Birdie Quilt

I bet you thought you were going to finally see the Valentine's sewing project...... but, no!  Not yet! :)

In the middle of a cold spell, and after a hard day, I was in the mood for something bright and cheerful.  I found this cute and bright fabric in my "stash" with teal, coral, yellow, and green in it..... I wish I knew what line it is.  I had a jelly roll of this fabric, but had already made it into the Thimble Blossoms "June Bug" top.  So, the biggest problem was that there wasn't a whole lot of the fabric left.  Hmmmm... how to make it work.....

I have had my eye on a few "orange peel" or "pumpkin seed" quilts that I've seen on quilting blogs.... they are so cute!  I hoped that it might be a good way to make a fun quilt without losing a lot of fabric to seam allowances.  But, I wanted to go one step further.... I've also had my eye on a few quilts with cute birds in them.  Cute, crafty, long legged birds.  So I thought that if I made an "orange peel" variation, then I could leave the middle sections open to put a little birdie in.  I found a bird that worked in Silhouette's studio, but I had to alter the beak because an open beak just wouldn't work as well since I was sewing it. 

I have to confess that I like the long legs!  And the tiny bead eyes.  And how crinkled quilts get after being washed.  I used Heat and Bond lite for the bird bodies and the "orange peels/pumpkin seeds".  I was really worried that the Heat and Bond lite would be too stiff- and not crinkle like the rest of the quilt and possibly look funny.  To my delight, it looked just fine, even after washing.  Then I did a somewhat close zigzag over the edges, although not close enough to be considered a satin stitch.  I used black thread in my machine to do the legs.  I looked and looked in my "stash" for tiny buttons for the eyes.  And was somewhat surprised to realize that I didn't have any!  :)  Yes, Jen, I know you are as shocked as I was! :)  I spent about a week debating if I should just go buy some tiny buttons.  Then I decided that no, I was going to do everything I could to stick to my "use the stash" policy (even though the buttons would have only been about $1!) So, I used my machine to do satin stitch eyes.  But after I had done them ALL, I decided that they were just way too big.  So I unpicked them.  I thought of doing embroidery French knots, but I knew that black embroidery floss tends to bleed.  I thought that after washing, the little birdies might look like they had mascara tears.  Which would totally take away from the cheerful point of the birdies!    

Then I suddenly remembered that while I did not have tiny buttons, I did have super tiny "seed" beads- that were black, and would work for the eyes- and I could use regular sewing machine thread that wouldn't bleed.....ahhh- problem solved!  Tiny, dimensional eyes for the birdies!  (Spending the buck would have been far less time consuming! :)  Lol.)