ScrapHappy February 2021 — My Fastest Turn-around Ever
I actually have two lap quilts/table toppers to share, but I didn’t photograph them. We were supposed to get snow, and I thought it would be nice to have pictures with snow in the background. Well, no snow yet, just days of cloudy bleakness. So I will save them to share next month.
But this morning as I was reading Elizabeth Eastmond’s blog, I learned that the Surfside Quilters Guild of San Clemente, California, has free Block-of-the-Month patterns on their website, and I went to check it out. I loved a lot of them, but especially their “Love Birds” pattern from the 2019-2020 year.
In the original, the birds are watching a bee fly by, but I thought the birds should be gazing at each other, and then, since my husband and I are a pair of old birds, I pulled some vintage scraps (that were given to me a few years ago by Paula B).
A little fusing, a little free-motion quilting (including the words “Love Birds” in the quilting), a little binding — and in less than 3 hours (with a couple of bird-watching breaks), I was done!
One tip to make it easier — I used a marker to outline the eyes and make their pupils on light cloth, before cutting out a small figure 8 shape for both eyes together. I didn’t try to make separate circles for eyes. Then I just stitched around the whole shape and between the eyes.
The girl bird does not have the adoring look in her eyes that I was going for — in fact she looks a little bit like she might be nagging. And the boy bird looks a little worried about that. But the hearts are floating in the background to show that true love is there!
ScrapHappy is the 15th of each month, hosted by Kate in Australia, and Gun in Sweden, which means that the actual time of posting is a little loosy-goosy (to stay with the bird theme). If you would like to join us, just let them know!
Kate , Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill,
Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Kerry, Claire, Jean, Jon, Hayley, Dawn,
Gwen (me!), Bekki, Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin,
Vera, Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2 and Noreen
Whatever she’s saying to him, it’s comb raising. The knobby knees are what make this piece for me.
Yes, I loved the knobby knees too! They were in the original, and I put them in, even though I am pretty sure birds don’t have knees!
They both look a little alarmed. Perhaps she just told him there are more chicks on the way than they expected!
That would definitely cause those expressions!
Happy to help with the resources! (and isn’t the Surfside website fun to browse through?)
Your old-time lovebirds look like they know each other pretty well, and are still happy together. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Thank you so much for sharing those resources! I hope to make more of these, with fabric chosen for the different couples I know!
Nah, she’s not nagging, she’s puckering up hopefully for a kiss 🙂 Very, very cute, and apt for Valentine’s Day!
Oh my goodness, I bet it would be easy to make the beak look like that. What a good idea, thank you!
So cute!
So cute!
On Sun, Feb 14, 2021, 3:19 PM Deep in the Heart of Textiles wrote:
> TextileRanger posted: ” I actually have two lap quilts/table toppers to > share, but I didn’t photograph them. We were supposed to get snow, and I > thought it would be nice to have pictures with snow in the background. > Well, no snow yet, just days of cloudy bleakness. So I will s” >
They are adorable! He is like…..OK OK whatever you want! LOL
Great work and yes, the knobby knees!
I am going to leave it up in the kitchen, and maybe the image will work on my husband subliminally, and he will start showing me that proper attitude! 🙂
Whatever their conversation, this is just too fun!
“Life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing, and oar to oar”
Robert Frost
I love your birds! I made my husband a wall hanging for our 25th anniversary, but we are now approaching our 50th so it’s good to have this idea 🙂
We are not too far from our 50th either — it’s amazing how we were allowed to marry so young too! 🙂
P.S. – of course we married as small children
Great job!
Thank you so much!
Those birds are adorable! Nicely done.
Thanks, I was happy to use up some vintage scraps!
Vintage scrap…I love that.