A quilt grows and a cowbird mystery...hmmm

First the quilt. It's a really big quilt. We have a king size bed and it needs to be large on the face of it and then comes the borders to hang over the sides. I like combining appliqué and piecing so the quilt will have an appliquéd outer border, with vines and tulips. If you click on the label of this post, pink and brown scrap quilt, you should be able to see all the work I've been doing on this quilt, as well as the book the pattern is from.


Now on to the next example/lesson for adding the borders. I usually like an inner border to set off the quilt, but not always. In this case I have added an inner border, which is light brown with polka dot to frame the inside of the pink and brown hour glass/nine patch quilt. I don't know what I'll name it, maybe something will hit me as I write.

Anyway, I like to tear my fabric. As long as it's good quality fabric you should be fine doing that. Especially for borders, where you are cutting many yards of fabric, tearing is easier than wearing out your hands. This is a great quality Northcott brand fabric. To me, their fabric is close but not exactly like, Liberty of London fabric, which is like butter. If your fabric is not so great, you might get a lot of thread pulls when you rip, so check a small piece before you tear. You will get some little ripples, but, should not have any deep thread pulls.

I also like a mitered border. When you are tearing your border fabric, be sure to add extra fabric in order to make the miter. You will want an extra amount of at least the width of the border and I add a couple of inches more for good measure. You can always cut fabric-it's harder to add to something. Sew your inner border on first, miter it, then attach the outer border. To miter it, fold the borders on top of each other and draw a line from the seam of the inner border out to the end of the mitered outer border. Pin and sew on the line. Trim the seam and iron. Repeat on all the sides. The next time I work on this, I'll be adding my applique vine and flowers, using the Quilt in a Day method of applique and using the Fast Turn tool for the vine. But, this post is getting pretty long, so it's off to bird land, my other favorite hobby.

Has everyone turned on their air conditioner? We are still trying to save some money and have 4 fans running-2 pointed in the house-2 pointed out of the house to really circulate the air. So far, it's 85 degrees outside and I'm working with a sewing machine and iron and am staying comfortable.



The cowbird, I've only recently learned, is a parasite of sorts. It likes to lay it's eggs in another birds nest and lets them sit on it and raise it.

Anyway, the other day I opened my front door and noticed the floral wreath had fallen off the door. Underneath the wreath lay a broken egg. I thought, OMG, someone in our neighborhood doesn't like us! What did I do? Was I driving a little too fast? Should I have gone to that party, but, had other plans...hmmmm....

Upon further inspection, I realized the egg was splattered away from the front door. Not towards it like someone throwing it at us. Then I noticed is was really small with light brown speckles.

So I went upstairs and don't we all just love the Internet for the answer to anything? Sure enough, that egg matched the egg of the cowbird and don't you know, that bird has been a regular visitor to our bird feeder. So mystery solved!