Flocks of sparrows and a peacock too. I finished the Sparrows top Wednesday and the peacock quilt got a binding yesterday. Both projects were supposed to be simple and quick, and as is my “way” neither were.

The Sparrows quilt project is the second time I have worked with this pattern. I remembered all the unsewing I had to do with the first one, and thought the second time would be easier. I got all my fabric cut and labeled, and started sewing assembly line/chain stitching the 36 blocks I needed. The smaller size sparrow quilt, has 24 blocks, 12 left facing and twelve right facing. So naturally I made 18 left and 18 right facing for the larger one. But, not reading through the whole pattern addendum, I missed the part where it states “21 left facing and 15 right facing”. As I was carefully laying the blocks out in a random but deliberate way, I realized what I hadn’t done. There was no way I wanted to remake any of these blocks, so I came up with another setting. Now the birds have friends to talk with and friends to follow or lead. A happy flock of birds ready to quilt.

The fabric backing piece I ordered came for the short peacock backing. It was actually pretty simple to sew them together with the quilt still attached to the upper rail of the long arm. I un-pinned the short backing edge from the leader and flipped the unfinished quilt to the back of the frame. I had to unroll about 3/4’s of it so that it would lay on the frames table in a mostly flat manner. Then I set up my singer 401 on a sturdy tray table behind the frame. I pinned the two fabrics together and carefully sewed the pieces together. I had to move the singer a few times to keep it from pulling on the fabric, but it was manageable. When the seam was finished, I flipped the quilt back over to the front side and re-pinned the backing to the front leader. The last row of quilting was humming along, when I realized that my spool of thread wasn’t going to last. I lost at thread chicken, this quilt was just one thing after another. I didn’t have the same color, but one that was similar enough, that unless I point it out, no one will know. The binding went on with no trouble and thus it is finished.

Next up I seamed the backing piece for the Winter village quilt and both are resting not the frame, waiting for pinning. I am thinking of doing an all over feather design on this one, but maybe snowflakes and swirls.

The Fabulous Houses are being stitched nearly every day. I am seeing the end of the Haunted house nearing. I will admit that this one has been a bit more challenging than the others. There have been a lot of fudges, and almost right stitches in this house. It is a wonky house, so no one will be the wiser, in fact I have forgotten where the flubs are already.

In other sewing news the pattern I bought for the Eclipse quilt didn’t include the templates. I have been working with customer service at The Fat Quarter shop to get them. Apparently it was a printing problem, as the templates didn’t fit on the paper, so the printer didn’t include them. The very kind customer rep at FQS is sending me the templates soon. I wonder how many of the patterns have sold this way, and if any one else has realized it yet? The funny thing is that I thought I bought the PDF version, but accidentally bought not one, but two of the patterns. It’ll all work out in the end.

When I bought the peacock backing fabric I saw that they had two new-to-me Gingiber panels from the Woodland friends collection. I bought them and a pattern and a ½ yard bundle of matching fabrics. Off on a tangent, and more fabric is coming in than going out. What can I say, other than it was a good sale?

Be Kind.