Back to Fort Myers

Over the weekend Bill and I visited our good friends Wendy & Larry in Cape Coral. Naturally, we found some time to get a little birding in.

This beautiful Bald Eagle was perched just a couple of houses away from Wendy's. What a great way to begin our day!

I've only seen a Reddish Egret one other time while walking on the beach in Fort Myers with my sister. This one was at Ding Darling on Sanibel.  Unfortunately, it was about the only bird we saw at Ding Darling!

Love the hairdo!

Harns Marsh is one of our most favorite places to visit. We arrived just as the sun was coming up through the fog. There were several Limpkins making lots of noise.

We saw about 5 Sandhill Cranes and they too were loudly protesting the arrival of morning.

Harns Marsh is one of the few places you can see Snail Kites and we were not disappointed. We saw about a dozen including several juveniles.

 After our visit to Harns Marsh we walked Six-Mile Cypress. I was delighted to see this Ovenbird.

Every time we visit, the slough is different - but we always see Double-crested Cormorants.

And Anhingas

This is a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron. We saw a couple of adults, but they were deep in the bushes and I could not get a decent picture.

We saw a few smaller birds, including a Black-throated Green Warbler, but the light was terrible for pictures.

It was nice to visit our old stomping grounds, but we are glad we moved to Ocala. The traffic in Fort Myers, Sanible & Captiva was horrible. Our visit was special but we were glad to get home.

Hoffman Skylines Quilt in Charcoal

Now that the Houston Market is over, I can show a picture of one of the items I made for Hoffman Fabrics. This is the Skylines Quilt in charcoal.

 I think I like the multi-color version better, but they are my colors.

Once these two quilts were finished and packed off to Hoffman, I went on a market bag spree and finished about 15 bags. Here are a few.

This one was the result of a boring afternoon. I used a quilt-as-you-go method with muslin as the base and lined it with another batik. I also made a small matching zippered bag to go inside. Laura liked it so it now lives in Texas.

This is a zippered bag I made for Pamela's birthday.

Finally finished Amish with a Twist II (Nancy Rink design). I purchased this as a kit - fabric and pattern together. It was my first kit and I learned a lot.

I would never put these colors together on my own - but somehow they work. I did not like working with the fabric as it frayed way more than I'm used to but the variety of the blocks was fun and the fabric in the kit was more than enough to finish the project with some left over. I had it long-arm quilted by a local quilter - James Estes (Country Boy Quilting) and I was pleased with his work.

Over the weekend, Bill and I walked the La Chua Trail in Paynes Prairie. Most of the trail was closed due to high water and it was crowded so we didn't see many birds but it's always fun to see how much it changes from year to year.

Bill found a friend.

I don't know what it was, but it was huge.

The birds are finally beginning to return.We have lots of Pine Warblers.

And a photogenic Eastern Phoebe.

My payment from Hoffman arrived - lots and lots of beautiful fabric. I'm usually a one-at-a-time kind of quilter - but I currently have two quilts on the design wall. One is a block-of-the-month type and the other is my old stand-by -- a One Block Wonder. I'll try to be better at getting pictures up on my blog so you can follow along.