wonky stars taking over my liiiiiife

Unemployment affords me the luxury to sew all day (it's really the only thing I can afford at this point!) So for the last two days, I've been working on this quilt top that I started last year. A majority of the blocks came from my month of sew connected 3 last September.

There's a combination of 12, 9, 6 and 3 inch blocks which has led to me being incredibly indecisive and nitpicky about the placement. A lot of time goes in to giving something the appearance of randomness! I've decided to piece the blocks in to 24" blocks. One down, eleven to go!



I had a stroke of genius/moment of insanity where I decided that my foam ikea mattress would make a great design wall, so I leaned it against the wall and so far so good. It's squishy enough that pins go in without a problem but it's sturdy enough that it stands up on its own. This mattress fits the bed that the quilt is intended for, so it's been nice to see how the placement looks in relation to the size of the bed. And should I need a nap mid-sewing, I just need to tip it over and I'm good to go.



Working on this quilt has given me more inspiration than I thought possible. I haven't sewn in pretty much a year. I woke up in the night thinking of things I wanted to make. It feels great.

I also woke up with an extreme affection for Jon Bon Jovi. Been listening to him all day... I'm pretty sure it's impossible to not rock out to this jam:

bird block, bird pattern

So when I got Sunnynole's fabric for sc3, I knew I wanted to make a bird block. I didn't see any patterns on the internet that I liked and I still don't have EQ6 on my new computer, so I was a little stumped. I decided to make my own pattern. I figured that all patterns are made by someone, so I should be able to figure it out....right?

Kinda. She sent a little piece of Park Slope fabric with birds on it, so I used those birds as the inspiration. I drew a bird, and then tried to figure out how to chop it up. Where the tail meets the bum is a little wonky and it has no legs or eyes. It reminds me of the birds that I see downtown who are a little bit rough from living the hard life.

If anyone wants to make a legless, eyeless bird then it is your lucky day! Here is a pattern for you. I also made a .pdf for easy printing, but don't have a place to host it. I can email it to anyone who wants it, though. My bird block was a little over 4" square.