Where's My Eye

I've been working on this baby quilt for Oona - my nephew's adorable baby girl. I wanted to include a birdie - it's the theme of the nursery - here's one of my little feathered friends, sans eyes - they're coming.

Here's the birdie hatching process - I backed the main body section and the wing with batting to give the bird a little 3 dimentionality.

I turned the edges into the batting and secured them with a water soluble glue stick for a temporary hold. No fusing, no raw edges - - - this is a baby quilt - - - I want Oona to cuddle up with a soft quilt that can be washed time after time.
Here are my birdies ready for stitching onto the gray background.
I first hand applique the birdies to the background using silk thread. As you can see I gave them some funky striped legs. I'll get to the setting of the quilt later, obviously it involved hexagons. Once they were hand appliqued I used a beautiful hand dyed silk embroidery floss from Thread Gatherer to add decorative stitching - a little extra insurance that these birdies are there for the long haul - little Oona can take this quilt to college with her. I buy my decorative threads from Fireside Stitchery in Frazer, PA - their collection of threads is amazing - and, they do mail order!!!
Hey - - - I never did give a complete review of the Lancaster Quilt Show - - - truth is I'm still milling it over. I think there is opportunity for improvement in the show - it has great potential - what did you think - any suggestions???