The bluebird top is done! I did have to make a few changes and tweak some bits – like the white on the belly. White was too white. Off white was too white. I ended up using a piece that was cream with shadings to beige and gray, but it looks pretty white. I also ended up taking that piece out and adding a bit more rust to make a better shape. And a piece on the shoulder needed to be taken out and replaced with a darker blue. It is hard to find that wonderful electric bluebird blue in fabric!  I pulled all of the brightest blues I had, some were too green, some were too purple, but I think these work pretty well – you just can’t duplicate the brilliance of the real thing! some of these fabrics were printed as water, one had nice linear effects. One was even a blue cabbage! Be open minded when searching for fabric. Everything is darker in real life than what I am seeing on my monitor, but I have learned that my screen tends to be a little on the light side so I hope you are seeing it correctly!

Many of the seams are not yet sewn in this photo, and before the final sewing I changed some of the background. It seemed like a darker border on the left would enclose it better.  I think that making use of the design wall is so helpful  but you have to be willing to toss a piece of  fabric or unsew a seam – really it doesn’t take that long and is SO worth it! Often the fabric isn’t even wasted – in this case I used the lighter piece inside behind the tail where it was more effective. After quilting, I will probably bind this in the dark ferny fabric.

He still needs a twinkle in his eye, but that will come later….

It was a rainy weekend so I stayed inside and worked on the bluebird. Here’s a progress shot.

My husband made three more bluebird houses that need to be put up asap whenever we get a break in the weather. So far I don’t think they have arrived but it should be any day now!

The Amaryllis has also been busy! Here is it’s second bloom shaft that had four buds with two open so far.

You can see where I cut the first one off. I can’t tell yet if the other shoots will flower, but if not this year, it should be quite fantastic next year! It will need a bigger pot for sure….

The Bluebird piece is underway! I want to enter this in the Aullwood Audubon Center’s exhibit with a May 15 deadline.

Thursday I had to do some shipping so while I was in town, I visited the exhibits at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery and at the Warehouse 414 which both had art quilts on display. the pieces at the warehouse, by Leslie Jenison of Texas were very nice and I enjoyed seeing them in the setting of Mid Century Modern furniture, architectural salvage and antiques. One of my pieces at the TAG, Bathsheba, received a first place ribbon!

Yesterday we drove out to collect a printing of 2000 more Third Weekend In October patterns – that was sure a good decision to go ahead and write a pattern for that quilt! It is my best seller with nearly 30,000 copies sold!

It was nice to see that the redbud trees are starting to bloom and recent rains have really greened things up – time to look for morels!

But today I sew!