For Grandma Birdie

Our daughter loves birds.  She always has.  She got a pair of bird feeders for her first birthday and has been known to cry when they are empty because the birds are hungry.  She makes sure our feeders are always full.  Consequently, we have a lot of birds in our yard, especially in the winter. 

A month or so ago I was watching the birds out the window with her and apparently I think in terms of fabric.  I saw the birds on the fence and thought quilt.  I so had to make one someday.

And who better to make a bird quilt for than my Grandma Birdie. 

I had thought I'd make it for her birthday next year.  I mentioned it to my mom and she thought it sounded great.  So I added it to my mental list.

 Then, a week or so ago, I couldn't shake the feeling to make it now.  So I checked my stash and actually found the perfect brown.  I don't do brown so it was pretty amazing.  This quilt was one thing after another that was amazing.  I began to joke to my husband that the quilt would quilt itself.  No such luck, but despite three little ones, it did come together in less that a week.

 And now some details on the Quilt That Took Less Than A Week, I appliqued the birds with dryer sheets again.  My new favorite method, by the way.  I hand quilted along my seams on the fence posts and made little Xs at the white intersections of my plaid sky.  I couldn't stomach the idea of blue binding framing my fence or brown in the sky and I couldn't envision some other color, so I bound each in itself; fence in brown, sky in blue.

(this little birdie is my favorite, I think his paisley looks like a sweet little wing.) 
They are all scrap material from various things over the years.  The pink on the far right is actually from a dress my mom had made for Pie when she was teensy.

I used a flowery blue on the back.  The selvage said Disney on it and then I had a total moment of panic that there were fairies on it somewhere I had missed.  False alarm, no fairies.
This quilt turned out great.  I am really pleased with it.  And I have a crazy love of the plaid sky.  If I ever make this design again, I'm making it all plaid.  It will likely be too much, but I seriously love the plaid sky. 
This is one of my favorites so far.

linking to tgiff