I can finally share a quilt I have had sitting around for quite awhile. I made this for my neighbor to celebrate the birth of their daughter. These neighbors are awesome people and we are blessed that they moved in a few years ago, so I wanted to make something special for their baby girl!
I call it Birds-in-a-Box, and it is a great use for one charm pack and a solid. To make this quilt top you will need:
40 patterned squares (one charm pack should do it)
24 solid squares (cut to charm pack size: 5×5 inches
contrasting scraps for the birds
1. Lay out your squares so that you love how they look. If you are me, you will do this about 20 times. You will also do this with your children who will help you by rearranging them as soon as you find the perfect combination. Or, maybe you just give them to your children and let them plan it out. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have just done that in the first place….
2. Sew together to make blocks of 4 squares each, trying to keep them in the original order. If you are me, this means you will actually mix them up, forgetting your original design, say what the heck and put them together however…)
3. Sew your 4×4 blocks together to get four quarters of your quilt top, then sew those four together.
4. Make your birds. This is the fun part, and no, I’m not together enough to have an actual template to print out. You get to make it yourself! These guys are pretty easy to draw; you simple make a body and then the wing. I made three different sizes and traced them lightly with a pencil right onto my fabric, then cut with a scissors.
5. Sew the birds onto your quilt top. Do do this, use a little glue stick on the back of each bird, then stick them down to the quilt top. To sew, drop your presser feet, and use the darning foot from your machine (this is the little round one). Then you simply free motion all around the edges, and add the feet. Done! Three sweet little birds! (Warning, this was much harder than I thought it would be…practice with some scraps first!)
There you go: Birds-in-a-Box! Throw together, quilt as you wish, bind off and give to your favorite baby.
