Montana Star by Ricky Tims

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Being a 5th generation native of the Lone Star State (Texas), I have always had a love affair with Lone Star quilts. I’ve enjoyed the easy process of using strip sets and cross cutting them at a 45˚ angle to create the blades of the star.
 
A few years ago I taught this particular quilt on an episode of The Quilt Show. I liked it so much that I came home and finished the top. I quilted it with fancy free-form feathers. This one is wall size, but I’ve made them in many sizes. Do you like Lone Star quilts? They are such a timeless design with big impact.
  

 TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE

Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!

  

 

2021 Smart Phone Group

Smart Phone Group: Clouds
Photo by Alberta MacAulay

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Alberta says:

I enjoy sky watching in the early morning, to see what kind of day I am have. Today will be a day of transition as our normal temperatures start to soar as another heat dome approaches.

 

 

2021 52 Week Challenge Group

Challenge: Silhouette
Photo by John Coote

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John says:

This image was captured in a 'Carpe Diem' moment in a Street Photography manner. I was down at the shore with friends from my Photography Society and stayed to see the sunset develop.

I shot this image with my camera at waist height pointing to my right and I framed, focused and took the image using the swivelled LCD display.

In LrC I removed some distractions to the left of the subject using the clone tool but left in those to the right to show that my subject was not alone. The shallow depth of field around my subject retained the focus on him.. To enhance the silhouette I darkened the shadows. This had the effect of increasing the saturation of the colours, so I knocked these back by decreasing the vibrance and saturation.

I reviewed the image in B&W, but felt that the colour version was more pleasing.

 

 

2021 Critique Group

Challenge: Dripping
Photo by LizWhitehead

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 Liz says:

Dripping - Mother Nature provided me my challenge shot for the week - major thunderstorm, flash flooding, camera in the entry way, and dripping from the gutter. I took alot of shots from the entry way of the rain hitting the street, the yuccas and even the sidewalk (that I used for the subject for a couple of past challenges)

I got this shot right before the drip fell - didn't catch the drip though - darn.

 

Ricky's Challenge Photos:

Challenge: Clouds
from the 2021 Smart Phone Group

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Ricky says:

We didn’t seem to have any major sunrises or sunsets this week, but we did have significant rain. This was taken shortly after a thunderstorm

 

 

 

 

Challenge: Dripping
from the 2021 Critique Group

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Ricky says:

I spray painted white paper and let it drip - combinded with a panned shot of slightly vertical panned grasses.

 

 

 

 

 August 2 was National Watermelon Day. If you missed it, don't worry. Watermelons will be great for a while longer!

How do you eat yours? Plain? With salt? Salt and pepper? 

     
     
     

Hurricane by Ricky Tims

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In 2017 we had a Broadway Show challenge on an episode of The Quilt Show. Meg Cox was our featured guest and she would be partaking in the challenge along with myself and co-host Alex Anderson. Being a Hamilton, the musical, addict, I knew that would be my choice. Alex chose Wicked, and Meg chose Into the Woods.
 
In the musical we learn that Alexander Hamilton, an orphan, was impacted greatly by a hurricane when he was a teenager. An essay he wrote about that storm led a group to raise funds and send him to New York for college education which was on the brink of the American Revolutionary War. There is a song where Hamilton is reminiscing about life and how his words have been his salvation as well as his ticket to advancement. In the song he sings, “In the eye of the hurricane there is quiet, for just a moment, a yellow sky”. That phrase became my inspiration for this quilt.
 
It is hand-dyed fabrics and free-motion machine quilted on a domestic sewing machine. You’ll see other phrases from the musical stitched into the quilt too.

 

 TRY THE JIGSAW PUZZLE

Choose your own difficulty. Click the 9-patch grid to change number of pieces. Click the circle arrow to make the puzzle pieces rotating instead of stable orientation. Also, there are tips under the "?" on the upper right of the puzzle. If you'd like a full screen version, click the button below. Have fun!

  

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