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.

Sugarland Fall Festival - The Build-Up

My dear friend Cee is a jewelry artist. She often participates in art/craft fairs and is pretty successful too.  Her designs always bring a smile to my face. One time we were shopping together at an arts store and I (in my usual hyper-excited state) exclaimed - "Oh those peacocks are lovely"
This is what Cee did.

Peacock Earrings from Cee

Naturally, when Cee mentioned an upcoming fall festival in her neighborhood, I was intrigued.  But when she asked me to join her, I was over the moon.
Cee: I have a free table and you are welcome to join me.
Me: Wow! yes, I will.

Heartfully Cute

And then I had the following internal dialogue
I have exactly four weeks.  How many quilts could I make in four weeks?
Wrong question.
How many quilts do I need to set up shop? 10?
At least.  20 would be better.
Is 15 acceptable?
Oh fine.

Mushroomy Cuteness

I needed a game plan. That I am a planner in my day job often comes in handy.
1.  I already have 3 quilts made.  Need to make only 12.
2.  That means about 3 per week.
3.  All quilts will be baby quilts.
4.  All quilts will use simple designs.
5.  Incorporate existing WIPs/audition blocks, if possible.
6.  Since the designs will be simple, make sure that the fabric is super adorable.

Monstrously Adorable

For the next four weeks, I was a piecing/quilting/binding machine.  I ignored all my chores. I exercised only when I felt too stiff from being on the sewing machine.

I pieced two quilts at a time, alternating the blocks for one with the other and I made bindings using the one fabric for two quilts.

Bindings - Oh so Neat!!!

I basted three quilts at a time. It was a lot like assembly line.
I had to be very careful that the quality of my work did not decline. The simple designs were definitely helpful.
I can guarantee that binding 12 quilts in one month period definitely improved the neatness of my bindings.

Yummy Cuteness

My friends on the M* forum cheered me on.
"I am sure you will sell them all"
"Oh, I wish you all the very best"
"You work is so beautiful, you will have every grandma drooling over your quilts"

Sell each one of them???
I needed bags. So I went to the grocery store and bought 15 reusable grocery bags.
How green of you, Preeti!
And I patted myself on the back.

15 Reusable Grocery Bags

My friend at Curves, Pat asked me - Do you have a business card?  
Make sure you put your business card in every bag.
I ordered 250 cards from Vistaprint.

ahem...

Paul gave me this box to hold my 250 cards.

Neat!!!

The Fall Festival was on Saturday, 9/19.  The fact that Labor Day was a holiday was definitely very helpful. I took Thursday, 9/17 off and managed to complete all the 12 quilts.
I did not have the time to do a happy dance because I had to photograph each one of them.

I photographed some on Friday and others on Saturday morning.

Paul's Towel Rack

On the morning of the festival, I prepared a PowerPoint presentation, with two slides for each quilt. Each quilt had a name. One slide had quilt stats, a picture, and the suggested price.  The second slide had more pictures.

Paul placed the PowerPoint presentation on his laptop to run in a loop.

My iPad mini had the back-up.

Sample Slide

Suggested price? 
Of course, I would be open to negotiation.
I imagined myself saying - "Since you love it so much, I will knock off $20 for you. Enjoy!!!"

Wait a minute. If you did that, won't you need change???
Aaaaa...rghhhhh.
The internal dialogue never ceased.

Quickly, I made a trip to the bank and withdrew $200 in $10 and $5 bills to make change.

There were times when this internal dialogue was not very internal.  At such times, I was talking to myself - out loud.  Paul was quietly supportive through this super-crazed, frenzied Preeti period.

I placed a few basic supplies - scissors, thread, seam-ripper, and cheater needles in a cute little box.  Just in case there was a loose thread that needed mending.

I also carried a lint-roller.  I imagined myself using the lint-roller to quickly remove loose thread bits before putting the quilt in the reusable grocery bag (with my business card) and handing it to the buyer with a big smile!!!

I had the laptop, the iPad, the business cards, the grocery bags, the water bottles, my sketch book just in case someone asked me to design something for them on the fly!!!

Paul kept the folding table, the chairs and the table cloth in the car.  He watched amusedly and patiently, as his frenzied wife got in the car with all her craziness before driving us to the venue.

Cee and I were the first ones to arrive.  I displayed nine quilts on the quilt rack, three on the towel rack and the last three on another quilt rack that was Cee's gift to me.

Once my set up was done, which took all of 20 minutes, Paul left. Cee's took much longer with all the little jewelry items that needed to be displayed just right.
Do you need my help, Cee?
Nah, I got it, she said.

Waiting...

Can you see the grocery bags, the lint-roller, the laptop case and the business cards on the table?

Yes, I was READY!!!  All I had to do was wait... for 90 minutes till the Fall Festival officially started.
What happened in the next 90 minutes and during the festival is my next blogpost.