Bird Border

I have the border on!  I found this cute striped fabric that is made to go with my other basic fabrics.  Some of the flowers are exactly like the ones in the flower print, and the colors all match.  I simply put the border on three sides and mitered the corners.

It's hard to get a really good shot that shows what it looks like in total, and the bed we have here is a Hollywood king, so it doesn't fit properly, but you get the idea.  I will now put this quilt away until we get home in September and quilt it next winter.  Meanwhile, I brought along another one that I can work on when I have the time.  I'm hoping to see more of you come to conclusion this month!!

Final Bird Block!!

Well, here is my last block, exciting but sad too.  I will miss these monthly blocks.  Hope we are soon working on another project!

This is the final block.  I see the chickadees are hard to see in the photo, but they show up better on the real block.  Everything is needle-turn appliqued and machine embroidered.

I couldn't get a good, full shot of the last two blocks joined.  They were just too wide to get the whole thing without making the photo too small to see the detail, so I have a shot from the middle.  The full quilt is below.

Sorry, a chair is in front of the bottom left corner, but it is just a continuation of the bottom center, so you aren't missing anything.  I have the fabric and a plan for the border and hope to get that done before long.  Will post it then.  It has been such fun working on this and getting acquainted with all of you guest quilters.  What a wonderful experience!

Additon to Bird Rule 14

I decided I liked Moira's suggestion of adding more branches, so here is the updated block.

I like it better.

Bird Mystery Rule 14 Reveal

Here is my Rule 14.  I'm not sure I like it, but I need to let it sit for a while before I decide for sure.  I may add something, perhaps a swallow with a third pinwheel in it's beak.  I'm a little uncomfortable with all the open space, but I may decide I want to keep it and quilt a design in it.  Any suggestions?

Bird Rule 13 Reveal

I really enjoyed this one.  I chose to use a stack and whack to create a peacock tail.  The body of the peacock, the blues in the tail, and  the sky in the background are my three values of the same color.

I put this block on the top of my column, and here is how that turned out.

When I went to put this column on the side of the quilt, it didn't fit.  It was two inches short.  I have no idea where I messed up, but I had to make it work, so I sewed another strip of the stripe across the top.  I would have done more of the sky, but I didn't have enough fabric to get a full strip across the top without a seam in it, and I thought that would look worse than using the stripe, so here is the whole quilt as adjusted.

Bird Rule 12 Reveal

 I'm still here!!!  I have found that, even though my time is very limited, I still have time to do a block a month.  So here is my wonky penguin.  This was a tough rule for me.  I learned the hard way that buggy barn doesn't work well with curves!  I added the eye, the beak, and the feet later.  I am placing this block at the bottom right-hand corner, so I put the words in to identify the whole quilt.  Unfortunately, the whole block looks a little wonky in this picture.  I had planned to do the positive negative thing, but the size wouldn't work, and the second block didn't want to go together, so I am just including the positive piece.

Here is the penguin block added to the owl block. Can't wait to add the last block to the top of this strip and sew it to the side of the quilt.

Bird Rule 11 Reveal

Well, ladies, here his my rule 11 reveal. Good thing it was scheduled today as I will be without my computer for a couple of weeks. This one is kind of funky but fun.
Whooo can tell what my bird is? The center of the eyes are buttons. The needles on the tree, the texture of the bark, and the beak and feet are machine embroidery.

Birds Rule 10 Reveal

Here is my finished rule 10. I loved working with the D9P. I'd never seen that technique before and think I may well use it on my next baby quilt. It's amazing how simple and yet beautiful it is. I did my whole block with it and used four and a half 9 patches. I made my folded insert an integral part of the 9 patch and created abstract flying birds from that. I really like the outcome.


I added the finished block to the bottom of the quilt and really like the way it looks. I still need to do something on the right side to balance out the dark blocks on the left, but I'm sure something will come up that works for that. Can't wait for the next rule.

#10 Teaser

Here is my teaser. Doesn't tell you much. It's just the first step in both the rule and the technique. Another fun one! (Just a note, the blue flowers are my ironing board cover not part of the block.)

Dorine's Rule #9

Hurray!! It's reveal day! As you probably all guessed, my theme for Rule 9 is chickens. I actually did a rooster, a hen, eggs, and baby chicks. Here is the complete block, but it had to be so small to fit it all in, that I did pictures of the individual sections as well.

Here is the hen. I put the ruler in so you could see the 3D parts. The legs are machine embroidered, and the body is needle turn applique. The comb is simply fabric folder over and gathered. I sewed it on first then appliqued the head over it.

I did the rooster in basically the same way except the tail feathers instead of a wing are 3D. The 3D parts are all self lined, and the under side of each is machine stitched to the background fabric so no raw edges are exposed.
This is my section where two smaller blocks are joined to the larger blocks. No 3D in this section.
And here is the whole quilt put together. I had great fun with this block. I'm really glad I chose this theme. It has been really fun finding ways to use it with the different rules and techniques.

Bird Teaser for Rule 9

Here is a teaser for my Rule 9 block. I suspect you can guess what bird I am creating by the background fabric. The picture posted sideways. Don't know why it does that sometimes.

Dorine's Rule #8

The day is finally here! Woohoo! Here is my paper pieced eagle. Note the yellow beak. The bottom of the block actually has two small eagles flying around in the background and seemed the perfect backdrop for an eagle. The colors don't blend as well with the top part as I would like, but I think it blends in with the rest of the quilt. I had been waiting and waiting for the perfect rule and dimensions for this pattern. So glad to get to use it at last!
And here is the whole quilt. It is getting big!
Ann, I still can't get comments to work on your posts, so I'm commenting here. I love your cow! It is adorable! And I think you spoke correctly when you said "picture." Your quilt is a beautiful picture--a work of art.

Second Teaser for Rule 8

Here is my second teaser. The program refuses to rotate the picture even though I rotated it in my picture program. Go figure. The paper pieced section of the block was 12x12", so I add this to hopefully look like a bird's eye view from the bird pieced above it. I was going to do flowers, but when I found this fabric, I just couldn't resist it. I used the color yellow instead!!

Bird Teaser Rule 8

Here is a portion of the paper pieced portion of my block. I have never done paper piecing on such a technical pattern, so this was a real learning experience for me. I am pretty happy with it though.


I have news! For those of you who haven't heard, we got our mission call this week. We are going to be temple missionaries in the Washington DC Temple!!!! We enter the MTC on September 19 and will be serving for 12 months. Not sure yet how that will affect my quilting. Since we are driving to the mission, Gary thinks I can take my sewing machine and keep up with the quilt on P days. We'll see!!!

For those of you who are not LDS, you may not have known that retired couples can be Mormon missionaries, but we can, and we are very excited. To translate the initials, MTC is Missionary Training Center, and P day is preparation day, or our day off.

Bird Block #7

Here is my finished block. I am a little disappointed in it. I don't think it looks as 3-D as I had hoped. It is a modified attic window, but I had to make the window more open so you could see the cardinal flying by outside. Ah well, can't win 'em all!

Teaser, Birds Rule 7

Here's my teaser. Interesting, huh? Can't wait to post the whole thing!!

Bird Block #6

Here is my block 6. As you can see, I did free motion piecing for the entire background. I love that technique. My house is pretty small as it is far in the background, but I got it in. I appliqued the swans with the needle turn technique I used on the fourth block. I could see the background behind the swan, so I took out some of the stitches and put in some batting. I like the puffed up look, so it was serendipitous. I machine embroidered the details.



Here is the block added to the rest of the quilt. Can't wait for the next block!

Teaser, Rule #6

I'm not finished with this block, but I couldn't resist posting a teaser because I love this free motion piecing technique! It's fun, fun, fun!

Bird Block #5

I'm finally back home, so here is my finished block 5! It's getting harder and harder to get a good, undistorted picture. I had to stand this up on the back of the recliner to get the right angle on it!

As you can see, the circle is the hole in the birdhouse. The free motion embroidery is the twigs. I was planning to do the leaves in free motion embroidery too, but I had so much trouble that I gave up and just machine appliqued and embroidered them. The birds are from a Pam Bono design using a diagonal corner technique. I'm really happy with them!

Here is everything put together. I gave up trying to get a good angle. Since you've already seen all the individual parts, I didn't worry about trying to get it square in the photo. Can't wait for the next rule!!

Bird Teaser, Rule #5

I don't have my block done yet. This has been a difficult one for me. However, I am going out of town for over a week and wanted to have something to post, so here it is. Sorry that I didn't get it pressed. I didn't notice until I had the picture taken, and time is too short to press it and take another one. But here is the teaser.


I found the free motion embroidery very hard. My machine just doesn't like it at all. After the thread broke for about the umpteenth time, I changed the plan and didn't do as much of that as I had planned. None of it shows on the teaser, but that's just as well. It isn't very attractive!