Tuesday

Twitter is DONE, just in time for spring!

Hand appliqued and heavily outline quilted by machine.  This was a bucket list project for me, an original design inspired by several Blackbird Designs quilts, and I'm very satisfied with my result.

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Birds applique project

I haven't reported on my birds applique project for a while.   This is the one that was inspired by a couple of Blackbird Designs bird quilts, and had been on my Quilt Bucket List forever. We've had quite a few "bad-weather-stay-at-home" days during February, and I actually made great progress on it!  

 Where I left off last month:

Final blocks appliqued:

Decorative corners:

 Sashing and cornerstones:

 They're done in cute little bird and feather fabrics:

Working outward to final rounds:

Border sections done:

So now it's all ready for layering and quilting!  I'm pleased that I was able to get it this far along -- it's likely now that I'll have it completed for use this spring, coming up next month!  I think I'm going to call it 'Twitter.'

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Birds

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Slow Sunday Stitching

My first bird block now has all the basic pieces appliqued down, with embellishment to follow.  It's been nice this week to have had the block available to grab for odd minutes of sitting and stitching.  Quickly picking up a single block is a different proposition from settling down for an evening of binding.

This has turned out to be a wintery bird and branch composition.  My applique style is definitely casual and folk-arty, isn't it?  I've never been a tight formal precise quiltmaker when I do pieced projects, and this tendency also seems to be in evidence with my applique work :) 

Looking forward to more cookie baking and stitching this afternoon, and then tamales for supper -- our tradition for the first night of Las Posadas.  During the decades that we lived 'down the hill', the community we lived in had an annual Las Posadas street festival in the Old Town plaza.  We enjoyed attending and feasting on delicious tamales and tacos and champurrado!  Ah, pleasant memories of years gone by …

Linking to KATHY'S SLOW SUNDAY STITCHING

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A new start

Because I've done pretty well the past few months wrapping up several UFOs, I'm treating myself to a brand new long-term project ! 

I've had "appliqued bird quilt" on my bucket list for a very long time.  My original inspiration was Birds of a Feather, a Blackbird Designs book that was published in 2006.  Blackbird Designs came out with another lovely bird quilt in their 2012 book, In the Meadow.  I've had both of these books since they were published, so I've been brewing on this for quite a while.

 I used to do more hand applique -- like ten years ago or more -- although for various re

asons I got away from it.  But it seems that now is the right moment for me to explore this idea.  I'll be doing my own interpretation rather than reproducing either of the Blackbird patterns … but leaning heavily on them both for inspiration and shapes.  I got my first few blocks prepped, and am looking forward to spending winter evenings stitching and embellishing.

Because I expect this to be an ongoing project, 

I'm going to start linking to

 Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

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