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| "Beautiful Birds" fabric designed by Tracy Lisotte for Elizabeth's Studios |
When I learned about the darling fabric we'd be working with for this Blog Hop, I had to participate - I couldn't help it!
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| >> Little Birdies Free Pincushion Tutorial & Pattern << #littlebirdiepincushion |
You may have noticed that I have a thing for little birdies... I have a few spruce trees that surround our back deck, with little chickadees, blackbirds, an odd pigeon or magpie, well, a whole menagerie, sometimes. And nothing says "Spring" like the sound of birdsong through my window.
I've also been thinking about "interactive" quilts - fun for me to make, fun for kids (3 and older) to play with and enjoy, and the prints in this line really lent themselves to what I had in mind.
Fused a few of the birds to Pellon Pel-Tex71F heavy-duty fusible stabilizer, then fussy-cut the shapes.
Laid out a few of the birdhouses with a tree panel to compose the quilt... Looks like it's going to work!
Next, I pieced the top, then with batting in place, I marked where I wanted the little birds to sit in the branches with a Frixion pen. I marked each spot with a pin, turned the batting over placing 1/2" metal washers in strategic places among the branches and birdhouses...
...Then I fused some lightweight interfacing to hold the washers in place. At this stage, I laid it over the backing and did a little freemotion quilting on Ol' Betsy.
On the front of the quilt, I outlined each washer with a Frixion iron-off pen, then tried to "respect" the markings as I quilted... (it's not a pretty picture if you miss one, trust me).
Added a few super-magnets with some heavy-duty E-6000 glue to the back of the birds, which seemed to do the trick.
Once I iron off the markings and put on a binding it will be ready for hours of interactive fun! I'm thinking, family tree games, matching games, I-Spy games, countdowns, story-telling, etc.
UPDATE: See how I finished this little quilt and turned it into a Pack-Along HERE.
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Here's another idea for this sweet fabric: I needed a little sample for a class on binding curves and scallops at a local guild meeting. So I woke up that morning, programmed little Mo with a design I liked...
...then pushed the button and quilted a couple of pretty placemats for the demo. Darling!
UPDATE: See how to bind scalloped edges with this SCALLOP-EDGE BINDING tutorial.
Big THANKS to Madame Samm @ Sew We Quilt/Sew We Stitch, for organizing this hop, and to Lana at It Seams to be Sew for scheduling and cheering us all along the way!
Be sure to stop by my other blog sisters for more fun ways to use this adorable fabric!
| The Raspberry Rabbits | |
| More Stars In Comanche | |
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| Quilting Through Rose Colored-Trifocals | |
| Quiltscapes << Thanks for visiting! |
What a wonderful idea with the magnet birds in the tree! That will provide hours of fun! Cute placemats, and the cardinal is beautiful, as always. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLove your fun quilt, the children, and us young at heart, will love playing with it! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! I think I would even like to play with those birdies! Amazing work. Love it.
ReplyDeleteOh wow! How clever is that! What a great idea - interactive play. That will provide fun for hours. I love the way you have used the panel.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea Deonn ! I can definitely see hours of fun with it.
ReplyDeleteDeonn, your quilt with the magnet birds is fantastic! It look like so much fun!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool idea for your quilt project. I love it! Love your place mat too. You are so talented!
ReplyDeleteHow cool is that?!! What a fantastic job. I love it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrific idea!
ReplyDeleteDeonn I always love seeing your creations - you have the most wonderful imagination and then you carry through and make what you've dreamed. What a gift this is! Of course I love this one with the birds that come on and off. Children will have so much fun with it! And the placemats - I wish I'd thought of that! BTW, your sweet cardinal is hanging on my desk lamp watching over me this morning and making me think of you. :) blessings, marlene
ReplyDeleteWow! Those birds just pop off of that quilt! And I love the asymmetrical placement of the block sections. Thanks for sharing this lovely creation!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great project Deonn and using the magnets is such a neat idea! Looks like you are having fun with Mo also!!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant idea, Deonn!! Your quilt is absolutely gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteFabulous use of this fabric. Especially like the cutouts of the birds. That last longarm design is so beautiful! Thanks for including that, too.
ReplyDeleteLove the interactive quilt idea!! So creative!
ReplyDeleteWonderful way to use the fabric. Love the cutouts!
ReplyDeleteBRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO! LOVE THIS!!!!! What a beautiful job you did!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a creative use for the inspiration fabric!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic idea...love it! I can just see my Monkey Boys moving those birds all over the place and loving every minute of it. You totally rock with this gorgeous quilt! Sweet looking place mats, too!
ReplyDeleteThat is such a great idea! I love what you have done with the fabrics and the birds look so real on the quilt.
ReplyDeleteThe scalloped edge piece is wonderful too with such pretty quilting.
What a delightful way to play! I love your vision, and I know that little ones will love it too!
ReplyDeleteI love this! What child wouldn't have a great time putting the birds in the trees!!
ReplyDeleteYou did a fantastic job Deonn. Love the magnet idea, so fun and creative with this fabric line. It was so nice to include a tutorial for us. Always a treat to visit.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great project. Magnets are a great way to make the birds re-positionable and fun to play with! You're so clever. BTW I would love to know what machine this Mo is, details please; I couldn't find anything about your machines on your about page :)
ReplyDeleteDeonn! That's so fun & so pretty. Delightful.
ReplyDeletesuch a joy to see, filled with so may tweet touches
ReplyDeleteNICE!!! Another original idea with the possible interactions and my thanks for sharing how you did it. Your quilted table top design with that fabric is wonderful too. Great projects.
ReplyDeleteI know when I arrived here today I was going to see something totally amazing and I wasn't wrong. I absolutely love this, so ingenious and inventive,great fun to. Congratulations on making such a great project. I'm in awe.
ReplyDeleteWhat a creative idea. I never would have thought of it. Thank you so much for sharing this project with us.
ReplyDeleteWow, you should patent that design . Incredible. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSo creative and beautiful! Thanks for sharing your talents with us.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and creative project. I love your idea of using the magnets!
ReplyDeleteI say you have truly created an amazing interactive Tree Bird quilt. Brilliant and clever with sew many applications for fun and learning. Thank you sew very much for Tree Bird Hopping and participating. Creative Bird Bliss...
ReplyDeletewhat a great use of the panels.
ReplyDeleteHow creative you are...I love it. You sure made that fabric pop!
ReplyDeleteLove how you used the panels. I think any child would love to play with it.
ReplyDeleteWhat an AMAZING and beautiful quilt! I thought it was fantastic in the first picture. Reading on to see how you made it interactive made it all the more impressive. Beautiful work!
ReplyDeleteYou always have the best ideas, Deonn. What a neat game. Your machine must be amazing. To just whip out those mats with that beautiful quilting. Perfect.
ReplyDeleteMaybe your blog should be "dreamscapes" since you must have some very creative dreams. I had to look it over slow and carefully to see all the delightful pieces. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThat is so adorable and unique! Love how the birds are 3D like that!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. It will be hours of FUN! ☺
ReplyDeleteDeonn, your quilt is amazing! What a fabulous idea for an interactive quilt. Thanks for the excellent tutorial!
ReplyDeletelove your idea and thoroughly creative machine-quilting design! Another game might be that each time you see that particular bird, it goes up in the tree :O)
ReplyDeletep.s. impeccable scalloped binding!
Your creativity never ends - harrah!! This is just fabulous and I can see kids having the best time rearranging the birds whenever they come over. Let the games begin! You are such a total inspiration to me. I've decided that when someone asks me where I get my inspiration, I'll just say, from Deonn!
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely adorable, I love how you made it interactive!!! The kid are gonna have a blast playing/rearranging the birds! This is getting bookmarked!!!
ReplyDeleteSuch a unique and clever project. I love the idea of the birds being movable. Your projects are all fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWow Deon what a creative idea, you make the most interesting and beautiful quilts. I am always excited to see what you come up with every hop. Blessings Sandra
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great idea! Thank you for explaining the technique so clearly too. I'm sure it's going to be a successful learning game and it looks lovely too!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic quilt! I just love that it is interactive and the birds just "pop" off the quilt, in there colors as well as with the magnets. I am a big bird lover too, I always feed the cardinals during the winter and I am hopeful that they return in the spring and summer to have their families so I get even more bird friends the next winter.
ReplyDelete