He Tweeted, She Tweeted...

...and they lived happily ever after.

Welcome to my Twitter Feed.  Some birds tweet, some chirp, and others sing and coo along!

I found the bird pattern at Block Lotto. Here is the link - http://www.blocklotto.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/BirdBlockDirectionsV2.pdf

I made the first pair of birds on January 9.

And I was hooked. If two were fun, eight would be a party.

I played with dots, stripes, prints and more.

After that, I went into an assembly line mode.  Since the colors were so energizing, there was no boredom that is normally associated with assembly line work.

Lots of Color

After the first step of block preparation, I stepped back to admire the colors and my handiwork!.

Throats

Legs

Blue Throated Warbler and Fuchsia Woodpecker

I chose pinks and greens, blues and teals, aqua and fuchsia, spots and stripes, but I also used prints and batiks too.  This is an extremely fun quilt block to make, because you can play with so many combinations.

All colors welcome

As I stepped away from the design wall to admire the birds and take in-process pictures, I noticed that there was not enough contrast in the yellow dotty birds' throats and beaks.

Brown Beaks - MEH!

So I changed the beaks from brown to orange.  What a big difference that made.  An orange beak would make it a Cardinal. Meet my Yellow Dotty Cardinals!

Orange Beaks - WOW!

The birds were made in mirror image pairs.  I made 64 birds and the quilt uses 63 arranged nine across by seven down. I finished the flimsy last week and it was a terrific feeling because it meant that I completed at least one of my goals for the OMG link-up.

Finished Flimsy - Yeah!

Since the block is rectangular, I chose to piece in columns.  I realized that it would be impossible to nest the seams, since all blocks are oriented the same way. Therefore I chose to stagger the columns by just a couple of inches to avoid bulky seams.

Can you spot the Chipotle Chilebird?

Once the flimsy was done, I realized that the binding would cover a portion of the beaks/tails on the birds in the edge columns.

My Twitter Feed - FINISHED!!!

So I added skinny strips of background along the sides. That way the Teal Batik Woodpecker (top left) is not pecking away at the binding :-D

So happy :-)

The wide backing fabric came from Connecting Threads.  For binding I chose a sea-green solid.  Since any color binding would look fine with the quilt front, I chose to match the binding with the backing fabric.

Quilted

Quilted with wavy lines, thanks to my Walking Foot and Jacquie Gering's Craftsy class.

The push to finish this Dreamy Tweety Chirpy quilt comes from the fact that I want to enter it in the Quilt Show. The registration ends on February 28, 2017.  There is nothing like a deadline to set my behind on fire and get it done.

What started as a Dreami moment, ended as a lap size quilt.  Finished Quilt is 53" by 63".
Let's get closer to the birds - admire them and name them, maybe.

There is the Green Breasted Fiesta Bird on top left and the Flashy BlueBird next to it.  Do you see the Noella Songbird on the bottom? We also have a Peachy Dotty Cardinal and the Green Beaked Checkbird.

Can you see the Green Throated Bugcatcher in the picture above? And next to it is the Autumn Songbird.  The Pink Striped Woodpecker is facing the Teal Batik Woodpecker.


You see, making them is fun but naming them is super fun too.

A change of perspective

Lap Size - 53" by 63"

A lovely finish, even if I say so myself.

Getting Close

The Black-Winged Greenbird, the Green Breasted Autumn Warbler, and the Red Breasted Finch in the top row above.  The Yellow-Breasted Fuchsia Bird is so bright and the Pink Breasted Purplebird is so regal in her bearing.

Orange Flamebird, Green Winged Thrush, Blue Beaked Chat and Green Breasted Finch occupy the top row in the picture above.

Oh yes, I labelled it and I will put another label to make sure it is ready for the show.  Do you see the Chipotle Chilebird peeking from the right?

Labelled

All names are made-up.  As much as I would like to, I am not a birder, although I have enjoyed bird-watching with dear friends Annie and Hans when I lived in Florida. They would often invite me to accompany them to St. Marks Wildlife Refuge where we enjoyed many lovely afternoons - watching birds, eating oysters and pointing out alligators.

When I made Angel's Midnight Quilt, I had a favorite block and I even had a favorite house in the Homeful quilt. But I cannot pick one favorite bird in My Twitter Feed Quilt.  And that works perfectly because I would not want any jealous tweets here :-D

But please let me know - which one is your favorite.  And if you want to name a bird or two, I would be so tickled :-)

I will be linking with OMG, Sandra's Dreami Linky Party and all my other favorite linky parties.

Love and Lust

It is Valentine's Day.  I am thinking about Love. And Lust.

So many times, I have heard Love and Lust being mentioned together as if they belong together, as if one leads to another, as if they are similar items grouped together like "table and chair" or "pen and pencil" or "bread and butter"

In my opinion Love and Lust belong together but more like Night and Day.
Yes, they are opposites.

Lust has reasons. Love has none.

When my heart is full of love, my thoughts are focused on the other - the person I love. Selfless.
When I am lustful, I am focused on me. Self-gratification.

Since I am a lark (morning person) and Paul is a night owl, we agreed to have separate bedrooms.

Sometimes, when I see him sleeping, I will watch him for a bit, mouth open, covers askew, arms and legs all over the bed.
Sometimes, I will plant a gentle kiss on his forehead and let him sleep in peace.
Sometimes, I will jump into his bed and be all over him (hoping to get lucky). 

Sometimes I am in Love and sometimes I am in Lust. You know which one is which.

Love embodies patience.
Lust is hurried, impetuous and intolerant.

Love is a cool breeze, while Lust is a scorching volcano.

Fortunately for me (and Paul) Love and Lust are inextricably intertwined.  Just like the dark and light colors are twisted together in this quilt.

Although this blogpost is titled Love and Lust, that would be such an inappropriate name for this baby quilt.

I am going to call it Tropic Frolic, because of the bright colors playing with each other.

The finished quilt measures about 40 inches by 45 inches.

And I am very happy with it.

And one more picture...just because.

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This year, instead of buying a Valentine's Day card, I decided to make one. With fabric.
Chose this bright and spicy hot fabric.

Do you see hearts? Well, I see kissing lips!

I chose Lust over Love. Definitely made him laugh :-D

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Whether you love new patterns or lust for gorgeous fabric, Connecting Threads may just be the ticket.

I will be linking with all my favorite linky parties. I'd love to hear from you. How was your Valentine's Day - Loving or Lustful?  Please do not hold back. I did not :-D

This blogpost contains affiliate links.

One Bikini, Two Bikini - Red Bikini, Blue Bikini

Many of us enjoyed the Superbowl on Sunday.
I, on the other hand, was worried.  Worried about wardrobe malfunction.

You see when you are trying to put four women in bikinis, that is a natural concern.
Will they fit? Will they look good? And most importantly, will they stay put?

When I saw Lorna's new bikini block, I immediately knew I had to try it.  Yes, Sandra - it was yet another DREAMi moment.

I checked all the solids in my stash that could be used as a skin tone - cream, apricot, brick, rosewood.

None of them matched MY skin tone.  This batik came close.  But I am not covered with purple freckles. I chose apricot (even though that is not my skin tone) to make the first bikini block.

Fortunately it all worked out.  Meet my bikini models.

The original design is actually a three-piece bikini, with a column of skin between the breasts.  That column of skin was bothering me, so I chose to connect the two with a band in one block.

For the remaining three, I changed the design ever so slightly so that the fabric of the bikini is continuous between the breasts.

Red Bikini and Blue Bikini.  I so enjoyed making these blocks.

For this last one, I used this lovely green Angela Walters fabric.  I received this as a gift from Mari.

I am so glad that all four of my models look good - no malfunction here.
How do I know that my bikini models look good?
Because Paul remarked - What bodacious tatas!!!

Thanks to Lorna, these bikini ladies are so real.  I can relate :-)

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I also tried the Honey Pot Bee blocks.

Figured that Tula Pink fabric would look great as the focus of the Star Kisses block. What do you think?

OK, may be not all four stars, but two stars had the fussy cut face.  The other two would be floral.

As I was ready to piece, I noticed that the flying geese block appeared like the queen had her hat pulled over to partially cover her face.  Too interesting to not take a picture.

Here is a note of caution - this Star Flower block requires exact seams and careful matching of points.

And I am sure that I did not succeed in achieving that :-(

In any case, here is my slightly wonky, but completed Star Flower bock for the Honey Pot Bee February.

For the second Honey Pot Bee block, it was suggested that we use a novelty fabric.  I did not want to break that Riley Blake FQ bundle, but if not now then when?

The Quilter's Pantry Block was super simple and super fast. It also allows you to showcase fun fabrics that you do not want to cut up.

Here is my handiwork for February Honey Pot Bee. Now, to wait for he March blocks. Aaaahhhh, that is going to be a long wait!!!

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I also acquired some new fabric, since it was on sale at Hancocks for just $4.99/yard. 

So definitely a very busy weekend

• Four bikini blocks
• Honey Pot Bee Blocks
• Also Completed the 64 bird blocks (doing a happy dance).

But nothing got finished.  Therefore my OMG for February is to finish my KISS.
It is about time to finish this quilt which I started exactly a year ago for the Craftsy blog hop for Valentine's Day last year!!!

I just might also complete the bird flimsy in February...unless I get distracted by something else :-D
As usual, I 'd love to hear from you.