Parakeet Pillows

 My friend in Japan received her Christmas present in eight days. Not only was I super on the ball, sewing these up,  but the postal service (& customs) gods were smiling too.

A month or so ago, I saw this Parakeet fabric at Fabric Depot. I immediately emailed my friend a photo and she loved the fabric. We settled on housewarming pillows for her new house she is building in kyoto.

 These are the perfect neutral color with just a hint of pizazz in the matte metallic blue budgee.
Her pillows are 15" square so I made these 14.5" square with a two-inch flange.

I added a zippered backing for easy laundering. The back fabric is the same as the front but it's not the same. The original fabric I found at Fabric Depot is a Waverly home dec fabric. When I was at Joann's Fabrics to purchase more interfacing, I was looking around and here was the same design printed onto burlap!

Instant design decision to do the fine waverly weave on the front and the coarser burlap weave on the backside. Two different looks.

  I have it stuffed full with a 16" pillow form to take photos as we don't have 15" forms in the usa.

I still have one more gift to finish that needs to fly off to Singapore. We'll see how long it takes now that the Christmas mailing rush is on.

Woven Ribbon Birds

So a friend at work was showing me  crafty things she makes. Woven Ribbon Birds.
Checking facebook tonight, I stumbled across that boy who writes to the world. He has a crafty stall and wants to sell cards to write in. They decorated the front with Thai woven Fish.

Look! you can make your own:






---and right next to the fish video was a link to weaving birds and dragons;
The bird is exactly what friend is making.




How many are you making?

Falcons

My first post about the thrilling falcons was here.

We saw three  different  types of falcons at the Anchor Heart Ranch.
First up was "Ginger Rogers", an Aplomodo.





She is called Ginger Rogers because she likes to dance. These three birds were raised in captivity. For more reading, try the Birds of North America web page.
Here's another link.

Gyrfalcon. The one the kings want.

There are about 3000 falcons like these, here in the US.
In the Middle East , there are about 50,000. Falconry is a bigger sport over there.

They eat a carnivorous diet. Jim cuts up starlings amongst other meats for them.
They can obviously see much farther than we can. Into the ultraviolet spectrum.
Jim has done presentations for the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon.


I forget what type this third one is but he is very tame and flew some wedding rings to the groom at a recent wedding event at the ranch. The guests were thrilled.

There is speculation about how fast they can fly. There is a skydiver on Whidbey Island (or was that Orcas Island) who skydives with his falcon. Since humans are heavier, it makes sense that humans will travel faster to the ground. His bird not only keeps up but can surge ahead. Incredibly aerodynamic.

Just two weeks ago, my local paper, The Canby Herald, published a story about a local blueberry farmer utilizing falcons (sorry - link died when Pamplin took over Eagle Newspapers) for small bird (starlings) control. They had tried numerous other methods to keep starlings from maiming their crop with little or no success.

"Methods included visual deterrents, such as images of large eyes, auditory deterrents, like distressed bird calls and propane cannons, and even people with shotguns. "

The falcons have proven the most effective and the lest expensive deterrent. Plus they are popular with the neighbors.

Maybe when I grow up I'll become an ornithologist..

Anchor Heart

Over in Redmond this weekend.
As a special treat, we went to a ranch where my friend's friend is staying with his hawks.

Thrilling.