Birds on a branch make me smile

     Every time I walked from the study into the front hall today I almost laughed, or certainly smiled big. Joe as well. Last night he hammered a branch in the top of the door and I hot glued three birds to the clean, washed branch (one bird for each of the grandchildren, fabrics chosen by each of them) . I had found this Spool Bird pattern on-line at Whileshenaps.com and thought the children might have success sewing their own bird. So...when they were leaving the house the other evening, I told them to run upstairs to my sewing room to choose two fabrics for their bird from my fat-quarter stash. Of course, after they left,  I just had to cut out the pieces and then sew them together.

    Abby Glassenberg posted a story about the Spool Bird. The Spool Bird was a free pattern designed by Michael Fulkerson around 2008 for Spool Sewing, a fabric store which no longer exists. His pattern ended up on the Internet and many copied the pattern to sew colorful birds by hand or machine. He won an award from Martha Stewart. I had never seen the bird or the pattern, but I thought my grandchildren would like the softee project. I follow or subscribe to Abby's rich blog. She is a friend of my daughter-in-law and was the person several years ago who encouraged me to blog since it stimulates productivity!

     I was having so much fun and frustration sewing the bird and mounting them, I did not take photos of the process. I printed up the pattern I found in Abby's blog (perhaps Copy and Paste or Drag) and reduced and enlarged the size. The only thing I would add to the instructions is to iron down the tail's 1/4" seam allowance to make closing the bird's tail easier .

     In the meantime, Joe is having a success of sorts with his cactus...a real yellow flower bloomed from one of them (it opens more when the sun hits) and the octopus cactus (please let me know the name!) keeps growing and producing babies as well. As usual, click on the photos to enlarge!

Feed the Birds: a journal quilt

     The snow falls, night and day, but birds are abundant. The bushes by my front porch are filled with puffed up feathered friends. The bushes look like snow cones; and birds are under the snow canopy, chirping in chorus for food.
      My grandchildren painted a birdhouse for Mother's Day and gave me a bag of seeds. I am not informed about bird needs. However, when I wondered why these sparrows and chickadees didn't fly south and I could not imagine where they were getting food, I started sprinkling my seeds on one side of the front porch. Surely my comfort food of seeds and bread crumbs couldn't hurt.

       Nancy, bird guru and beader, said that some of these birds have evolved to extend their world, staying in the cold north to feed on berries and seeds they have cached. But with all this covering of snow it is good to supplement. Chrissy has a heated bird bath. I have tried to take the birds' photos but they are wary of predators, my dog and family's watching through the window.

       I will sew on some yellow and gold seed beads for these fabric feathered creatures in my journal quilt, and then get some real seeds and bread to feed those sparrows, chickadees and blue birds. I read the little ones need more than the larger birds when it is so cold.