Great service and a few pics

First I want to say thank you to Katie Hennagir. I did a search online for a certain fabric and finally found it in her shop for much less than others I found. I received it today, 2 days after I ordered it!!! On top of that, she sent me a free pattern and the fabric was wrapped so pretty with a red ribbon and a thank you note. Fabulous service. Bay Window Quilt Shop
By the way, the fabric is Aged Muslin by Marcus Brothers. It's great for doll bodies. It looks tea stained. Love it!!!

And here are just a few pics from the last couple days.

Wordless Wednesday

Birth Day!!!

I sat at the pc this morning without looking at the cocoon. Usually it's the first thing I do. About 15 minutes later I looked up and thought it looked strange. Well, it was because the butterfly had hatched and was hanging from the top of the jar on the lace. Oh how I wish I could have gotten photos of the birth! It was at 8:45 am when I saw it. It took one hour for it's first flight from tree to tree and another 25 minutes to fly out of my site. What a wonderful gift to see from start to finish. I hope you enjoy the photos. Some you have already seen but I wanted to put them in order.
#1. Just layed 2/14


#2. Ready to hatch 2/24


#3. Out of the egg. 2/24 About one quarter inch long.


#4. 3/3 One week old

#5. Sixteen days old. 3/12

#6. 3/14 Last instar. The old skin is laying beside him (he will eat it) and the black face that is too small is being shed. The green is his new face.

#7. 3/17 is over 2 inches. 21 days old.

#8. 3/20 ready to pupate

#9. Change complete

#10. 4/6 Birth day. They have to dry out and get fluid pumped into their wings before they can fly.

#11. Birth day continued. He was not in any hurry to leave my hand. Hubby was afraid he was going to fall off so had his hand under. :) I will transfer him to a tree now so he can finish his thing.

#12. Cocoon for size comparison.

#13. Face close-up.

These next 3 photos are showing front and back. His body is still swollen. He releases liquid a few times before he flies.

Hope you enjoyed as much as my husband and I did. :D

Check out my Monarch sequence: http://carlafinley.blogspot.com/2009/01/from-caterpillar-to-butterfly.html

They grow too fast

The little guy was born on Feb. 24 and is now 16 days old. He (or she) is now over an inch long. Remember when it was born? Only about an eighth of an inch long. The white end on the right is the end. You should see it raise up and shoot a ball of poop. LOL It's hilarious. All the other ones that I left in the tree are gone. :( I'm glad I was able to rescue this one.

From caterpillar to butterfly

Have you ever seen a caterpillar and wonder how they turn into butterflies? Have you ever seen a cocoon and wondered what was in it? I saw a Monarch laying eggs one day and started taking photos daily of her and the eggs progress.
The first photo is a collage of the process. What a fascinating experience. I sat outside all day with the camera waiting for the transformation to start. Then took photos as fast as I could for 10 minutes.
When viewed large you can see another egg just above where she is laying in #1.
#2 is what they call the J shape. This lets you know the caterpillar is ready to change. She (as I found out later) hung like this for about 8 hours that I know of before the change.
In #3 the antennae are limp, the change has started and goes very quickly!
#8 was amazing. It rocked and squirmed all different shapes until it settled on the final well-known shape.


In this next photo the Monarch caterpillar is just starting to change to a chrysalis.


I could not for the life of me see what was happening other than the outer skin was being pushed up in the next photo.


Here is the beautiful chrysalis all done. It went so very fast!


Just moments away. The waiting is killing me! The chrysalis is actually clear. You can see the butterfly wings. When it is green, it is really the caterpillar you are seeing. Then when it really turns clear, you see the butterfly inside. I had this chrysalis sitting on a counter next to the computer. I watched for a while, took the photos then turned back to the pc. When I looked again about 5 minutes later, she had come out of the chrysalis! Oh, the excitement.


This is the female that I raised. She emerged and took about 2 hours to dry off. I put her outside on a flower leaf and watched her until she took her first flight. I almost cried when she flew away. She did fly back to me a few times but then she was gone to make her own life.


Just a week after my first female flew, this guy decided to make a break for freedom. This guy is less than an hour old. The 2 dark spots on each side of the wing show it's a male.


I hope you enjoyed this little show. Maybe it answered a few of your questions. :)