Bird cut out for Habitat Challenge quilt

Bird on the background

Tonight I got the little bird cut out for the Habitat Challenge quilt. I’m so glad I didn’t attempt it last night. The poor bird would have lost a leg or a claw, for sure. In a much better frame of mind today, I started off with my regular scissors, but switched to small ones due to the fine cuts required.

He looks really cute. I like his little eye and the splashes of color on his body. When I put him up on the background all of a sudden he was in the trees. The birdhouse disappeared. My daughter-in-law Laurie said that the background looked like trees, and I totally agree with her now.

So, that really changed things. No longer did I have to fuss with cutting out background, fitting the bird into his house, letting parts of him be on top of the background and vice versa, or any of that nonsense. The piece looks finished already.

But that seems too easy. Fuse a bird to the background. What’s the challenge in that? The background really doesn’t need anything else; it’s very busy. I decided I would quilt some of the vertical and horizontal “trunks and branches”, probably with invisible thread. Then I’ll fuse the bird to the background and do a narrow zigzag of quilting around his body, avoiding the delicate areas of his legs and feet. I could use black thread which would help the bird stand out more, but I may do invisible.

The background was cut freehand because I intended to use only a small portion. Now I want to use the entire thing. But it’s not squared up. I considered leaving it the way it is, but I think it would bother me, so I’m going to square it up, cutting off as little as possible from the sides. The finished piece will be tall and narrow – like a tree.

See more progress on: make Habitat Challenge quilt