Free as a bird

Hi all! I hope your week is going well, and I hope anyone who was in the hurricane zone made it through okay.  My son's mother-in-law lives in Ft. Myers, but luckily she was able to get out and spend the week playing with our grandson.  I understand her house and car are both intact, but there is no power yet, so she's staying away a few more days.  Given the choice, I think I'd take hot showers and a tiny boy to play with, too.

I've been doing something really exciting-- I made some birds!  Okay, I made two birds:

Aren't they darling?  I used Lynne's Liberated Birds Tutorial as a guide for these.  If you haven't checked out her blog lately, Lynne is in the process of making another quilt with a lot of birds.  It's very fun.  And Preeti made a really great bird quilt not too long ago, too.  Who wouldn't want to join in the fun?

The birds are very easy to make, but first you have to relax and just be determined to try a few new things.  This was the hardest part for me.  In her tutorial, Lynne says several times some variation of "decide what you want to do here."  Yikes!  This was hard for someone like me who spends so much time trying to be precise.  But I think I conquered it well enough, and I have some ideas for some other things to try on some other birds.

I wanted to make one bird facing each direction, and I didn't really think about basing the birds on any particular inspiration other than fabric that looks bird-like, but once I finished them I realized that these are pretty much me and the hubs!  At the very least, one is definitely female and the other male.  I'll have to ask my kids for an opinion on this one.

I'm sure there are more birds in my future (with some shorter legs), but I another reason I wanted to make the birds was as a sort of "warm up" for some more free piecing.  I am finally going to build a "barn," based on Julie Sefton's book about free-pieced barns.  I'm not that into barns, but there is at least one other building that I'm very fond of and plan to make a quilt from.  Here are the fabrics I've pulled:

Can't wait to get started on this, which I have put off way too many times.  I think I've been afraid of it, but I'm finally jumping into it.  And something is clearly wrong with me, because I've also got a plan for a free-pieced letters quilt, which I've already started working on.  What is happening?  Perhaps I'm rebelling against too much structure in my life?  Maybe, but if it comes with these cute birds, it can't be all bad, right?

That's the update from here!  I hope you're having a good, productive week.  If not, try making a few birds. They'll cheer you right up!

One last thing--does anyone have any of this fabric that they'd be willing to part with?

It's pretty old, from maybe 2010?, but I only need a fat quarter to finish off a project for my daughter. I would definitely pay you for it, and you would have my undying gratitude!

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