A Pandemonium of Parrots

Or would you rather a 'prattle'?

Whatever you call them Australia is home to many 

species of cockatoos and parrots!

Many live around my new regional home!

So when I stumbled across a budgie pattern,

found HERE, I knew I 

could adapt it to suit my purposes.

I purchased some new Japanese solids which feel 

beautiful and felt they would be 

a wonderful addition to my stash.

I did a practice one first.....

Can you see where I made an error change?

It is the extra piece of blue fabric on the lower 

left-hand side of the bird's body.

Once I had done that, I decided it made for a better 

shaped bird.

Again I made an improvement by giving the next bird a 

two-toned taill

Then with the more complicated design I also split the 

tail colour into two.

They look more like birds with their felt eyes.

On a recent morning walk, I saw a flock of these pink 

and grey galahs.

So had to make one of those too!

Looking at the above photo I think I could have placed the colours better....

There are a couple of extras pieces in this one to get a 

good range of colour.

I have four that I definitely want to use.....

I think I will let them sit on their perch for a bit and 

then decide where to go next.

Happy sewing!

SUZ

PS I saw this painting at the Bendigo Art Gallery today.

It is by an Australian female artist, Ellis Rowan.

Enjoy!

 

Not much crafting...

happening here, in between family and work 

commitments.

But that's ok!

I did knit up a tension square in this pretty blue wool,

finish my Chuck Nohara blocks for April, 

and spent a wonderful day at the

Australasian Quilt Convention,

meeting up with Deborah, 

admiring Rachaeldaisy's gorgeous red and white 

quilt!

And taking an English Paper Piecing class with Jess 

Frost of Elven Garden blog.

Today I made the backing,

tonight I will get back to the sweet little bird!

 

More details of the Blue Wren cushion on Jess' blog!

Happy sewing...

SUZ

From the Vault!

 I'd like to share another quilt I made nearly 10 years ago!


(I posted this a couple of days ago but somehow when I went looking for it, it wasn't there!!! Spooky!)

I didn't know much about chain piecing when I made my Flying Nine Patch!

I gathered fabrics from all over to make this quilt!

The colours are quite dull but I still love how it looks-

After repeated washings!

Lots of chain piecing of flying geese and nine patch blocks...

Make up this large 75" X 65" quilt.

I had it professionally machine quilted..

My name for it- "Mullum Mullum Autumn" -came from the place where we were 

living at the time....

Mullum Mullum is an aboriginal word for 'place of many big birds'!

Kind of appropriate for a flying geese quilt, don't you think!

Happy days!

SUZ

My tree has blossomed!

I expect you can seeing me grinning from here!

I LOVE this!

I even enjoyed doing the applique!


Yes, that was the one major design decision I HAD to make....


Blanket stitch or raw edge applique were not doing it for me!


Don't get me wrong, I have done them before but I didn't think they suited this project!

These strips, left over bits from the blossom wedges, have been added to the 

border....

after I added a dark purple, one inch border too!

But I didn't quite have enough scraps so there is some of the 'grass' in the 

bottom outside border too...

(You know what they say about the necessity being the mother of all invention!)

And a close before I added the blossom and the birdie!

And a close up after!

I have so enjoyed making this little quilt!

(Finished size- roughly 25 inches square)

Now to quilt it!


Happy sewing!


SUZ

The Decision has been made!

Yes I've made a decision!

Thank you to all those who took the time to comment on my bird cage block....

I've decided to make it into a pillow.

Val said something that rang true with me...

.....that she loves to be able to handle and touch her projects!

And when Kirsty said it would look great with a brooch on it I knew the decision    

had been made!

And as I have little wall space to display too many mini quilts at the moment, a 

pillow it is!

So I machine quilted the back to make it really special...

And it didn't really need anything else!

Except for maybe a special bird brooch!

It's taking pride of place on my bed...and when my husband commented on it, I 

knew I'd made the right decision!

I'm entering it in the final month of the Blogger's Pillow Party

over at Stitched in Color.

Pop over and check out the other lovely pillows entered!

Happy sewing!

SUZ