The Moment We've All Been Waiting For!

Well, the moment, I've been waiting for anyway!  I started this back in July of 2010, so there is a great satisfaction in having put in the last stitch!

The other thing that became readily apparent is that this fabric shows up cat hair like nobody's business!  I'm going to have to take a damp cloth and carefully go over this to remove all the cat hair. 

Design - "Alphabet Sampler"

Designer - Birds of a Feather

Fabric - 32 count Sparrow linen by BOAF

Fibers - WDW - Cadet, Putty, and Onyx - one strand over two threads

Started - 22 July 2010

Completed - 11 April 2011 

I just used one strand of WDW, and I think, even on this very dark fabric, the coverage is good and "weight" of the fibers is appropriate to the design.  I think two strands would have been far too bulky.  

For Outdoor Wednesday I have an exciting (to me anyway) addition to my "Woodpeckers Who Eat at My Suet Feeder" to share.


About a week ago this guy showed up at the suet feeder.

He's very shy and bashful, and it took several days to get anything that passed for a decent photo.

He is a Red-breasted Sapsucker.

They truly do eat sap (as well as suet), and the  sapsucker’s tongue is covered in stiff hairs to aid in collecting the sap. Red-Breasted Sapsuckers tend to visit the same live tree multiple times, drilling holes in neat horizontal rows. The birds then will leave the tree, and come back later, when the sap has started flowing from the holes.

There is an interesting synergy with hummingbirds too, as the insects attracted to the sap are also consumed, and not only by sapsuckers. Rufous Hummingbirds have been observed to follow the movements of sapsuckers and take advantage of this food source.  Who knew?