066 - Tall Red Monochromatic Bird Quilt Block

Inspiration

This block is one of twelve of the Block Lotto patterns for 2013 that I am using in a simple sampler quilt that has the working title, What's Red and White and has a Whole Lot of Quilting?

Details

After deciding to use ten Indigo Red fabrics for the red in my red and white quilt, the challenge became choosing fabrics that would have some contrast enough when put side by side.  I confess that the bird block is one of my less successful efforts ... when quilting is added, I believe it will help reinforce the more subtle differences.

Note

Obviously, after losing the momentum of this daily project, I haven't yet found it again.  I accept that I may not ever get back into the daily habit, but have decided to continue this now occasional feather effort until I reach the goal of 365 feathers ... whenever that happens. It seems that whether I am making things or not, I continue to conceive new bird/feather ideas–the potential for 365 feathers is here ... I just need to find the gumption (and time).

030 - Tall Love Birds Quilt Blocks

Motivation

The quilt I'm making from the flock of five birds needed to be taller, so I added two more tall birds.

Details

The birds are separate blocks, each measuring 8 1/2-inches square. They were made in the same way the bird blocks made as my Daily Feathers # 15 through 19. I used my Bird Block pattern (which you can download from the Block Patterns page on my Sophie Junction blog, making long legs, and adding sky to the sides but no sky above the birds to create a square block.

Here's how the quilt-in-progress looks so far.

003 - Avocado Bird with Arugula Feathered Wings

I bought the arugula from the Farmer's market yesterday.  The grower told me that this was the last week for arugula because of some kind of beetles.  Don't look too close or you can see the evidence in those leaves.

Inspiration

When I saw the arugula leaves on this bag of Trade Joe's Wild Arugula, I saw feathers and wondered how I could create wings from them.  (I inserted a sheet of white paper in the empty bag to scan it.)

A few days later, when slicing an avocado in half, I saw a bird body.  My edible salad project idea was born.

The 365 book also suggest this for day 302:

Work only with, or inspired by, boxes or bags from packaged food products today.

And this, for day 62:

Make something with your dinner before you eat it

I am clearly following my own path, but will reference the book when I notice we both had the same ideas.

Details

After arranging the arugula wings, I added half an avocado for the bird body, almond slices for body feathers, a carrot slice for a beak, some flax seeds for his beady eyes and, because at this point, I was thinking this could be a tasty lunch, a nest of halved cherry tomatoes.

 Bonus!  Add a glass of chardonnay, some vinaigrette and a lot more of the arugula and ... it was lunch.