Snips and Snails and Snake-Back Scales

I've had a very productive two weeks!  I finished my little quilt.  I had enough red fabric in my stash for backing and had decided against anything more than a thin sheet of cotton for filling, so it was really a fairly simple process of laying down the backing, centering the filling and top sheet, pinning it, and stitching it on my sewing machine.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  Each square is about 5 inches, I think.

To bind all three layers together, I used light tan thread to stitch a few Xs  in the corner of every other square, right at the seam.  It only took about 30 minutes and is quite invisible!  I love this little quilt and only wish it was big enough for our bed!  :)

I finished my cross stitch pattern and am very pleased with how that turned out, too.

I'm going to frame it soon!

I was so excited about my spider idea last week that I decided to go ahead and try it right away.  I thought that it would be good practice with different kinds of stitches, and I was curious about the photo-to-finished product comparison.

Here's the original photo (not to muddy the waters, but I swapped swapped out the abdomen of this particular spider with another photo of the same spider, because it showed more detail):

I blew this photo up on my computer and used copier paper to hand-trace it from the screen:

Then I used a light box and water soluble marker to trace this design onto fabric.  I worked on it an hour or two every night before bed and got done fairly quickly.  Voila!

 Here's a side-by-side of the two abdomens:

It's not perfect, especially two tracings separated from the original, but I'm really excited about the possibilities. 

I found another pattern repetition today that is an intriguing possibility for embroidery.  I glanced out of my office window and saw this black rat snake on the ground below.

Round pupils = non venomous.  Black rat snakes are great to have around, although Tabitha was hissing and spitting from her window perch the entire time.  I didn't know that cats had opinions about snakes, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me.

All in all, a lovely snake!  But I really loved his scales.  I could see embroidering just this section of his body!

I'll definitely save a project like that for a later date!  

Lots of other wildlife around this week.  The birds, of course, are loving this cooler weather. 

A mockingbird...

(Female) Baltimore oriole...

...and an Eastern phoebe.

 

Our red fox is back, too, although he still looks awfully ratty...

With October right around the corner, it's safe to say it's almost fall in South Carolina! 

I decided to celebrate yesterday by making two giant cinnamon chip pumpkin scones with a cream cheese glaze.  I blogged about it here in 2011 and basically stick to the same recipe, but cut it in half and throw in a handful of cinnamon chips.  So good...especially in a saucer-sized serving!  

Todd and I have had a few too many 'saucer-sized servings' this year (sigh) and are going to both try to eat healthier foods, but I'm still going to shoot for baking at least once every two weeks...as long as I can give away the extras!

Have a great week!

Leaf Hoppers and Tree Choppers

We had what I would consider a fairly mild storm this week, but it was enough to knock down one of our giant dead trees.  It fell into the pond, taking another tree with it.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the tree was huge!  It stretched almost the entire width of the pond.  The first few days, the beavers worked on the bark.  Beavers love to eat bark and the soft layer beneath.

Today, we woke up to discover the tree completely gone! 

How they sectioned and hauled off that gigantic tree in one night is a mystery to me.  They are amazing creatures!

Speaking of amazing creatures, Todd found an ant migration this week.  It was at dusk, and millions of ants were carrying eggs from a depressed spot in the ground to an existing colony location by the side of the house, a good 50 feet distance.  Since the light was so poor, I couldn't get a clear picture, but here is the general idea:

We were transfixed by the sight of these tiny, determined creatures, marching with a single-minded focus to their new home.  Today, they swarmed.  This well-established colony of ants produced sexually mature males, which will mate with the flying queen when she appears, and then die. 

More amazing...this ant dragging a lacewing insect three times its size, and so quickly that I was barely able to get a shot!

Spiders are out now, too.  This common orb weaver secures her prey...

...before climbing up to repair a tear in her web.

A beautiful yellow garden spider hangs on our back deck.

 It's an ingenious place to set up shop, right by a set of deck lights.  There's a never-ending supply of moths and other small flying insects.

We're hearing cicadas now, and seeing their discarded shells, too.

I don't usually see post-molt adults, but one attached itself to our sun room screen yesterday:

Right in line with the flowering of our front sun perennials...

...come the leaf hoppers.  Aren't they beautiful?

Here's a velvet buck in the yard, so called for the fuzzy growth on his antlers that will shed by fall.

And there he goes!

Finally, some sad news.  This is the last  picture of Little Miss's cardinal chick.

He was growing rapidly and feeding frequently, and then one day, he was just gone.  It was much too early for him to leave the nest, and I didn't find him on the ground beneath it, so I can only conclude that he fell prey to one of his many predators (snakes, owls, raccoons, etc.). 

I'll keep an eye out for other interesting things around the yard.  There's always something going on.  Have a great week!