The Birds

Before I get to my “Topic of the Week”, I want to mention an upcoming event. I’ll be teaching at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show this week! It’s taking place at the Bloomington Convention Center in Bloomington, Indiana.

The show runs from March 5-7. I’ll be teaching all 3 days along with a great list of talented instructors. If you live in the area, or want to get away for a fun adventure, you can click here for all the information! Maybe I’ll see you there!

And now for “the Birds”!

Last summer after we spent months cleaning out my parent’s condo, we spent quite a bit of time cleaning out their cottage too. My dad always referred to himself as a “depression baby”, and that was his excuse for keeping everything!!! Since emptying their condo I’ve become quite good at tossing or donating stuff. Mike, on the other hand, has a little of my dad in him (please don’t tell him I said so 🤣). On the cottage’s screened porch I found 3 stone birds with parts missing. The cardinal and blue jay no longer had beaks, while the terra cotta bird was missing it’s head. I took them home to dispose of them, and the next thing I knew they were standing in front of the garage. I gently mentioned to Mike that I didn’t want to keep broken bird statues ~ to no avail. So there they sat. After about a month I placed them around a bush on the north side of the garage. At least they weren’t the first things I saw when coming home.

A week or so later they disappeared. Mike said they must have flown away. The next day I went down to sew in my studio and was a bit startled when I looked out the window.

Mike had painted the broken spot where his beak was supposed to be, attached a greeting, and placed him on our overturned canoe. It made me smiile. A week or so later as I started the hot water for a relaxing bath, I turned around and was surprised to see the headless terra cotta bird ~ “peeking” at me from behind the Victorian tissue box holder..

This one really made me laugh out loud! Now where would I find the cardinal??? I waited for weeks, and Mike claimed innocence. Months later, on the evening I returned from Italy, I went in the master bathroom and was greeted by… you guessed it… the avian welcoming commitee:

My parents always said that the secret to a good marriage was to keep it funny. My husband certainly does this!

So what does this story have to do with quilting? Nothing really (unless it counts that the blue jay was outside the window of my studio). But it’s a good segue into bird quilts. Have you made any? I have a lovely vintage quilt from the 1940s with embroidered blocks of the State birds and flowers:

I’ve also made a number of bird blocks in classes I’ve taken with other teachers. They ended up flocking together in one of my Modular Memory Quilts:

I made this next quilt when we moved from Sun Prairie to Dousman in 1994. As a birthday gift many years ago, Mike and the kids built me an aviary post with feeders hanging from it and a bird house at the top. I loved it, but couldn’t take it with us when we moved because it was set in concrete. Sew I made a quilt about it using my Repliqué technique. I call it: “The View From My Window”:

The squirrels always make me smile.

And I think you’ll enjoy a fascinating video I took of a group of birds while in Rome. Will and I had just finished dinner and were walking back to our hotel from the Colosseum when we noticed everyone around us looking up. There we saw what I now know is a murmuration. We walked on for a while and the murmuration continued. At first we thought it might be some sort of drone thing. But when we realized it really was birds – starlings to be precise – I had to take a video. Here’s a photo, but it doesn’t give you the full effect. To watch the short video click here.

To learn more about starling murmurations click here.

Do you have any bird quilts you’d like to share? Please send photos to me at: .