Friday, June 6, 2014

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!





8 comments:

  1. My favorite! Must take pics for you privately of our bedroom walls! I have birdhouses and, well, lots of my kind of clutter. Now I am wanting to bring in a branch or two! Scott will be thrilled (not.) lol
    Thanks for sharing--Love U! RA

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    1. I think you will be surprised how he may like it. My friend in England has relaxed robins In her backyard that enter open windows and fly around unafraid. That could be next!

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  2. Love Joe's cactus garden. Is he a constant gardener, or do the cacti just grow and blossom at will? The birds on a branch are darling. They can go on a string or on a window.
    NM

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  3. I also commented on this blog post earlier! I have no idea why my comments aren't being published. I'll see what happens when I try to publish this one today (June 21). Anyway, I recall vividly commenting not only about the birds, which I adore, but also about Joe's cacti!

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  4. Hi Linda,

    Just responded to the no reply blogger! Anyway, LOVE your Spool Birds & Branch! Looked for the place to make
    a comment on your blog, but could not find!!!!!?????

    Andrea

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  5. Thanks so much, Linda! Your birds look terrific on the branch.

    -Abby

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  6. Gorgeous birds I can't believe how you could make them out of cloth scraps Incredible Natalie

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  7. Just getting caught up with your blog. Great post, Linda! Thanks for the link to the bird pattern too. - Ellen

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