Happy Easter -Cape May Point

April showers bring May flowers.  Here are some March flowers from Cape May Point taken yesterday.

CMBO Photo Walk

The Cape May Bird Observatory has walks every week.  Some walks are geared more towards the birder who is watching the birds and some are geared towards bird and wildlife photography though on each walk you can do both things.  During the winter the walks on Saturday are led by Mike Hannisan.  Spring and summer are led by Scott Whittle.  Both are well known photographers.  I consider myself lucky to be able to go on the walks, have my questions answered and get assistance in becoming a better photographer.  The walk starts at 8AM to catch the better morning light.  Here are my favorite pictures from today's walk - 2 Killdeer pictures and a Drake Gadwall and female Gadwall.

Sunshine challenge accomplished

Two more pieced tops done to reach my personal goal of 6 quilts plus 42 blocks made during Lent.  Pictures are the last 2 tops plus 3 blocks for the block lottery.

Flower wallhangings

To many years ago to remember I become a fan of Eileen Sullivan flower wallhangings.  She has designed some very realistic flowers that are made using the technique of paper piecing.  To find her designs her website is http://www.thedesignersworkshop.com/

As her patterns (for my use) were a little narrower than I wanted, I took her pattern and added to the sides to make them wider.  This was done by either moving the borders out or in the case of her daffodils I added 2 more daffodils to the side.  The Poinsettia and Iris wallhangings (I made) hung in my Mother's apartment for over 10 years. Mom's been gone almost 4 years now.  It's sad to say in all those years I had never finished the daffodil top.  I wasn't happy with the border and one of the iris leaves was waving in the breeze and wasn't anchored to the ground.  I got this top out on Thursday fixed the waving foliage, took off the border I had added and put on 2 new borders. I have now quilted it and it's almost ready to be hung on my wall.

Tortured Tyvek Postcard Swap

 My online fabric postcard group is having a swap called the Tortured Tyvek swap.  Here are some of my postcards.  First I painted pellon with watered craft paints.  I also painted the Tyvek with metallic paint.  Let both dry well. Then I randomly cut apart the Tyvek,  placed it between 2 pieces of parchment paper and ran a hot iron over it.  The hotter the iron gets the more the Tyvek melts.  You can see some interesting results.  I then glued several of the Tyvek pieces onto the pellon and added a back to the card.  Two of the cards I decided to try free motion quilting on top of the Tyvek. It worked wonderfully so I should have done this from the beginning.  For safety you should melt the Tyvek outside so any fumes are disapated outside and not in the house.

Lenten challenge

A Sunshine quilter challenged us to make blocks - one for every day in Lent which is 42 blocks.  I took that challenge and decided to make blocks plus I added my own challenge of making 1 quilt top for each weekend of Lent which is 6.  I have 50 blocks made which are made into 3 quilt tops plus I have made 4 other tops.  I really want to make 2 more quick pieced quilts this week so I feel that I have met my personal challenge.  Here is the top made from scraps of a very kid friendly quilt.

Wordless Wednesday - Horned Grebe - Nummy Island

Wordless Wednesday - Golden-crowned Kinglet - The Beanery

Common Loon & Purple Sandpiper - Delaware Bay

Coming home from work this afternoon I noticed some Common Loons swimming in the Delaware Bay by the jetty in front of my house.  I walked down to the beach and walked out the jetty where I saw 2 Purple Sandpipers.  It was cool to find them right in my front yard.  There were also about 10 Sanderling feeding along the water's edge.  Since it was low tide more of the jetty and the beach were exposed.

Common Loon

Purple Sandpiper

Nummy Island

With such great success last week finding Piping Plovers at SH Point I decided to go back and see what birds were around also check out Nummy Island  First stop Nummy Island where there were both Red-throated and Common Loons, American Oystercatchers flying, Red-breasted Mergansers among the birds seen.

Now you see the Loon

And now you don't!
Common Loon in breeding plumage (below)

The tides were higher than I expected for a mid tide as I hadn't considered we just had a Nor'Easter a few days back and now there was a new moon. So off I went to SH Point to watch the birds playing along the waters edge.  So, I carried my chair down to the beach and carefully placed it for good looks at the birds.

After about 1/2 hr there was a sudden higher wave that stranded me in several inches of water as I hadn't realized I placed the chair in a depression.  The wave didn't recede as I would have expected, so my choices were to run through the water in my sneakers then or wait for a few more waves and deeper water.  So I picked up my beach chair, protected my camera and got out of that spot.  Walking back the beach I noted that the tide was much higher than normal and was breaking well above the "normal" breaker line.  The picture to the left is normally quite far from the breakers and the waves were rushing far beyond it onto the protected beach/dune areas.  Driving back through Nummy Island I was amazed to see water lapping at the edges of the road.  I haven't ever seen the water almost ready to flood the road.  (Below is a picture)

Lake Champlain - Villas, NJ

Northern Shovelers feeding

with Turkey Vultures flying overhead

Spring is coming

Late last week there were reports of Piping Plovers arriving back in Cape May County.  I just love the Piping Plover.  It survives through great odds though their numbers are down. They have been seen at the South Cape Beach (the Meadows), Cook's Beach and also in Stone Harbor.   After getting off work I was off to SH Point to walk along the beach.  I was very happy to find 3 Piping Plovers (and probably more), some Semipalmated Plovers among the Sanderlings and Dunlin that were feeding along the water's edge.  There were hundred's of birds feeding and bathing on the beach in the waves.

Sunshine Quilts

I have made 32 blocks so far with a goal of 42 blocks to meet my Lenten challenge.  They are 16 patch using 3.5" squares.  Here they are laid out on the floor.  I have been working on getting my stash cut up.  I have also pieced together 2 tops this weekend for a total of 3 made so far during Lent so I am right on target for meeting my personal challenge of 6 quilt tops plus the blocks.