Bird Houses UFO finished!

At long last the Bird Houses quilt is finished. I started this one sometime last summer.  I first blogged about it at the beginning of June.  The top got done pretty quickly, but for some reason stalled on the quilting.  I finally sat down to watch Four Weddings and a Funeral and sew and got it DONE the other night. And done is better than perfect!

This is a small quilt, only about 45"x60" or so, and I just did simple straight line quilting on it.

I had a bird theme for the fabrics. Some of my very favorites are in here, and I love the overall color combo.  The Joel Dewberry Aviary fabric came in a scrap pack from Hawthorne Threads.  I've only ever bought one, but it was loaded with generous cut of some great fabrics.  (PS- these are on sale, I just grabbed 3!)

I planned all along to bind this quilt with a bright turquoise solid.  I actually had the strips cut out sometime back in the summer but by the time I actually finished the quilt I'd used them all in other projects. Fortunately, I keep plenty of that color on hand.

Maybe my favorite part of this quilt is the back. I created a little medallion from all the bonus HSTs generated by making the angles on the bird house roofs.

Finished and washed and ready to give, nothing feels better than that!  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Linking up to Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Weekend WIP

This was a good weekend for sewing.  In addition to finishing the Sail Away quilt (post coming later this week) I got the backing put together for the Bird Houses quilt and basted it.  This one has been sitting around for a while just waiting for the backing to be finished.  In the end, the shade of brown solid on the back isn't quite dark enough, but this is a case where done is better than perfect.

I pin baste my quilt and usually I can shut the pins by hand, although it hurts my finger nails.  In an effort to save my nails I tried something different today.  There's a tool called a Kwik Klip that's designed to close safety pins and save your nails.  I decided to try something similar with a wooden chop stick.

Homemade safety pin closer

Carving a couple of shallow grooves all the way around the end of the chop stick gave the pins a place to catch.  It's a little awkward at first to figure out how to best use the tool and get your rhythm, but once I got the hang of it I'd say it's as fast as closing them by hand.  And best of all, no sore nails! 

I am working through Wednesday, but after that I am looking forward to getting this one quilted.  Linking up to Design Wall (um-- make that Design Floor) Monday at Patchwork Times.

Wonky Squares on the Design Wall

The weekends just seem to go by faster and faster each week, don't they? It's design wall Monday again already!

I am working on several projects this week, including my do. Good Stitches wonky squares top.  May was my month as quilter for the NURTURE circle and the photo above shows everyone's lovely blocks they sent in.  (You can see the tutorial I asked them to follow here.)  The blocks are 10.5" unfinished, so I am making a 60" square quilt.  I am pretty pleased with the initial layout above, but I will probably tweak it for a couple days before I sew it together.

The other project going on, which got taken down off the wall to make room for the wonky squares, I'm calling Bird Houses.  I saw a quilt somewhere on the internet that I based this design on but I can't find where it came from (sorry!)  I pulled bird fabrics that I've been collecting first, then coordinating colors to fill out the color scheme. I really like it :)  I think that the brown sashing strips look like tree branches, hence the name.

I saved all the bonus HSTs that got created from sewing the neutral squares onto the tops of the birdhouses.  Happily, there were enough of them to create this (above) for the quilt back.  Believe it or not, this is the first time I've sewn this sort of HST design, and it was really fun!

So that's what's on the wall this week; I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.