It's All About the Cardinals and KofB #12

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone good health, good friends, and safety in 2017.

QS informed me this quilt needs cardinals - the favorite birds of our sister and grandmother. I'm not sure how they will fit in but know I need them on hand before sewing the vine. Since my drawing skills are lacking {or at least my confidence in those skills is lacking} I combed the web for easy bird outlines. The final two choices were:

1. Beth Donaldson posted a number of free quilt blocks from old newspapers, including the Cedar Waxwing and Hermit Thrush.
2. There are too many "bird on a wire" silhouettes to list. Best thing? Very few have legs... and they look good. That should make it easier.
3. EDIT: How could I forget Barb's bird when it's part of her blog header? Love the way she added part of the wing in silhouette.

It took the whole evening to draft simple cardinals. I planned to cut the crest off some for other birds or perhaps draft hummingbirds.

Cardinal Silhouette templates ready to use

My t-shirt quilt friend sent the beautiful flowers for Christmas. The bouquet contains lilies, carnations, and roses with special additions of pine and bright red berries. The berries are "the berries." Perfect. What a kind gesture.

Looking at the quilt top again, my cardinals are too fat. Those toile birds are sleek and streamlined. Back to the drawing board.

In case I change my mind, I placed a pdf of the cardinal template  on the Tutorial page downloading. Let me know if there are problems. This is my first attempt at pdfs in Blogger.

Streamlined toile bird silhouettes

At 6.75" this border is more narrow than I hoped. I'm not sure how to curve the vine and also avoid tiny leaves on the outer curve. {Like most beginners} my eye is caught by the most elaborate applique. Quite beyond my expertise.

Possible vine ideas were distilled to simpler, diffuse ones that might better fit the style of my quilt.

1. The border on Stamp of Approval by Tonya Alexander. Easy curved vine, nice big leaves, yoyo berries. Now I wonder if the leaves are too fat. They match my chubby cardinals but everything may need to go on a diet.
2.  Is there a way I can incorporate Susan McCord's string pieced leaves? Their longer, skinnier style matches trim birds.
3. Quilted with Grace posted her first hand applique. I love the multicolored leaves and the groups of berries on this vine.
4. Of course, Aunt Millie's Garden by Piece o'Cake has two beautiful vine borders. The first is too wide for my border but the narrower is a charming way to make leaf-like flowers.
5. Jan Hutchison made a quilt from Applique Affair by Edyta Sitar. Jan's second photo shows a section with only a few leaves, a bud, some berries and a bird. Hmm. All the elements I want.

After rereading parts of Collaborative Quilting by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston, I cut my vine fabric 1.5" before folding. The final width ranges from one-half to five-eighths inches.

I pinned it in a very curvy fashion. Too curvy for the relatively narrow border so it will be changed next week. I think diffuse leaves all the same size will be a good first vine.

This vine is too curvy for the border width.

How do spiderwebs fit with butterflies? I designed the triangles of the webs with my kaleidoscope ruler. Weak, but there it is.

Want something a bit more butterfly-y? Janie at Crazy Victoriana pointed me to Missouri Star Quilt Company's latest YouTube video, Easy Strip Butterflies. It looks like a great way to use some remnants. I see a baby quilt in the near future.

Enjoy the day, Ann

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