bird quilt | NW Quilted Cat

I finished an amazing bird themed quilt by the amazing Janeen of Quilt Art Design. She designs very intricate foundation paper-pieced patterns in a variety of themes from landscapes to animals to cars.

The quilt is called Bird Feeder, and it has many different kinds of birds, squirrels, and other critters. I thought that this quilt would be a great one for using up some of my solid colored scraps. Of course, some portions of the quilt required larger pieces of fabric, but I did pull all the fabrics from my stash. I *barely* had enough fabric for the sky background, and I really had to cut very efficiently to get it to work so I didn’t have a strange color change in the sky.

Here’s a look at one of my young quilt inspectors, learning how to properly inspect a quilt block:

This quilt is designed in a series of blocks, which I enjoyed sewing after work or on the weekends in manageable chunks. I use a design board and pin each finished block to the board before sewing them together. That way, I can verify that colors spanning multiple blocks are correct. It’s quite easy to get the different greens, for example, mixed up and have the wrong shade of green extending into the next block.

Look at this cute cardinal and ladybug! These are two blocks sewn together:

After several months of sewing these individual foundation paper-pieced blocks, I had them all ready to go. I’m debating on adding a border to look like a picture frame. The current size of this quilt top is approximately 40″ by 60″. What do you think – border or no?

Once I decide on if I should add a border or not, I need to quilt it. I think I’ll most likely custom quilt it rather than doing a hand-guided pantograph or straight line quilting.

Tweet, tweet!

~Jen

For Christmas gifts this year, I focused on giving handmade items such as holiday soaps or quilted wall-hangings.

I wanted to make a fun bird themed wall-hanging for my sister in bright, cheerful colors. Why? Because she lives in snow country, and I thought that a little taste of early spring would be a welcome addition to her craft room.

I found a cute little paper-pieced birdie pattern by bcheri on Etsy. I made (1) 6-inch birdie block, but the seller does give you instructions for reducing or enlarging the block.

Once I had finished the bird block, I added an inner white (Kona cotton) border and then an outer border from a green leaf print. I added some hand embroidery details on the wing, the legs, the eyelashes, and added the word “Bird” to the lower right corner of the “grass” area.

I did simple quilting on my Bernina and then added a small black button for the eye. I used solid black (Kona cotton) for the binding.

Here’s a look at the finished Birdie wall-hanging:

Bird Wall-Hanging

Here’s a close-up look at the bird block:

Bird Block Close-Up

I found some great decorative wire hangers for little quilts online at Pumpkinvine Corner. I highly recommend this retailer because they shipped the hangers fast and adjusted the shipping costs after the sale to reflect the actual shipping cost! I will definitely order more hangers from this store for future projects.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday!

Happy crafting,
~Jennifer~