6 Inch Feather Circles, and Birth of a Locust

How's that for an eye-catching title?  So....prepare for some really weird pictures!

I've continued to work on my feathers, but life keeps getting in the way, so progress has been slow.  I do have all four of the large circles stitched now.  Unfortunately, I had to rip out one of them because of tension problems on the back.  I re-stitched it late yesterday, but may have to take part of it out again for the same reason; not sure yet about that.  I was too tired to really look closely at it.

I've had pretty good luck with the feather circles in the 6 inch blocks.  They actually have been fun to do.  I still have 16 more to do I think.   They are much easier for me to do than the larger circles.  Here's how they are looking so far.  Please excuse the shadow and the fact that it really is not laying out flat.  Maybe I'll get a better picture next time.

Monday night I stepped out on my front porch about 10:30 to check on something.  That's when I noticed something really strange hanging on the brick by my front door.  It appeared at first to be a bug trying to eat another bug, but on closer examination, I realized I was witnessing the birthing of a locust!  I went back in the house and got my camera.  (I know --- you never know what kinds of creatures you will see on my blog!)  In case you aren't familiar with bugs in Texas, quite often this time of year, we see dried up big brown hollow (yes, hollow) bugs that are split from head to tail, and attached to bricks, walls, or whatever.  Indeed there were two such dried up bugs attached to the brick within inches of each other.   However, I had never seen one in that condition with a bright green bug (a locust) with really big eyes emerging from a dried up bug!  I just had to have pictures!  Indeed it looks very similar to the birthing of a child!  The next morning, all left on the brick were the two dried up bugs.  The emerging locust was gone.  I'll post the pictures in the order taken.

First sight at 10:28 PM

Two minutes later; look at that color and those eyes!

Next morning - Mother(?) is on the left.

Later in the day yesterday, I was on my back patio and noticed another strange large insect like I had never seen before.    He didn't seem startled by me, so again I came in and got my camera.  I have no idea what he is, but he surely has big eyes!  He was still sitting there when I came back in the house.

What's this big black speckled insect?  He's almost 2" long!

I'm just glad all these creatures are outside, and not in my house!

Okay, okay.....I'll try to concentrate more on quilting for a while now.

I'm deviating from the big quilt for a few days while I work on a Christmas quilt for the CPS kids in our county.  It will be pretty simple and quick.  I'll try to get pictures soon.  As they say, some kid will love it next December when he/she doesn't have anything to call his/her own.  I'm sure that's true!

Hope to go to another quilt show this week-end.

Here's a few pictures of some of my favorites at the Ellis County TX guild show in Midlothian last weekend.

Gorgeous quilting!

You know this would be one of my favorites!

Made by a good friend; hand quilted

Another made by my friend; also hand quilted

So many beautiful quilts were there!   Wish I could show them all!

---"Love"