Quoting Birds

Use the talents you possess - for the woods would be a very silent place if no birds sang except for the best. ~Henry Van Dyke

There are joys which long to be ours. God sends ten thousands truths, which come about us like birds seeking inlet; but we are shut up to them, and so they bring us nothing, but sit and sing awhile upon the roof, and then fly away. ~Henry Ward Beecher

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: It would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. ~ C.S. Lewis

Bird and Beak -- Machine Applique

These folk art birds are fast and fun. You can make your own template easily and with machine applique you're done in no time.

Pin down the whole bird, including the tiny triangle that is the beak, onto your background fabric. I'm using a blanket-stitch setting, but you can also use a wide zig-zag, buttonhole stitch, even a satin-stitch to do machine applique. I've also chosen a black thread, to complement the folk art look but use whatever color best suits you and your bird.

Begin at the top of the beak and sew down the body of the bird. You will need to have the needle down to pivot around the corners on the tail. If you have a needle down setting it's helpful, if you don't just manually lower the needle each time. When you get back to the top of the beak pivot again. Lower the needle, raise the presser foot, and turn the fabric, before lowering the presser foot again.It may help to use a seam ripper or the point of a pin to hold the fabric flat as you sew down the edges of the beak.Then just add an eye -- I couldn't resist using the "eyelet" setting for that -- and trim your thread ends and you're done.

And She Saw That There Was Snow

Flying Crow Block

The eighth pieced block in our For the Birds Sampler Series is known as Flying Crow. Personally, I don't get where the crows come in, but I like the block anyway.

To begin you will need a light, a dark, a medium, and a contrast/center fabrics. I selected the red "eyeball" print as my dark, a cream print as the light, the green homespun check as the medium value, and the serpentine flame-stitch for my center.

Cut the following pieces:

• Four (4) light 3.5 inch squares
• One (1) light 3.5 inch square
• One (1) light 4.5 inch square (mark diagonally for HST)
• One (1) medium 4.5 inch square (mark diagonally for HST)
• Two (2) dark 4.5 inch squares
  

Use the medium 4.5" square and a dark 4.5" square together and the light 4.5 " square and a dark 4.5 " square together, to make four (4) HSTs. For more instructions on how to make Half Square Triangles follow this link to my HST tutorial.
Mark a diagonal line across the back of the two (half light) HSTs... Like I've shown in this photo.

Because what we are going to do is put a half medium HST with a half light HST and sew down one side of the diagonal, then up the other, and cut apart -- just as though we were making plain squares into HSTs.

When we press them open we have four (4) matching Quarter Square Triangle units. You can see they do get a bit wonky (that one on the left center in this photo really needed to be trimmed straight).

Before we sew those together (as laid out), we need to make sure the QST units are squared up.

They should measure 3.5 inches square (just like the other/plain pieces). To make sure that we get our X shape centered here's how we do it:

Half of 3.5 is 1.75.

So use your see-through ruler and put the 1.75 (one and 3 quarters inch) mark at the center of the hourglass, the center of the X. Trim those two sides. Rotate the block, put the 1.75 mark back over the center of the square and trim the last two sides. (The already trimmed sides should fall on the 3.5 inch line of the ruler.)

Once those pieces are trimmed and squared-up you are more likely to get an evenly square finished block.

Lay out the block again and sew in rows:

Sew the three resulting rows together and you get your finished block. Give it one last press and we're done.

Oh Happy Day

Happiness is what happens to us when we try to make someone else happy.- Anonymous

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.- Hugh Downs

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness - Charles Spurgeon

If they serve Him [God] obediently, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness. -Job 36:11

The opposite of joy is not depression, it is a demanding spirit of self-will. The opposite of love is not hate, it is selfish indifference. The opposite of happiness is not unhappiness, it is self-absorption. Serve God, serve others, and learn true joy. -Anonymous

Texture for Tuesday

Pine Cones in the afternoon light.

Pine, Fir, and Spruce Cones

Inspired by Leslie's Long Meme

Over At the Top of Squirrel Spur Leslie has done an astronomically long meme. It's a list of 239 films and if you've seen 85 of them you've "got no life." I've seen 34 or 35 (I can't remember if the comet hitting the earth movie I saw on the weather channel one time was called was Deep Impact or not).

Evidently I "have a life."
For the complete list go to Leslie's blog. I haven't followed the rules of the meme at all.

*****

Most of the films on that long list were films I wouldn't even consider seeing to begin with, because what you put in your head -- that's what's in your head. It's wasteful of brain cells to watch stupid time-filler movies, it's disrespectful to my faith to watch movies that advance a lifestyle opposite to the way God wants me to live, and, honestly, I just don't see the point of violent horror films. Movies should be happy escapes from reality.

Now, a GREAT movie, not on that list, would be Enchanted April... I may have seen that one movie alone 35 times. (Does that refute the idea that I "have a life"?) Come to think of it most of the movies I really like weren't on the meme at all. I wonder who would write a movie list that doesn't include:
Kismet
My Man Godfrey
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
White Christmas
Much Ado About Nothing
Groundhog's Day
Wives and Daughters
Sense and Sensibility ... .... maybe, I should write my own movie meme.

*Edited

Quote for the Day

He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.

~ John Bunyan

Footnotes

Or should that be feetnotes?

Those adorable baby socks I posted about a few days back? They're too small. Don't tell me, you probably already knew that babies grow really fast. I need to make another pair now though -- that does fit.

I've been googling and searching and searching and googling.... Do you know, I can't find a sock pattern for a the size between 4 months and 8 months? Okay, that's not entirely true. I can't find a free pattern that size.

So I'm inventing one. It can't be that hard right?
I'll let you know how it turns out.

A Finished Quilt

I know I post a lot of UFOs (un-finished objects)... but I do actually complete some of them.

As an example: Hunter's Star Baby Quilt.45" square, machine pieced, hand quilted, brushed flannel backing, back to front self binding. The dark green is a pine branch patterned batik, and the yellows are "scrappy" using 7 different prints in a close range of shades, to make the eye dance over the quilt.

Hunter's Star blocks offer the delight of the eight pointed star without the frustration of Y seams at the intersection of every diamond. Fun to make and, as usual, easier than it looks. :D

A Word About Prayer

Recently, I have been hearing a lot of prayers meant for the ears of man, not the ears of God.

Have you ever had this experience? You are in a group praying and suddenly the words of the person praying become an explanation, filling in the rest of the group about what the prayer is for with an endless recitation of the problem. Or you're listening to the inauguration on the radio and the person praying actually has to stop for the applause because he's really preaching about unity and the crowd loves it.

What do you do at those points? What should you do? What does God think about this?

I found myself wondering about these prayers again this morning. I had been invited to a friend's Bible study group. As the group closed in prayer over the study leader who is dealing with some health issues, I was disturbed by the number of times the "prayers" seemed to be spoken purely for the benefit of those in that room.

Now, I'm sure God heard every word -- in each instance. That's not the problem.
I just don't understand why it was called prayer.

I have always thought of prayer as talking to God.
Praying aloud means other people can hear you, but you're still supposed to be talking to God. Right?

In Matthew Chapter 6, right before the Lord's Prayer, we are told several things about praying:

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (Matt. 6:5)

The passage continues, saying that we should pray alone, to our Father, to receive rewards from Him.

Then Jesus says:
"And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Matt 6:7-8)


So, prayers aren't the place to put the point of the sermon, and prayers aren't the time to compliment your friends or flatter those in power. Prayers are absolutely not the time to gossip about private problems, and prayers are not meant to be speeches sandwiched between "hello God" and "amen." Prayers are not the way to gain earthly influence, and prayer isn't about showing off how smart or how religious you are.

It is about God.
Intimate communication with the Holy Creator.
Prayer is the way we talk to the source of our existence.

That's crazy stuff -- good crazy -- why would anyone pass on that kind of prayer and settle for talking to people?

Roots

Texture for Tuesday

Lichens on Sycamore bark,

and Sycamore bark itself.

This sycamore tree is well over 100 years old and might be over 200 years old. The cracked bark is deep and thick and there is a sense of massiveness even in the tiny details of its trunk.

Younger trees have interesting bark textures too.

These two pine trees, planted near each other, have grown up together from seedlings and though both were supposed to have been White Pines (the top trunk) one clearly has the flakier bark of a Red Pine (bottom trunk) the textures of which I find quite appealing.

For the Birds Sampler Series Update

This began with Gathering Thoughts and Fabrics, and has become one of my favorite sampler series: For the Birds. All of the blocks, although some are more commonly known by other names, are traditional blocks and are named, according to several of my reference books, with names that relate to birds (or at least flying).

Let's review what we've done.

Crows Foot (block #1)

This easy starting block is just simple half square triangle units arranged in a pinwheel.

You can also learn how to make Half Square Triangles here using the same two squares method. This sampler uses a lot of half square triangles of differing sizes and configurations.

Quails Nest (block #2)
I knew this block as Hole in the Barn Door, but among it's other names (like Monkey Wrench) I discovered the name Quail's Nest. To my knowledge this is the only traditional block to have any relation to quail -- it had to be included.

Winged Square (block #3)

This tutorial reveals my lack of perfection -- I accidentally sewed the "wings" on the same side, but a seam ripper and a little patience fixed the mistake in no time.

Birds in the Air (block #4)

This is a simple and pleasing block. If I were doing a large quilt in this pattern I would probably enlarge the block to a 12 inch instead of a 9 inch size.

Ducks and Ducklings (block #5)

I love the way this one came together.

Flying Bird (block #6)

I think if I were doing this block again I might pick more contrasting fabrics, some of the triangles get a little lost -- a darker dark and stronger medium would make the pattern of the block more visible.

Goose Tracks (block #7)

I like this block. It has a strong graphic quality.

I like it even better framed, which is what I did with it next.

Enlarging (framing) a quilt block.

It is at this point that I start to get fancy and deviate from the original plan of nine 9.5 inch (9 inch finished) pieced quilt blocks.

We will still finish the nine pieced blocks which you can sash and set into a 45 inch square baby quilt like the Starter Quilt Simple Project we originally did with blank blocks or simple Snowball blocks.

You can still do that.

OR you can come along for the ride as we play with our layout and design.

I've been adding things.

First thing I added: an applique cardinal or two.

As you can see, it's not anything fancy. A simple blanket stitch on the machine, raw edge applique, and a fat bird template. You can easily make the template yourself all you need is something round to trace -- I give step by step instructions here to make your own bird templates. I made several sizes.

I've finished Flying Crow (block #8) and will be editing the photos and getting the tutorial put together to post soon.

After that, we will put together Wild Goose Chase (block #9) and some Flying Geese. I might do something funny with some of the Flying Geese. I have an idea I want to play with.

And then we'll look at some more folk art applique bird possibilities and we'll revisit my resource books with all the pictures of traditional quilt blocks. There are some bird named blocks that I left out because they didn't work with the 9 inch size (on a 5 or 7 grid rather than a 3 grid layout)... I think we might include a couple of those after all.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
-- Matt.26: 26-27

Actually, studies are showing that worrying about aging or anxiety of any kind (stress) can actually shorten your life span by much more than an hour. In some cases, worry can shorten your lifespan by years. The hormones associated with negativity (worry, stress, anger) cause all sorts of health issues. Plus worry interferes with sleep, which, if you're anything like me, will just make you more fretful and grouchy.

It is possible, to worry yourself to death. Mark Stibich's article Top Ten Ways to Shorten your Life mentions stress and a negative attitude as two of the top ten ways to shorten your life. Anxiety, as the Scriptures point out, will not increase your lifespan by a single hour. So relax and trust God.

Interestingly, not going to church is another of the top ten ways to shorten your life. Looks like totally relying on God really is the better way to live a healthy life.

Creating Cardinals -- Quilt Templates

In our For the Birds Sampler Series most of the blocks are pieced, but I thought some folk art applique Cardinals might be fun and complement the blocks we've been making. Lately, I've just been in the mood to make some "pluffy" fat Cardinals. So I made up some bird templates using card stock I had on hand.

You can do this too. I'll walk you through it; it's not hard.

You need:

• Your template material -- I used card stock but you could use anything from Mylar to copy paper to basswood.
• A pen or some sort of marking implement that works with your template material.
• A pair of scissors or something to cut your template out with.
• Straight edged ruler (I mostly used my rotary cutting ruler).
• Something round -- I used a water bottle here, but I've also used the jar lid of a scented candle, a bowl, and a canister of hand salve. Anything round will work as long as it's the right size to be the body of the bird.

Trace your round thing in the center of your paper. Line the ruler up on the side that will become the bird's back and draw a straight line. I take advantage of the 45 degree angle on the corner of the ruler to get the feel of the peak of the birds head. This helps me estimate the height of the head and get the length of the line correct. You will need to draw another line from what becomes the chest of the bird to the tip of the head -- Cardinals don't have 45 degree heads.
Another line from the bottom of the bird out, helps to define the dimensions of the tail (in this case a downward tail) and then you can smooth out the shape of the bird.
Add a beak (and an eye just for looks) and cut out your template.
All that remains is to trace the template onto the fabric and applique your bird onto a quilt square. I keep the beak on the main template so that it doesn't get lost ( it's such a small piece) but you will use a different fabric and cut the beak separately when making it up.

Remember when cutting out your fabric, if you are doing needle turn applique you will need to add a seam allowance. If you are doing raw edge applique you can cut out on the lines you trace around your template.
You can also create an upward facing tail on the template as shown in the photo below. Simply add a rectangle at the lower end of the line that makes the back of the bird, and shift the bottom line to connect.
This tufted-head bird template done in reds will be Cardinals, and since my For the Birds sampler has been in reds, browns, and golds I have been calling it a Cardinal. However, there are other birds with similar head shapes, the Tufted Titmouse, Woodpeckers, Quail, and Blue Jays. Blue Jays would be an excellent choice for a sampler done in shades of blue.

Making Baby Socks

Baby socks are my new favorite thing -- they knit up so fast!
And look how cute and tiny they are. Aren't they fun? I used a free pattern I found online (here's the link to the North Country Baby Socks in a pdf) only I changed the heel flap. Instead of the straight stockingknit across and purl back the pattern called for, I used the same pattern of s1 k1 s1 k1 across and purl back that I had done on the adult sized socks. So they would match.

Make Your Block Bigger

Remember the Goose Tracks quilt block? We made it a while back as part of our For the Birds Sampler Series. The Goose Tracks tutorial is here.

I decided it was too small, for my purposes I wanted it to be a little bigger, about 10 inches or so for the finished size. The easiest way to make a block larger without remaking it with larger pieces is to frame it.

To frame my block I took my dark fabric from this block and cut 1.5 x 9.5 inch strips. I added another light fabric for the 1.5 inch squares.

I sewed in rows:
new square, new strip, new square
new strip, "old" block, new strip
new square, new strip, new square

and then I sewed those rows together in that order.

This process works with any sized block. If you had a 5 inch (finished -- unfinished measure would be 5.5) block that you wanted to turn into a 7 inch (finished) block you would use strips that were 2.5 x5.5 inches and 2.5 inch squares in the corners. You could add 3 inch strips and squares to a 15 inch block (allowing for seams) and get an 18 inch block. and if you ever feel you've added too much and you want to chop it back down to a smaller size -- rotary cutters and see-through rulers are great for that.

More For the Birds blocks and tutorials can be found by following the cardinal photo link in the sidebar.

Texture for Tuesday

This ice-coated stone in my rock garden marks the location of the Dicentra spectabilis, or Bleeding Heart as it is commonly known. (Below is a photo of it blooming last spring.) The perennial flower now waits for warmer days to summon it from the soil once more. And just so I don't forget and try to plant something else on top of it, I've marked it's location with a tiny "standing stone." The freezing rains we have been having lately have worked their magic on this stone and created a unique texture on it's surface.

Almost like frozen bubbles resting on the rock.