Photo Play #14: Just Flowers

At the very end of March, I took a flower arranging class with some friends.  It was a lot of fun and I got a nice centerpiece for the dining room table. 

Of course the next step was to get out the Canon 70D with the Sigma 105 mm macro lens to see what kind of images I could capture. The goal was to photograph from a unique viewpoint and come out with something pretty.  You can judge if I hit the mark with these images. 

There were a lot of good pictures from this shooting session, but these 6 are the best of the bunch. My goal was to show different aspects of the flowers, not just the whole flower. What did I take away from this session? 

1. You can never take too many pictures of flowers. 

2. Lighting can make or break a photograph. It really is the magic wand when photographing flowers. 

Photo Play #13 Early Spring in Oklahoma

This is probably the first year in a long time that I've spent a lot of time outdoors.  When I was working what free time I had was spent sewing.  Picking up the camera again has had a lot of benefits.  Getting some much needed exercise is probably the most noticeable benefit, but I've also learned a lot about Oklahoma too.  Google Image has been really helpful in putting a name to what's in my photos.  Trying to see through camera lens has opened my eyes to the beauty of simple things.  It's such a good feeling when a photograph comes even a little close to capturing the beauty of what I've seen that day.  But probably the biggest unexpected benefit is just the peace of mind that's developed as I've been on this journey "to see".  

This post includes photos taken at the end of March.  It was still pretty cool, even cold a few days. But the biggest challenge when photographing in spring in Oklahoma is the wind, it blows strongly pretty much constantly.  All the photos were taken with a Canon 70D with a Sigma 105 mm macro lens.  The photos have not been edited other than to reduce file size for posting. 

The light on the leaves of the rose bushes in the garden caught my eye one day.  When the leaves are new they aren't deep green, but this wonderful yellow green tipped with red. This is well before the buds start to show up on the bush.  Those jagged edges look almost like flames, especially with that red tint.  It was just a stage of growth that I had never noted before.  

 

I really hadn't intended to take the macro lens on this walk. It was really windy that day which makes it hard to get good macro photos. I didn't check which lens was on the camera before I left the house.  But it forced me to use what I had and get whatever shots I could.  This is probably my favorite shot from that day.  The crab apple blossoms are just past their prime, but they are still pretty with the showy pink from the newer blooms. The major triumph was getting a good photograph considering how windy it was that day.  

The pink and white blooms against that deep blue sky is what I love about this photo and why it made the cut during the review.  I'm not as thrilled with the composition. Once I finish my "seeing"  and "camera setting" lessons, I probably should spend some time studying composition. 

If you want a picture that represents Oklahoma in March, this is it.  One of my goals during this walk was to get an abstract photo for our family photo challenge. This was one of my options. What I don't like about this image is the out of focus branch right in the middle of the photo.  I kept this image because I like the sense of movement elsewhere in the photo.  Cropping the photo to keep just the left or right sides would address the worst of the out of focus parts.  

   

The last photo in the post harkens back to the first photo. New growth isn't necessarily green at first.  I'm not sure what this plant is, it's a vine the grows all along the walking path.  The colors and texture are what caught my eye when I took this image.  

What were my take aways from these photos?

1.  Pay better attention to where the camera is focusing. 

2.  Learn to control the center of focus on the camera. I still haven't finished exploring all the available camera settings.

April Wrap Up: PHD in 2023

Before writing this post, I took a look back at my March Wrap Up. April has definitely been a much more productive month since my back and shoulder issues have mostly been resolved.  Even with April being a more productive month, my PHD report hasn't changed much. 

Still no finishes and I added a new project.  The donation blocks have to be turned in this month, so hopefully they won't languish on the list like everything has.  I'm going to need to focus on finishes soon or all I'll have to show for 2023 is new projects!  At least there was more progress in April then there was in March. 

The Stay At Home Round Robin (Quilting Gail) continued as my focus project for April.  

Border 5 is finished and most of the blocks for border #6 are made. There has been steady progress on this project.  Will it be a finished flimsy by the end of May?  Maybe.  

The other project with steady progress in April has been Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter).  

Block 4 is almost finished. My plan is to make 9 blocks total, so I'm almost halfway there. 

Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter) also saw a bit of progress this month. 

Over the last couple of months I've added a few more blue, green and purple blocks.  This was my 2019 Rainbow Scrap project.  The plan this year is to just make a few blocks each month in hopes of moving this project along. 

There was some progress on Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl) this month.  I had hoped to stay current with this quilt along, but the SAHRR took priority. 

Block 3 is done and up on the design wall. I really love this project and would like to get back on track with it.  Block 9 was released last week.  I'm hoping to have blocks 4 and 5 done before block 10 comes out next Friday.  

The new project this month was to make 8 HST blocks for the guild donation projects. 

I finished 4 of the 8 at the retreat last weekend.  One more was finished the day after, that leaves 3 to finish before the next guild meeting.  

So April was definitely better than March on the progress front.  I need to start focusing on some finishes as mid year will be here before I know it.  Linking up with Quilting Gail for the April PHD in 2023 update.  

To Do List for the Week of 5/2/2023

The beginning of May means the year is a quarter gone. At the end of next month it will be half gone. I've taken a few detours this year with new projects. Before the end of this month I need to start working moving a few projects to the finish line. So I should probably look at changing what's on my to do list. I've been making an effort to work on everything that is listed.  

To Do List for 4/25/2023

1. SAHRR: Finish border 5, make windmill blocks ✔

2. Donation blocks: Make HSTs, assemble blocks - progress

3. Diatom: Finish block 3, start block 4 ✔

4. Wild and Goosey: Finish a purple block ✔

5. Chilhowie: Continue as leader and enders ✔

Four checkmarks, with progress on the fifth item is a really good week.  Those donation blocks took a lot more effort then I expected. Those need to be finished within the next 2 weeks, so they'll show up on this week's list for sure.  

To Do List for 5/2/2023

1. SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish 5th spacer border, make windmill blocks

The quilt has gotten big enough that I need to piece the spacer borders.  One lesson I learned this time is that you need to make sure you use a background where you have a lot of yardage when you are making a quilt that you have no idea how it's going together.  I was about to run out of the background fabric, thankfully my background was from the Stonehenge line and I was able to find it on line. 

2. Donation blocks for guild: Assemble patriotic blocks

 

I finished all the children's blocks during the retreat, plus one of the patriotic blocks.  There are still 3 more patriotic blocks left to assemble.  Thankfully all the HSTs are made and trimmed, I just need to lay them out and stitch the blocks together. 

3. Diatom (Quilting Jetgirl): Finish block 4, start block 5

I finished block 3 and have the pieces cut for block 4.  I'm not going to catch up anytime soon, but at least this project is moving forward again. 

4. Wild and Goosey (Bonnie Hunter): Finish an orange block

I finished a total of 4 blocks last month.  Hopefully I can make 4 orange blocks this month.  

5. Chilhowie (Bonnie Hunter): Continue making blocks as my leader and enders project. 

Just two more "borders" and block 4 will be finished.  I'll need to cut some more fabric soon so I can start on the parts for block 5.  

That's my to do list for the week.  If I can do as well this week as I did last week, I'll be happy.  Linking up with The Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric for this week's To Do Tuesday.  Happy stitching this week.  

Donation Blocks and Pinwheels

It was a busy week on several fronts.  I finally tackled the garage last week. The need to identify and move out all the flammable chemicals left by the builder in the garage in time for annual community clean up day collection got me started. Then I spent most of the week using the dust pan to kill the brown recluse spiders every time I moved something from a shelf or off the floor.  Buying a new set of leather gloves before I started that project was very wise. A trip to Lowes for spider repellant is on the list for this week. Spiders in general don't bother me, but a brown recluse is a whole different story.  

So after a very through shower, spending the afternoon in the sewing room was especially nice way to defuse all that built up wariness and tension.  I'm not done with the garage, but a break to get that spider repellant definitely needs happen before I go back to that decluttering operation.  The main sewing room project is still the SAHRR. 

    

The 5th border is finally completed. I'm working on the spacer strips that need to go on before the final 6th border can be added.  Just 13 pinwheels left to make before I can assemble that last pieced border.  

There wasn't as much progress on the SAHRR last week because I was mostly focused on getting the HSTs ready for the retreat on Saturday.  I managed to finish 4 of the 8 donation blocks.

These are the blocks for the children's quilts.  I got a start on the patriotic blocks for the veteran's quilts, but didn't get any of those completely assembled.  I have till the guild meeting this month to finish those up.  This is the first time I've done an all day retreat.  Sewing from 10 am to 8 pm is surprisingly tiring.  I came home and pretty much went right to bed.  

That's it for my progress this week.  Linking up with Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.