Ended Official BYC Mini Contest - "WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY?"

[Blooie]

Crud! I am so sorry! I meant for all of them to be thumbnails and only one turned out to be. Doggone it!

 

[N F C]

This will probably be a long post - I tend to get wordy and post lots of photos! Hobby number one is quilting. I love it. I started quilting long before the "quilt resurgence" in 1976, which was the time of the Nation's Bicentennial when everyone suddenly seemed to want to get back to the old ways. In fact, the neighbors used to refer to me as "that poor lady down the street who has to make her own blankets." Yeah.

I don't have room in this old trailer house for all my quilting stuff, so a good friend gave me a full sized travel trailer that she used to use to house her temporary hired farm workers. It sat in a barley field for many years, so I had some evicting to do - in fact I came down with Hanta Virus from evicting those little critters and cleaning up after them. Then I had to mouseproof it so that I wouldn't get more after we moved it to my house. It sits in the back, behind the garage, and is my sanctuary.
View attachment 1577943 View attachment 1577944 View attachment 1577945
My Sanctuary

I don't know what I'd be considered. I've won several ribbons in quilt shows, have sold a few, and used one in a raffle for a dear friend who's daughter was almost killed in an ATV accident. I've also got one quilt that has been featured in a quilt magazine. I made it memory of my mother, who loved to garden and who we buried on a Christmas Eve. It's official name is "I Remember Mama" but somewhere in it's construction it became known as "The Albatross" and the name stuck. Most of them I give away, with strict instructions that they are not for show if they are bed or baby sized - I want them used and loved to death. Here are few of them:

View attachment 1577946 Moonlit Garden - a wallhanging for my sister Linda, who we lost to kidney failure last summer.


View attachment 1577947 Hidden in Plain Sight That's a real pheasant feather sewn into the quilt. Ken's favorite. Made with 2 inch squares.

View attachment 1577951 Love from Auntie A heart quilt for one of my great-nieces.

View attachment 1577953 Still Fishing in But in Heaven, Dad This was made for my brother and his SO after the death of their 8 year old son Coty in a house fire. The day I gave it to them, Connie had just been released from the hospital from the injuries she suffered trying to get Coty out. Coty was severely autisic, and his big thing was fishing, anywhere, anytime, or just pretending in the play boat my brother had built for him in the back yard. One of the songs at his service was "Fishing in the Dark." He was such a love, always wearing either bib overalls curing the colder months or bib shorts in summer.

View attachment 1577954 Ribbons Just a quilt trying to better learn color values.

View attachment 1577957 Winter in the Field Made for my sister Lori (pictured), who wanted a wallhanging for her new house. Again, 2 inch squares making up that scene.

View attachment 1577959 The Albatross - this is just a closeup of the stitches, each one put in by hand, in a mostly forgotten technique called Broderie Perse. I used black silk thread, the quilt was black polished cotton. I was fine when I started - 4 years later I was wearing tri-focals to finish it. This quilt was never touched by a sewing machine. Every single thing was done by entirely by hand, from seaming the panels together to the applique to the quilt and the binding.

View attachment 1577966
The Albatross - this is not quite a full shot..the dove at the bottom is cut off. But the quilt is really too big to get a complete head on shot of it. It's huge. I'll post one more shot of it so you can see how big is really is.

View attachment 1577970
The Albatross - in a quilt show.
View attachment 1577949
My latest project. You can get some idea of the small size of the "flowers" by comparing them to the spool of thread. Dunno why I started this one but now I have to finish it. I don't work on it very often anymore. After my botched neck fusion, it's hard to hold my head down long enough to sew. The papers with the hexagons on them? I have to cut each of them out, baste the little fabric hexagons to it, sew them together into a flower, then use the flowers in the quilt. I only need 500 of them. <sigh>

I have many more photos of other quilts I've done over the last 48 years, but I think I've bored you and taken up enough space on the thread.

Beautiful, beautiful quilting Blooie

P.S. So you had a she-shed before she-sheds were the bomb!

 

[Blooie]

I guess I did, come to think of it!

Thanks, @N F C!

 

[Nats Chickens]

The first of my 3 hobbies is animal photography and movie making. I started about a month ago and it is awesome. Also, found this older pic. If I hadn't already entered the photo contest with a different one, I'd enter this!

Some more of my shots...

 

[MTP55]

My hobby is farming. And yes it is my full time job, and my career path. I got started while I was in high school. Worked with my dad after my grandpa passed away. I started into growing produce then on my own. My dad passed away suddenly a few years later. I then took over most of the ground that didn't belong to my grandma's farm, as other relatives now "help" her, that my dad had rented. And I still grow produce on five to seven acres. Agriculture helped my family and I through hard times and still helps me to this day. I love my work. I'm very blessed to be able to continue on and have a fiance that likes it too. She's the one that got me into chickens.

 

[Silkies rule Forever]

My hobby is bird taxidermy. I started 2 1/2 years ago. I absolutely love it! It is so much fun recreating the little looks and expressions of the birds. My favorite part is the habitat work on the bases. I use just a plain walnut oval base and make it into a living scene for the bird. I order some of the habit material like fake plants but love to collect the moss, lichen, driftwood, and wood. Between all that, I cast my own bird heads, make the necks, paint the beaks, and paint the feet. I only order the eyes and body.
Here are some pics of the birds I have done.
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I have wood duck! Those are gorgeous

 

[Silkies rule Forever]

My hobbys are barrel racing, cow showing, and i exhibit and show poultry!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Thank you. Kinda, my dad does taxidermy on mammals but never birds. So I pretty much just taught my self and watched videos.

very cool!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

This will probably be a long post - I tend to get wordy and post lots of photos! Hobby number one is quilting. I love it. I started quilting long before the "quilt resurgence" in 1976, which was the time of the Nation's Bicentennial when everyone suddenly seemed to want to get back to the old ways. In fact, the neighbors used to refer to me as "that poor lady down the street who has to make her own blankets." Yeah.

I don't have room in this old trailer house for all my quilting stuff, so a good friend gave me a full sized travel trailer that she used to use to house her temporary hired farm workers. It sat in a barley field for many years, so I had some evicting to do - in fact I came down with Hanta Virus from evicting those little critters and cleaning up after them. Then I had to mouseproof it so that I wouldn't get more after we moved it to my house. It sits in the back, behind the garage, and is my sanctuary.
View attachment 1577943 View attachment 1577944 View attachment 1577945
My Sanctuary

I don't know what I'd be considered. I've won several ribbons in quilt shows, have sold a few, and used one in a raffle for a dear friend who's daughter was almost killed in an ATV accident. I've also got one quilt that has been featured in a quilt magazine. I made it memory of my mother, who loved to garden and who we buried on a Christmas Eve. It's official name is "I Remember Mama" but somewhere in it's construction it became known as "The Albatross" and the name stuck. Most of them I give away, with strict instructions that they are not for show if they are bed or baby sized - I want them used and loved to death. Here are few of them:

View attachment 1577946 Moonlit Garden - a wallhanging for my sister Linda, who we lost to kidney failure last summer.


View attachment 1577947 Hidden in Plain Sight That's a real pheasant feather sewn into the quilt. Ken's favorite. Made with 2 inch squares.

View attachment 1577951 Love from Auntie A heart quilt for one of my great-nieces.

View attachment 1577953 Still Fishing in But in Heaven, Dad This was made for my brother and his SO after the death of their 8 year old son Coty in a house fire. The day I gave it to them, Connie had just been released from the hospital from the injuries she suffered trying to get Coty out. Coty was severely autisic, and his big thing was fishing, anywhere, anytime, or just pretending in the play boat my brother had built for him in the back yard. One of the songs at his service was "Fishing in the Dark." He was such a love, always wearing either bib overalls during the colder months or bib shorts in summer.

View attachment 1577954 Ribbons Just a quilt trying to better learn color values.

View attachment 1577957 Winter in the Field Made for my sister Lori (pictured), who wanted a wallhanging for her new house. Again, 2 inch squares making up that scene.

View attachment 1577959 The Albatross - this is just a closeup of the stitches, each one put in by hand, in a mostly forgotten technique called Broderie Perse. I used black silk thread, the quilt was black polished cotton. I was fine when I started - 4 years later I was wearing tri-focals to finish it. This quilt was never touched by a sewing machine. Every single thing was done by entirely by hand, from seaming the panels together to the applique to the quilt and the binding.

View attachment 1577966
The Albatross - this is not quite a full shot..the dove at the bottom is cut off. But the quilt is really too big to get a complete head on shot of it. It's huge. I'll post one more shot of it so you can see how big is really is.

View attachment 1577970
The Albatross - in a quilt show.
View attachment 1577949
My latest project. You can get some idea of the small size of the "flowers" by comparing them to the spool of thread. Dunno why I started this one but now I have to finish it. I don't work on it very often anymore. After my botched neck fusion, it's hard to hold my head down long enough to sew. The papers with the hexagons on them? I have to cut each of them out, baste the little fabric hexagons to it, sew them together into a flower, then use the flowers in the quilt. I only need 500 of them. <sigh>

I have many more photos of other quilts I've done over the last 48 years, but I think I've bored you and taken up enough space on the thread.

WOW I had no idea! You are fantastic!! Holy moley!!! I love the space you made too!! My mother keeps telling me to get an old camper to convert for soap making, but I need water and HOT water so not sure it could ever work, and then the cold season brrrrr..... This is amazing, I cant believe how intricate these are!! fantastic and no wonder your a winner!! Excellent Hobby B!!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

The first of my 3 hobbies is animal photography and movie making. I started about a month ago and it is awesome. Also, found this older pic. If I hadn't already entered the photo contest with a different one, I'd enter this! View attachment 1578022
Some more of my shots...
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very cute! Keep at it!