It's For The Birds!

I wish I had the talent that we see on Madame Samm's blog - she has such beautiful photos of birds that I just sit in awe.  But since I don't I'll just tell you that here on the lake where I live we see lots of beautiful ones.  There are all the ordinary everyday ones like robins, blue jays, cardinals, sparrows, hummingbirds, wrens, blackbirds, etc.  But we have a few that you might not see as often - we have a type of heron that visits regularly as well as seagulls, owls and on rare occasions, an eagle has visited us.  We have lots of ducks and geese and a couple of wood ducks who raise babies here every spring.

My mother was the bird lover in our family.  She must have kept a dozen bird feeders at her house and even in her last days when she was very ill she reminded us to keep food in the bird feeders.  Sometimes a bird will land on my window and I always think of mother!

For my first project I embroidered "Mother's Favorites" and the  names of some of her favorite birds on a Kona cotton and then alternated them with birds cut from one of the panels from this fabric line.  I just couldn't let this fabric go by without acknowledging her love for birds.  The first border is a simple black, and the second is also part of this fabric line.  I made the binding from one of the tree panels.

 My yard certainly didn't look very spring like when I took these a couple of weeks ago!

But things are beginning to get a little greener, all those leaves have been blown away, the crocus and hyacinths are up and the azaleas in the background have the promise of buds on them!

For my second project I fussy cut my favorite birdhouses from a second panel, bordered them in black, and did some simple free motion quilting around them.

The sun kept going in and out of the clouds the day I was taking this photo, making for some interesting shadows.

The day I was taking these photos that little bit of green was all the green I had in my yard!

When I finished these two projects I still had a bit of fabric left so I made a market style bag to put them in - I plan to gift these to a special someone for her birthday.  The market bag makes a wonderful gift bag!

I used this adorable print for the outside and left it simple because I didn't want to cover up any of the birdhouses.

I used a tree panel for the lining, and added a ring for keys as well as....

two fussy cut birdhouses for the pockets.

Don't you love this one with his little tail feathers sticking out the door!  :)

This was great fabric and I loved working with it.  But greater than the fabric was working with Lana from It Seams To Be Sew!  Lana was so organized and always timely with reminders and lists - exactly what I needed.  So thanks to her and to Madame Samm for always encouraging us to do more, be more than we thought we could.

Be sure and visit the other bloggers today and for the next two days!

Thursday, March 19

The Raspberry Rabbits

More Stars In Comanche

Sew Many Yarns

Super Mom - No Cape!

Stitchin By The Lake

Jane's Quilting

Quilting Through Rose Colored-Trifocals

Quiltscapes

Friday, March 20

Freemotion By The River

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Tea Time Creations

Baa's Amazing Adventures!

Selina Quilts

Ramblings of a Quilter

Busy Bee Quilts

Quilted Delights

Grandmamas Stories

Monday, March 23

Debbie Kratovil Quilts

how arT you?

Hill Valley Quilting

Pink Doxies. Blogspot.com

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Fabric Bias

Lovelli Quilts

In The Boon Docks

Bacon Then Eggs

Sew We Quilt