A Bird in the Hand

How many bird idioms do you suppose I can invoke while I'm quilting Working for Peanuts? Shall we have some kind of a contest? In this case, it's kind of like "A bird in the hand, is better than a bird that wins a ribbon at the state fair." I never actually start a quilt thinking it might win a ribbon, but I always hold out for the possibility. This one is never going to be one of those, but it's going to do some heavy-lifting as a piece for learning. Let me explain.

Yesterday's activities included quilting, quilting, and more quilting, interspersed with trips back and forth to the washer and dryer. The laundry is finished; the quilting isn't. Still, I'm making some good progress. My first task yesterday was to quilt the beak of the bird, and for that I wanted a straight black thread. This one was in my collection and so I used that.

But, hey, take a look at where YLI thread is made...Rock Hill, SC. Really? That's where my brother's wife was from, and it's where they got married. So, I looked it up, and sure enough. You can read the history of YLI, which started out in California, but ended up in a renovated textile mill in Rock Hill, tripling its manufacturing and warehouse space. According to its website, YLI’s 100% long staple cotton products are purchased from Egypt, dyed in North Carolina, Georgia or Japan, and then finished, wound, and packaged in South Carolina. Huh. Well, f*ck a duck. Kind of makes me feel like I have a piece of the action when I've been to the actual place.

So, pardon my tangential brain. Here's the beak:

I made a little circle around the eye and then headed off in a back and forth motion for the beak. Nothing fancy there.

So then I was ready to move on to the legs and feet. I'd already selected this one from Coats & Clark's Star variegated collection. I first saw these in a quilt magazine, and I loved the colors so much that I bought a whole bunch of them. Now, I don't think they're making it any more, which is kind of a shame. In any case, their colors seem to have numbers rather than names.

Before I put it on the quilt, I wanted to see the full spectrum of colors so I didn't get any surprises.

And that looked pretty good to me, so I went ahead with some "talons" on the feet,

and then just some more curved back and forth action on the legs.

For the perch, I just picked one of my "Essentials" threads from Connecting Threads. I really love their threads for the range of colors and the price. It's true they are a little fuzzier than some of the higher-priced threads, but it has never bothered me. I just clean the fuzz from the machine more often.

And then I quilted the perch with more back and forth action.

Next, I was ready to start quilting the background. For that, I selected a "natural" white. I like this color. It's a white white without being too bright.

So I've been looking and looking at some sort of floral meandering design, but really not found anything I thought was quite right. What I really wanted was a design that looked like the fabric itself. Then, I got the bright idea to just use the fabric as my guide. And so I stitched inside and around the flowers.

And did something a la McTavishing where there were echoing lines.

There's enough busy-ness in the fabric that the transitions aren't obvious, and I can just kind of move from one to another without seeing any abrupt changes. I might go back and do some stitching inside the smaller flowers.

When I'd quilted to the left and above the bird, I called it quits for the day.

Not bad, eh?

And now, let's "flip the bird" and see the back.

Oy...can you see that bearding? And it's not just bearding, it's tension problems. Despite my efforts at keeping my tension correct, I'm afraid I haven't done a very good job.

So, here, I could have thrown myself on the floor, toddler-style, and had a little tantrum, or I could change my goals for this quilt. Suddenly, I realized what a great opportunity this presents for experimentation. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not a feather aficionado, but I'd like to try some of the fancy stitching like that on the cover of Patsy Thompson's book.

I could see using different colors to quilt the border and this would be a great opportunity to experiment. And that made me kind of excited to try. This is the first "Ruth McDowell/Ann Shaw" type quilt that I've designed completely on my own without instructor input, and so it's not going to be my best effort. At least I hope not. But it's a place to start and learn, and that's worth quite a lot. Besides, it's a wall-hanging. If anybody lifts up the corner to take a look at the back, I'll smack their hands into next week. Good grief, you wouldn't look under a woman's dress would you? What's going on behind the quilt is nobody's business. I'm so glad we've come to an understanding about this.

So, then I went in search of Miss Sadie, who was still outside. It was time for her to come in. Usually when I call her, she comes running, lickety-split. Yesterday, I walked all the way around the house to find her sleeping in the little cat house inside her catio. The catio door was still open, but she didn't twitch a whisker when I closed and latched it for the day. I took this picture through the mesh walls of the catio so I wouldn't disturb her slumber.

Later, she grew bold and jumped onto Smitty's top rung of the kitty tree when he wasn't there to guard it.

Here he comes, Missy. You might want to get down from there.

Whoa...that was something...I love a good walk on the wild side every now and then.

Phew...my little heart is racing at the excitement of it. It's almost like that note I received from Buddy yesterday when he signed off with "Lovin' Licks." It was a little forward, but hey...have you seen the fursique of that cat? Or is he a whale? Or a pony? I can't tell.

Do you think he noticed my white whisker of shame? It's from doing too much catnip while we were camping last week. Maybe Buddy likes the "bad girls." Did you know I used to be a street walker cat? And I even had some kittens who were taken into purrtective custody when I was rescued from a life of...oh, let's just not talk about it. It's usually not a good idea to dwell on past transgressions. 

But have you ever noticed Smitty's whiskers?

Yep. All white. That cat does wayyyyyy too much nip. It's a good look on him, but I have to be more careful. White whiskers on a black cat could make me look like the Cat Bride of Frankenstein, or something. But maybe Buddy would like that. Hmmmmmmm.

So this morning Mike and I are going to pick some more cherries. Also, he's been working hard to get our old fifth wheel ready to sell. He's requested my assistance there, and so I suppose I'll comply. He was a pretty good nurse while I was sick. Hopefully, I'll get some time for quilting later this afternoon.