Paducah Quilt Show....

We went to the Paducah Quilt Show today and the quilts were fantastic!  They always have the very best.  Here are some of my favorites and nature themed ones or ones I think a particular reader will like :-)  Be sure to click for the slide show version to see them bigger and closer!

 This was one of my favorites: Audubon's Christmas.  The quilting behind the birds is fantastic.  I wish you could see it up close.  I took lots of close-up photos.  The woman standing there is the quilter who made it, Kathy McNeil.

 These barns were wonderful!

I liked the birds on this one....duck in the middle, quail top and bottom. 

Again, I like the birds in the triangles of this one....beautiful! 

The strange colored dogs is because this is part of a challenge using a line of fabrics.  I've never seen a quilt by Nancy S. Brown that I did not like.  She does fabulous animals all the time. 

Another great animal quilt!  I loved this one so much, you are going to have to look at all my close-ups of each animal :-)  The fabric choices were wonderful.  This was done by a group. 

 Two wonderful eagle quilts.

I like anything with flowers :-) 

Colorful horses...wow! 

 I actually took a class with this quilter (Freida Anderson) once, but I sure didn't learn enough to make something this wonderful.

 Wonderful lighthouse!

These penguins are another Nancy S. Brown.  She has a quilt in this show every year and it is always fantastic, whatever she does.  Ahhh.....to be this talented....sigh! 

 Sheep and other woolly animals.....would like to study this one closer.

I can't begin to describe the detail in this little group of houses and people. One of the very talented Japanese quilters made this for her daughter......tiny, tiny details. (Ayako Kawakami)

Beautiful!

Love the details in this one.   This is only a small selection.  Lots of other gorgeous quilts.  I will hopefully get all my photos put into a slideshow and posted on my quilt blog eventually, but I wanted to share some of them here.

Hairy Woodpecker.....

Maybe if I stick to just posting one bird at a time, I can make my photos last longer :-)

 This is the Hairy Woodpecker.  They are just like the Downy....only bigger.  Slightly longer beak....I can't always tell them apart from the beak size....but the Downy has a few dark spots on the white tail feathers that you may or may not see.  If you go back a couple of days in my blog, I think there is a Downy photo for comparison.  The Downy is about the same size as the side of the suet cage, while the Hairy's tail hangs below and his head sticks above.

 Busy loading up her mouth....this is the female...no red on the head.

Both the male and female have been coming for food the minute I put a suet cake in the feeder. 

I'm betting they might have babies somewhere already. 

That ought to be enough to feed someone!

Golden opportunities.....Goldfinch

This little Goldfinch was so busy posing for me, I thought I would let him have a post all of his own.

Every time I know what I'm doing on Blogger they change things....sigh.  Not sure I like the new look at all.  Sure makes the dashboard more confusing in my opinion...but then they never ask us bloggers what we want.  I liked it the way it was!

Feeder activity.....

I'm trying to move my feeders around and make them less accessible to the varmints that eat the suet every night.  I always forget to go out and take it down and end up losing all my suet cakes each night...frustrating as well as expensive.

"Don't even think about it.....I was here first and I'm bigger than you are!" 

While checking the feeders later, I found that the Catbird has arrived!  I usually see them about the same time that the Grosbeaks and Indigo Buntings arrive, so I need to start watching the feeders and keep them stocked.

 The light was poor, but he was turned to show the rusty area under the tail.  I don't always get to see that.

 They are rather natty looking with their nice gray color and dark black cap.

 The Downy male wanted his turn.  Since I only have one suet cake left at the moment, I stuck up a bit of homemade suet left from winter wrapped in a crust of bread, and he was NOT impressed.  Picky, picky birds!

 This female Downy found the real cake of suet and was much happier.  She looks a bit scruffy.

 A trio of finches, quite happy with the sunflower seeds feeder.

The Goldfinch is a bit of a show-off!  She knows the other two can't do this :-)  I doubt very much that the seed on the bottom is any better than the seeds that are on top of it!

 She isn't planning on sharing with any other Goldfinches, however!

 I'm so glad to be seeing the male Red-bellied Woodpecker!  All winter long I only saw the female.  Maybe she is busy sitting on eggs now and he is feeding her.

 "Who...me?"

He likes to break off a large chunk and fly away with it.

The Cardinals check out all the feeders and all the ground underneath of them.  Nice to have some birds that help clean up the ground areas.  Although the skunks and raccoons do most of that work.