All of the other birds disappeared - most went into hiding in the wisteria bushes. And all was quiet... until a pair of blue jays let the hawk know that this was their backyard. They dive bombed the hawk, until the hawk flew to the opposite side of the yard, and they dive bombed it again and chased it on down the street. Blue jays are noisy anyway, and you should have heard the racket they created as they chased this hawk out of the yard.

Soon the birds were back on the feeder. Here are some special guests at the feeders tonight, and one bluebird who chose to land on the cable line.

This red-breasted woodpecker is a frequent visitor to the feeder. He usually gets the feeder to himself.  The white bucket behind the feeder is a baffle to keep the squirrels out of the feeders. It works most of the time.

This is the first time we have spotted the female rose-breasted grosbeak eating the corn. She very meticulously plucked off a kernel, ate it, and helped herself to another kernel.

This bluebird landed on the cable line and waited for me to snap his picture. We have a bluebird box on a tree out in the yard. They loved it earlier this week when I mowed the yard - they swooped down to get the bugs I had stirred up.



Jenny wren has built nests in both wren houses now - guess they can't decide which one to set up house in.

All of our backyard birds certainly do give us a sideshow, especially in the evening when they come in to feed. We like our feathered friends.

Enjoy our Backyard Birds...and Tuffy too!

While cleaning our back porch this morning, I sat and watched the birds that come to our feeders every day. Soon I grabbed my camera so I could share them with you - we feed the birds year-round so have many that stay here all year long. In addition to the cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, indigo buntings, hummingbirds, and American goldfinches that I photographed, I also saw some hairy woodpeckers, titmouses, mourning doves, sparrows, and wrens. What fun to listen to all of them singing their songs. Needless to say, we buy sunflower seed in 50 pound bags. :-)

Here is my Smilebox album of photos of the birds in our backyard today...

Digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

Cosmati Pavement at the Royal Wedding

The Cosmati Pavement at the Royal Wedding in Westminster Abbey - looks like a quilt, doesn't it?

E-1's Big Adventure

On Sunday I was sitting at the computer doing some paperwork, and decided to use a split screen so I could watch the eagles for a while too. Well, I had a really big show when Eaglet #1 (2 days old) was exercising his independence by trying to wiggle out from under Dad.

Here you can see both E-1 and E-2 as Dad tries to corral them both under him. Not an easy task.

Dad works on the nest all of the time - he is the nest builder, and he rearranges it every time he returns to the nest. He works on the inside rim of the nest to make room for the growing eaglets. He was doing that and either E-1 grabbed his beak or Dad caught some feathers of E-1, and the next thing you know, here is little E-1 on the outside of the nest bowl.

Here we have E-2 and the third egg in the nest, E-1 outside the bowl of the nest, and Dad pacing to try to figure out what to do next. He finally decides that he needs to sit back on the egg (which should hatch in the next day or two).

"Hey, Dad, here I am"... little E-1 keeps popping up behind Dad. Dad was very restless and kept moving around the nest.

"Hey, hey, I'm over here"... good thing the weather was warm that day so there was no harm to little E-1.

Bob Anderson from the Raptor Resource Group that provides this camera shows us the horses in the field next to the tree where the eagle nest is located.

This is Mom, who just arrived back at the nest. She looked at Dad as if to say, "what have you been doing up here?"

Mom takes over the duties of sitting on the nest. She, too, moved around quite a bit. Finally she turned to where E-1 was trying to climb back into the nest. She loosens the edge of the nest some, and uses her beak to scoop E-1 back into the nest under her. E-1 isn't so naughty when Mom is around.

And that concludes E-1's Big Adventure on Sunday afternoon!

This is enjoying nature at its finest! If you haven't logged on to check out the eagles for yourself, here is the link.

In Honor of President's Day

Since we have been in an eagle-watching mode lately, I chose this Redwork Eagle as my tribute to honor President's Day.

Some of you may remember me showing this on Simply Quilts a few years ago when Michael Buckingham was there with his book, Presidential Redwork. I demonstrated how to do the redwork for him.

Do you like redwork? I find it very relaxing. The key is to take small even stitches and you do get into a rhythm making those stitches.

Wishing for our President to take actions as keen as the eyesight of an eagle.

It's nearly time for the Decorah, Iowa, eagles to lay their eggs and start sitting on their nest. This morning they were both sitting on the branch next to the nest. The new camera lets them move the camera and also to zoom it so we are getting great pictures of the eagles this year. Thank you to the Raptor Resource group for providing us all an up-close look at the Decorah eagles. We have a front-row seat to watching nature in action.

Here is the link so you can go view the eagles:

http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/ .

Eagle Cruise - What a Great Day!

Wayne and I enjoyed our annual Eagle Cruise on Kentucky Lake yesterday. While the temperatures were in the 30's, it didn't feel as cold on the deck taking photos as I though it would be - I tried to stay in some protected spots so I wasn't standing in the wind. With clothing four layers deep and a nice scarf to wrap over my head and neck, I spent quite a bit of time on the front and back decks taking photos of the 27 eagles we saw this year. Many others aboard, including Wayne, enjoyed watching from inside with their binoculars.

Previously we had seen most of the eagles sitting in trees. This year most of the eagles were flying. There were some immature ones sitting in trees in the coves - like they were trying to stay out of sight - I did get some photos of them though with my dandy 300 mm lens. There were lots of gulls flying along the boat, and we saw lots of coots - a favorite meal of the eagles (more on that later).

After the cruise we had dinner at the Ken Lake Lodge, which was followed by a great program by the Louisville Raptor Rehab group. They brought several raptors which have been injured and can't be returned to the wild, plus one beautiful barn owl they have raised and use for the educational program.

Before we even left the dock, we spotted an adult eagle sitting in the trees across the lake from the landing. Can you spot the adult eagle sitting in the trees? Hint: Look for the while head on a black body. The white birds you see flying are some gulls that seemed to follow us throughout the cruise.






Just after leaving the dock we spotted a peregrine falcon that has taken up residence in this big osprey nest on top of the bridge over Kentucky Lake. It's head is peaking out above the nest.







Here's the bridge... so that nest is way up there. The falcon has a bird's eye view.









After a while, you can spot the eagles pretty easy. This adult eagle was tucked into the trees.

It's fun to see them flying with their full-wing span. The wing span can reach seven feet.










There are two immature eagles sitting on the branch of this tree. They are a little fuzzy because this tree was back in a cove and it was quite a distance from the boat. Just look for two brown lumps sitting on the same branch.

We saw quite a few eagles flying along the tree line like this one.

This one looks like a missile flying into the trees.

They were soaring in groups - often they would fly away from us and then fly right back over the boat. They could have been performing their own symphony up there with the ease and grace that they were soaring.

Some of the coots who were swimming along the way became meals for the eagles. We saw this eagle swoop down alongside the boat to catch a coot - the coot was fast and went underwater. The eagle went up and swooped down to make another pass for the coot - again the coot went underwater. This time the eagle hovered like in this photo to wait for the coot to come up - when the coot came up, the eagle snatched it from the water and few off to a tree for a meal. The hovering was like watching someone tread water; it was amazing to watch.

Here is an American Coot - it's a water-dwelling bird that resembles a duck.

After watching the demise of the coot, we enjoyed the cruise back to dock, checking to see if some of the eagles were still sitting in the same spots... and some were.


After docking it was off to dinner at the Lodge. Then we saw some raptors in a program presented by the Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky, Inc. from Louisville. I'll share some of the photos I took of the raptors.

First we saw one of the smallest owls - the Saw-whet Owl that only weighed 3.3 oz.

Eileen Wicker talks about the Common Barn Owl.



The Turkey Vulture wanted to flap its wings - can't fly though because one wing was damaged at the joint.



After his performance, the Turkey Vulture sat down for a rest



This Golden Eagle had been caged for 18 years; they are nursing it back to health.
This was its first time to be taken out for their educational program.

The Golden Eagle gets its name from the gold feathers around its neck.

Check out the talons on the Golden Eagle.

Debbie handles the American Bald Eagle - it has a damaged wing.

Look at the beautiful coloring in the Bald Eagle's feathers.



What a beautiful day to go eagle watching. The other raptors were a bonus!
Thank you to the staff at Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky for
sharing their knowledge about the raptors with us.

 This morning (Feb. 6) was the final eagle cruise for this year. If you are interested in going on one of these cruises in 2012, contact http://www.kentuckylake.com/lbl/eagletours.htm or call 270-924-2020.

And here is another place for you to watch eagles online. It is the Nest Cam at Decorah, Iowa, near the fish hatchery. What smart birds to build their nest by a fish hatchery!

Here is the link: http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/index.html

They have a live camera that runs 24/7. Then you can also look at the hourly shots posted. Right now the Decorah eagles are getting their nest ready - shredding corncobs for nesting material. Last year we watched from the time their eggs were laid in February until the three young eagles left the nest in August. It's a great educational tool for your children and grandchildren to watch. 

This photo is from the daily stills at Decorah.

Happy Eagle Watching!