Bright green wings

 Hi everyone, and happy Saturday! Have your leaves started to turn yet? Though we have a lot of leaves on the ground, there has not yet been a lot of color. I attribute that to all the rain we've had. It rained here for five days straight and the ground is still pretty soggy. The creek behind us and on the property beside us has been quite full, too.

Today I have the last of the birds for this year's RSC quilt to show. I gave them bright green wings and some colorful feathers:

It appears the green birds have an odd friend joning the flock! More about him in a minute, but the green birds look quite cheerful, don't they?

The only bright green birds I know of are parrots and parakeets, but I don't think these look like either one. They aren't green herons or mallards, either. I guess they're just themselves!

Last month's color was light blue, a color I am not particularly fond of, though I do have a lot of it that is years old. I didn't make any light blue birds, but I found I had to make this guy:

There is a great blue heron who frequents the property next to us, which is something of a wetland and is owned by the county. He's a very majestic bird, and if I was going to make a light blue bird, he was going to be it. I even managed to make his neck look fairly proportional, as great blue herons have very long necks. I'm thinking of adjusting the flamingo the same way. He's not a colorful bird, but I like him a lot.

I also put all my birds up on the wall to see what I have and how I might arrange them:

Quite the flock! I love them all. I know for sure I don't want them in rows, and I'm thinking of using a pale green background color to tie them all together. It looks like I might want two more to fill in some spots that are far too open, too. I think this will take some serious playtime to get right. Oh, no. Doesn't that sound awful?

Except for the two others I might need, I think that's it for my flock of birds for this year. It will be fun to see how this turns out. I made my birds using Lynne Tyler's Liberated Birds tutorial, which you can get right HERE. Try them, they're fun!

While we're talking about flight, the hubster and I visited the College Park Aviation Museum not long ago ans had a really nice time there. They have some unusual stuff, but also this display, which is in every aviation museum I've ever seen:

Quite common, but still well done! Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

Orange and purple flock

 Hello all! So here we are at August, which means that the end of summer is coming faster than we think. In honor of that, while you are reading this, the hubster and I are off on our last summer adventure, to a place where the chances of rain are much lower than they are at home, so I'm hoping for blue skies and cool breezes.

 

Before we left I finished up the orange and purple birds for the rainbow scrap challenge, so here they all are together:

Yes, it is not a great picture! One of the poor birds is so embarrassed that she's hiding in the back. I tried to get a picture all together out in the tree, but that takes time to arrange, and it was about to rain, so I hurried a bit. The sky opened up right after this, so here is an indoor picture where you can see all the birds:

 

Birds in the house! A little boring, but at least you can see everyone. I love these birds, and I've had fun making them. I think I've got just about enough to put them together by now. I'll have to put them all up on the wall to see for sure, but it's very close.

The orange birds certainly look like a happy bunch, don't they? I made a mistake and made three of them facing the same way instead of only two, but I think they'll forgive me for it. I love the bright red beak on the one on the right! The beaks really give them some personality, don't you think?

Since we live in Baltimore, I had to make an orange bird that looked at least a little bit like a Baltimore oriole, too. Come to think of it, I should make a raven, too, shouldn't I? Strangely, I have not yet seen an oriole in person in Maryland, though I have seen some interesting birds, including the herons that like the stream that runs near our house. I think they're green herons, but I haven't looked them up yet. 

The purple birds are left over from last month, but they are a fairly festive bunch as well. Look at that wild plumage! These are not purple martins, that's for sure. A couple of these turned out smaller than intended because I cut them wrong, but I won't tell them that they're short if you don't.

And there are the birds! Hope you all are having a lovely last couple of weeks of summer and packing in all the fun you can. Hope you're in the sunshine with a nice cool drink, or at least in some air conditioning!

 

Oops! Updated to add that the birds are made using Lynne's Liberated Birds tutorial, which you can find right HERE. An excellent purchase for these very addictive birds!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22.

For the birds

 Hi everyone, and happy (soon to be) Opening Day! This is a true sign of spring and is a big day in our household. It happens that our favorite team is opening here in Baltimore, so guess what we'll be doing next week? I hope we can find parking!

It has been a very busy week here, so all I got done was making some birds for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. They are super cute, though, so they have been hanging out here and cheering me up. Here's the whole flock of pink and yellow birds:

 

Aren't they cute? It's hard to get them all in one picture because there are so many, and I'm not tall enough to reach higher to get them closer in the tree. But look-- the leaves are beginning!

Here's a closer look at the pink birds:

I had a great time making this group, and I remembered to make some facing in each direction. And since I was making pink birds, I had to make the most famous of the pink birds, a flamingo:

 

 

Yes, she knows she's gorgeous. She could use a better pressing, but she still turned out great. The legs took a bunch of trial and error, but I think I came close to making those resemble a flamingo's stick legs.

 

And now for the yellow birds:

More fun color combinations! The yellow with turquoise markings on the left is the last of that fabric I had left, and it worked great for this happy bird. The bench they're on came from our daughter, who got a new bench rather than paint this one. It may have a few dings, but it made a great backdrop.

I'm so glad I chose this as one of my RSC projects this year. Half the fun of the birds is picking out all the different color and fabric combinations. All of these birds are made from little bits of stuff that I saved, so they are all truly scrappy. And all different!

 

These birds are not paper pieced and are made using a tutorial by Lynne, which you can get right HERE. It's totally worth it, because these little guys are addictive and you'll find yourself making a ton of them. And they bring such happiness!

 

Here's another little bit of happiness from in front of one of my neighbor's houses:

 

 

Bright pink hyacinths! I don't think I've seen that color in hyacinths before, but it certainly is cheerful.  

Have a good weekend, everyone, and happy spring!

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22

All the aqua birdies

 Hello all! First, thanks to everyone who sent their good thoughts about Hands2Help after the last post. I'm excited about what's happening this year. If you want to check it out, look back to the post right HERE. Also, if you scroll all the way down, Roseanne was kind enough to make a clickable button, and you can get the code right there. Thanks Roseanne!

But more on that later! This was yet another hard week, but the situation causing all of the stress should be coming to a happy resolution soon. Yahoo! I'm looking forward to amuch nicer March, that's for sure.

This week I managed to make some fun aqua birds for the rainbow scrap challenge. I love aqua, so I love all of these birds:

 

 

It was quite windy, but I managed to get a few useable pictures. Aren't they adorable? I made five, but I had to make myself stop, because these babies are really addictive. You could make your own using Lynne's tutorial, which you can get right HERE.

 

 

I need to make more right-facing birds. I don't necessarily want an equal number, but a few more would be nice. Plus, how adorable is the bird on the left? Half the fun of making the birds is trying out all the different color combinations, especially the beaks and the legs. I know I should have just made a "legs" panel and cut them off there, the same for all the birds, but what fun is that?

The purple beak and legs are my favorite! A kind of drab aqua turned out super colorful and fun.

And the final pair, chasing each other. I think that might be my last piece of the yellow dots on turquoise. I'm sorry to see it go. It makes a great bird, though.

When I got home yesterday, I had to make one more bird, just for Lynne:

Obviously, this is a catbird and will occupy the catbird seat in my quilt. I think it will blend nicely with some blue sashing, and keep watch over all the other birds.

That was my whole accomplishment for this week. Not a lot, but moving forward is always good! Hope you all are moving forward, too, and that everyone has a great weekend. Spring is on the horizon, so I'm going to start garden planning. That sounds happy, doesn't it? Bring on the flowers!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, the Patchwork and Quilts linkup at Quilting Patchwork Applique, and soscrappy for RSC22.

Red red robins

 Hi all! Busy, busy week around here-- how about you? Also, it has been quite chilly. It's almost like it's winter or something. I was hoping to have a finish this week, but no such luck. There was just too much to do, and I spent all day Wednesday on Zoom in different meetings. I'm already tired of Zoom. Thankfully, I get to teach in person starting Monday, which accounts for the busyness and the Zooming.

So, I didn't have a finish, but I did make some bits for my remaining RSC projects for this year. Hurray! If you recall, I had two projects that I started earlier, and today I'm showing off my remaining two projects. Yes, four projects for this year! I'm as surprised as you are. Here is the first one:

Are those birds adorable, or what? I made these free-pieced style, using Lynne's tutorial, which you can get HERE. There are no templates or paper piecing, and they are super fun to make. I stopped at four birds, but I could easily have made a ton more. I want a multi-colored quilt, though, so I had to make myself stop. Look at those cool legs:

Those just make me happy! And the cool bright blue beak, too:

The birds are around 8-1/2 inches square apiece right now, and I'll either trim them (including the legs-- some are very tall!) or add to them when I decide how to put them all together. Or maybe they'll all get colorful frames or something. We'll see!

This next block is the start of my last RSC project: 

 

Excuse the pressing marks there. The winter light was all weird. I'm planning to make a medallion quilt in the RSC colors this year, and this block is the center. I have the various other "rounds" planned out and I just have to wait for the correct colors to make each one. It doesn't look like much right now, but it's going to look great once it's done.

And speaking of rounds, how about a look at my stay at home round robin project? I meant to write a post about it, but you know what happened there. Take a look:

 

I love the dinosaur at the bottom right! The prompt this week was "curves," and I think we all could have guessed that that wasn't going to happen. So how about the illusion of curves instead? A ribbon border seemed to fit the bill and turned out looking pretty good. I should have had an even number of blocks for the corners to turn out correctly, but I didn't, so there are plain squares in the corners instead. I think it still looks good!

And that's the update from here! I hope your weekend is nice and warm and dry, with plenty of fun things to do. I'm going to cook! I'm making a bunch of meals in advance and freezing them in order to make the next couple of weeks less stressful. Seems like a good idea-- we'll see how it goes!

 

Sharing at soscrappy for RSC22 and at Anja's for the SAHRR.