Thanks to everyone who sent me photos of their bird quilts! When I originally posted about the ThreadBender’s “Birds Eye View” challenge, I received quite a few nice comments. One was particularly interesting. I met Tomi Fay when she took one of my classes many years ago. She was the one who shared the history of Seminole dolls with me (click here for that post). Since then she has shared quite a few fascinating tidbits of information that have found their way into my blog. Her comment to the “Birds Eye View” post was another I knew I needed to share with you! This is a portion of it:
“are you familiar with Birds Eye maps? An artist would visit a community, walking the streets and sketching each building. Then he went back to his studio and drew the town in detail from his sketches. The view of the town was not directly overhead but at an angle.”
I was intrigued by this information and did an online search which led me to a delightful video about this type of map. If you’re intrigued too, please click here.
Thank you Tomi Fay for once again enlightening us 😊!
And now for some bird quilts. First, I wanted to start with the blocks at the top of this post which were made in classes I’ve taken over the years. What follows are photos sent to me by some blog followers.
My friend Laura and I took a class on recreating photos of animals in raw edge appliqué. This is one of the quilts she made using the techniques from that class:
“Here is my Snowy Owl quilt. I started making it all white but, thought it would be too boring. I added color so I guess it’s really not a snowy owl.”
Wonderful! I love her choice of background fabric!
I met Margit in Arizona, and have shared many of her quilts here over the years. This is the bird quilt she sent me:
“In my early quilt years in MA I made a quilt with leaves. I was running out of fabric for the border so I added leaves and a paper pieced cardinal. The female cardinal is hand appliqued and is hiding in the bushes. The title of the quilt (44″x44″) is ‘Looking for Mrs. Cardinal’.”
Beautiful!
Kathy Hughes sent me this:
“This week’s subject of birds brought to mind a quilt I made recently that I call “Bluebirds” of Happiness. The BEST part of my Bluebirds of Happiness was that it was made of ALL scraps – except for the backing ! A friend shared the bird pattern…and I just flew with it ! The bright colors just make me happy!”
Delightful!
Then Diane emailed me with this photo of her prize winning bird quilt!
“I just won a 3rd place ribbon on my Pretty Birds (Elizabeth Hartman pattern)quilt at the Southwest Florida Quilt Guild show in Punta Gorda , FL“
Congratulations on the ribbon. It was well deserved!
And here’s a photo of another prize winning bird quilt. Carolyn mixed piecing and appliqué into a captivating collection of birds and flowers.
“I made this in a class with Roberta Williams. Loved her dearly and miss her. Got a Blue Ribbon at State Fair 2014. It is raw edge appliqué and free motion quilted on my home machine It hangs in my dining area.”
It is so lovely. I miss Roberta too!
My friend Judy sent me her “Birds in the Windows” quilt, and it’s a lovely way to round out this week’s collection:
The rest of this post isn’t about quilts, but it does have something to do with birds. Over the years we’ve had cardinals decide to peck at our windows in the Spring. We learned that when they are mating they become very territorial and when they see their reflection in a window, they think it’s another bird and they attempt to scare it away. It usually lasted for a few days and it was interesting to see them up close through the window.
Last spring changed all that. We had robins that pecked at all the windows in our home mercilessly. They spit slime all over each one, and did this for a few weeks. When they stopped we were so grateful!!! I washed the windows ~ and a week later they started all over again! This went on all summer long. Mike and I thought we were going to lose our minds. We placed plastic owls around the windows, and they ignored them. We taped newspaper on the windows (was it ever dark in the house!), and they pecked it off so they could continue to peck at the window. We hung aluminum pans from string so they would ratttle with the wind but that didn’t work either. Finally Mike hung tarps over our windows and from the ceiling of the front porch.
By then it was September and their visits began to wane. I am no longer a robin fan. So when they appeared in the yard this Spring I wanted to cry. Instead, I did some more searching online for solutions and found one we hadn’t tried. It was recommended we cut blackbirds out of black paper and tape them in the windows. Sounds easy enough. Mike ran to Walmart to get black card stock, and I found a few silhouettes online and scanned them into my Brother Scan and Cut.
It worked beautifully ~ so I taped them in all the windows. The one on the back door was in front of the macrame hanging our daughter-in-law made, and it looked great (this is where we saw the first robin pecking this year – and pooping all over the stoop – grr).
The trouble was, the reflections in the windows caused them to disappear from the outside (no matter how hard you look, you won’t see it)
When I blocked the reflection with my body, I could almost see it (thus the arrows).
I took them all down and taped them to white paper, cut them out again and put them back.
We’re hoping it will work. I’m tired of living in dark rooms all summer, and listening to that annoying noise. Stay tuned.
Then open the picture, and when it pops up, select “Google Lens”. You may have to search in your app where “Lens” is tuck away, (mine is by the ellipsis above the photo) but once you find it, click Google Lens, and it will start quickly searching to help you find the source. I think someone like you could make great use of a tool like this. For instance, I found your bright floral fabric listing it as, “Floral Burst Serious Whimsey” for sale by Flowers2Fabric.com, for $15/yd (or in 1/4 yard increments). Another site was sold out, but at least you now have a website/manufacturer to start researching. And it took literally 2 seconds. Hope this helps! God Bless!
Then open the picture, and when it pops up, select “Google Lens”. You may have to search in your app where “Lens” is tuck away, (mine is by the ellipsis above the photo) but once you find it, click Google Lens, and it will start quickly searching to help you find the source. I think someone like you could make great use of a tool like this. For instance, I found your bright floral fabric listing it as, “Floral Burst Serious Whimsey” for sale by Flowers2Fabric.com, for $15/yd (or in 1/4 yard increments). Another site was sold out, but at least you now have a website/manufacturer to start researching. And it took literally 2 seconds. Hope this helps! God Bless!
Marlene says
This certainly was the most informative post. Love the Bird’s Eye video and will have to show my friends. All the Bird Quilts were very special. Thanks
Judy Stowell says
You might try this idea – try laminating the blackbirds, then “fussy cut” around them to remove the excess laminating plastic. Punch a hole at the top, and attach them (somehow) to the outside of the window. I did this with butterfly cutouts a couple of years ago, and it worked to keep pesky birds out of my cacti.
Judy Raddatz says
Love the quilts. Also miss Roberta. For your problem I put cling on butterflies on my patio doors and that seemed to stop the birds crashing into them. Plus. I like all the colorful butterflies
Doris Rindfleisch says
Never heard of robins doing this. We enjoyed a nest on the ledge outside our bedroom window. Pretty blue eggs. Then the eggs disappeared (read online that other birds/critters take them (to eat?) although we found no eggshells). Left nest there, and a new batch of eggs appeared. (Same parents? Don’t know.) Had fun watching four robin babies up close for a few weeks. Hope you have a wonderful robin-free summer!