Songbirds Quilt

At Pioneer Quilts in Milwaukie, I find this panel of songbirds, part of the Art Journal collection by J. Wecker Frisch for Riley Blake Designs. It calls to me... "Sew with me," it twitters!  I liked the rich colors and old-book-etching style. 

I bring it home and coordinate it with fabric in my stash.  The green is from Moda's Grunge Basics line, a popular and versatile quilting cotton that is first dyed, then printed with artsy scuff-marks, for a deep, saturated base and a textured surface.  I bought it for my Dandelion quilt, and have since used it in many paper piecings.  The red floral is a cotton remnant, possibly curtain fabric, that I bought from Fabric Depot when it was still in business.  I initially intended it to be a dress or shirt, but never made it.  Now I will use it for a habitat for songbirds.  I like how its colors look like they're from the same old-timey book as the songbirds. 

The piecing of the quilt top is too easy to merit blogging, but very pleasurable to do as a palate-cleanser between more complicated projects.  I frame each bird with Moda Grunge green, until I run out of it and use different greens from my stash. 

red-green cross-dyed cotton

No idea where I got this green!

Then I half-frame each block with strips of floral fabric on two sides, to create a staggered effect when tiled. Here is the messy quilt-math, for any who are interested in a peek into my process. 

When all the birds are framed and situated, it's wide enough to be a twin topper.  I kluge together the rest of the floral fabric with some black sateen stripes (leftover from the backing of my Acid Trip quilt), and get the top wider, so it can drape over the edges of a bed.  Here's the finished quilt top, which now awaits quilting.