Birds on a wire quilt

Have you checked out Le Challenge yet?  It is the brainchild of Lucy at Charm About You and Nat at Made in Home, and is a monthly challenge and link-up.  The challenge for May was "wings".

I had a lot of half-rectangle triangle scraps left over from making my Paper Petals quilt, and I used them to make up this little baby quilt top.  It was very simple - I sorted the triangles into warm/cold pairs, and then stitched them together before trimming the resulting rectangles to a uniform width (I think about 9").  I then laid the rectangles out in random order, stitched them into columns and sewed the columns together so that I had a quilt top about 27" by 30".

The picture about isn't great anyway, but I think you will be able to tell why I thought it needed something extra before I added the appliqué.  One of my favourite prints in the Noteworthy collection by Sweetwater for Moda features birds on a wire. Appliqué wasn't really part of the original plan, but when the idea of little appliqué birds on a wire popped into my head, I knew I had to do it (and, it happened to fit perfectly with the theme for Le Challenge!).

 

I couldn't get my sewing machine to co-operate when sewing on the birds (I was using polyester thread, and the tension needed to be different depending on how many layers I was sewing through), so I stitched the birds on by hand using blanket stitch.

 

Simple serpentine quilting and a crisp grey backing (DS Quilts from Spotlight) finish it off.

This quilt is about 27" square, and I donated it to the neonatal unit at Wellington Hospital.  I think it will be perfect for a little baby boy or girl.

Linking up with:

and finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts.