Birds of a Feather Quilt Together

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This year’s theme for our guild’s quilt show challenge was, “Birds of a Feather Quilt Together”. 

The challenge rules consisted of:

  • Create a bird using any style you prefer
  • Use some or all of the ruby fabric provided
  • Use some or all of the beads provided
  • The number 40 must appear in your quilt
  • Perimeter not to exceed 80”

When I saw the April block from the pattern collection called, 2025 Year Of Sewing Machines, I knew I had found the perfect pattern to fit the parameters of the guild challenge, Birds of a Feather, Quilt Together. 

The quilt pattern depicts a Singer Featherweight sewing machine piecing a bird block.  Since I have a Featherweight, this seemed to be the perfect pattern for me.  I have surrounded my quilt with beads on the bumps of the rick rack trim on the outside border of my quilt and I have used the ruby red fabric provided in the challenge for the body of my bird and the outer border.  The number 40 appears on the faceplate of my machine as, 40 Years 1985 to 2025, which is a tribute to the 40th Anniversary of our guild.  The silver alphabet beads stitched to the body of the quilt spell out, “Birds of a Feather Quilt Together”.

This is the April block from the pattern collection called, 2025 Year Of Sewing Machines

Looking Sharp

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This quilt is made from a panel. I cut the panel into individual blocks comprised of cactus blooms and pieced them into squares using the Maple Island Quilts pattern – BQ.

Looking Sharp – Finished to the flimsy stage on July 4, 2011.

I bought the cactus block panels at the 2010 Creative Stitches and Crafting Alive Show held at Tradex in Abbotsford.

The BQ pattern is written for 12″ and 18″ sized blocks.  In order to proportion the block to fit the cactus prints, I resized the pattern to make a 9″ finished block.  I then set the blocks together with sashing and cornerstones from the same fabric as the background fabric in the blocks to give the appearance that the blocks are floating on the quilt top.  I used cornerstones to assist with lining the blocks up from one row to the next. 

This pattern remains one of my “favorites” as it pieces up quickly and is a great go-to for showcasing those prints that I seem to be attracted to.  This quilt was pieced to the flimsy stage on July 4, 2011 and was quilted on June 10, 2025 proving that we should never give up on even the oldest of our UFOs. 

Looking Sharp as a finished quilt – almost 14 years from the flimsy stage – hanging in the Chilliwack Quilters’ Guild Quilt Show.

Quilt size: 56″ x 76″

Cross Stitch Camp 2025

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Cross Stitch Camp is a virtual summer camp put on by Colorado Cross Stitcher each year. Camp lasts for three months – June to August. Each month of camp, Sheri gives us a Camp Challenge.

Camp monthly challenges are as follows.
June: Stitch a pattern that includes something from the night (if you’re a night stitcher) or something from the day (if you’re a day stitcher). Like owls, moons, stars, animals of the night, flowers of the night, etc. Or sunshine, gardens, flowers of the daytime, animals out in the daytime, etc. You just need to include one little motif on the pattern to indicate day or night stitcher.
July: Stitch a pattern from your favorite designer.
August: Pick something new. Use a new type of floss, or a new type of fabric, a new color or count, a new designer, a new finish – something new so you learn/try a new thing this month.

To participate, we:

1. Post our start photo (picture of fabric, floss, pattern cover) on Instagram with the hashtags: #crossstitchcamp2025 and #coloradocrossstitcher on the first of each month (or any time thereafter).

2. Post our finished photo (with the stitching finished, doesn’t have to be fully finished/framed/pin pillowed, etc) on our website any time during the month that you finish it. Due in by the last day of the month.

This is my project for June. The prompt was, “Stitch a pattern that includes something from the night (if you are a night stitcher) or something from the day (if you are a day stitcher)”. Although I stitch both during the day and evening, my favorite time to stitch is first thing in the morning while the sun is coming up. So the piece I chose to stitch is, “Heron at Dawn” (from the book, “Cross-Stitch in the Forest” by Canadian designer, Max Pigeon of Pigeon Coop Designs.

Now to get stitching! The end of June will be here before I know it.

Cross Stitch Camp 2025

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Cross Stitch Camp is sponsored by Sheri of the Colorado Cross Stitcher each year. Camp lasts for three months – June to August. Each month, Sheri gives us a Camp Challenge.

The camp monthly challenges for this year are as follows.
June: Stitch a pattern that includes something from the night (if you’re a night stitcher) or something from the day (if you’re a day stitcher). Like owls, moons, stars, animals of the night, flowers of the night, etc. Or sunshine, gardens, flowers of the daytime, animals out in the daytime, etc. You just need to include one little motif on the pattern to indicate day or night stitcher.
July: Stitch a pattern from your favorite designer.
August: Pick something new. Use a new type of floss, or a new type of fabric, a new color or count, a new designer, a new finish – something new so you learn/try a new thing this month.

To participate in camp, we:

1. Post our start photo (picture of fabric, floss, pattern cover) on Instagram with the hashtags: #crossstitchcamp2025 and #coloradocrossstitcher on the first of each month (or any time thereafter).

2. Post our finished photo (with the stitching finished, doesn’t have to be fully finished/framed/pin pillowed, etc) on Colorado Cross Stitcher’s website any time during the month that you finish your piece. Due in by the last day of the month.

This is my project for June. Although I stitch both during the day and evening, my favorite time to stitch is first thing in the morning while the sun is coming up. So the piece I chose to stitch is, “Heron at Dawn” (from the book, “Cross-Stitch in the Forest”) by Canadian designer, Max Pigeon of Pigeon Coop Designs.

Now it is time to get stitching! The end of June will be here before I know it!

Cross Stitch – Latest Finally Finished Objects

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These are two fall cross stitch FFOs that I finished today. These finishes took a lot longer than I thought they would!

This pillow finish is a complimentary pattern by Robin Pickens called, Happy Fall Acorn.

I watched pillow finishing tutorials by Nichol Spohr LLC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ8pdlq7mQE&t=1513s and Helen D. (Eastcoast Crafer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b2pucEneA4&t=763s before attempting to finish my pillow.

This box finish is a complimentary pattern by Pinker n’ Punkin Quilting called, Pumpkin & Bittersweet Sampler. The pumpkin sampler was laced onto a piece of matt board with two layers of batting and set into a bamboo drawer organizer that I found at Dollarama. I often pick up items from the local dollar stores that I think will be suitable for finishing and then keep them on hand for when I need to fully finish my stitches. This item was just the right size to fit my piece. I would like to add some stuffed or needle punched/wool pumpkins to the bottom inside of this piece in the future.