Chickadees on Madrona Road (with love from Steam Trunk Craft Works)

Trims from Steam Trunk

Next weekend is the Creative Stitches show at the Abbotsford Tradex.  Our guild, The Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild will have a booth again this year (feel free to pop by and say hi!). It’s always fun with lots of shopping opportunities. One of the booths I’m most looking forward to is The Steam Truck Craftworks. These are some goodies I bought last year!

detail of vintage daisy trim!

Vintage ribbons, spools and laces. Eep! I can’t wait!

And as if it couldn’t be any more fantastic, Cathy the owner of Steam Trunk, is… awesome! She gave our guild, to whom accepted the challenge, each a pack of Sari silk. The challenge was to make a project with it. Immediately I knew what I wanted to do. The Madrona Road Challenge fabric had just came in from the MQG and when I saw that fabric I knew I wanted to do a Chickadee sitting on a branch. I’ve been wanting to do something with Chickadees (my favorite bird) since last year and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Then, when  I saw a green pack of the Sari Silk, I knew what I could use it for.

First I started with some sketches.

Trying to decide on a bird. It's between this one...

...or any of these ones.

And this is what I came up with… Ta

HEY! NO Photo BOMBERS!

photo bombed

Um, EXCUSE ME, I’m kinda doing a thing here!

um? taking a photo here!

Yes, you, I’m talking to you…

What?

Okay sure, why don’t you make yourself comfortable then? Okay, now..

your not going to fall asleep now are you?

I didn’t mean literally, clearly you missed my sarcastic tone.

What, oh no, don’t… don’t go to sleep! Seriously! How can you fall asleep that fast? C’mon!

Zzzzz...

*Shuffling around* as I move the cat delicately to another comfy location so as not to wake him. Good Grief!

Ahem… now where were we… Oh yes,  so I did these sketches trying to decide which Chickadee to put on the pillow. In the end I couldn’t decide so I put a bunch of them on.

The Chickadees on Madrona Road

I specifically picked out green Sari Silk so I could do the buds on the trees, then later came up with this trim for the pillow, which I love!

Sari silk trim

The tree branches and all the birdies were raw edge appliqued.

Sari silk trim , Madrona road fabric and  a Chickadee

Then machine stitched on.

tweet close up

I sewed beads on for the eyes and hand embroidered the feet.

Chickadee

I just loved the Madrona Road colours.

wing detaill

For the back I used a full piece of fabric,  I couldn’t bare to cut it up! It’s so beautiful.

back

Then of course I added a little label. Amy Dame would be so proud, she’s always after us in the FVMQG to label our work.

label

The best part is I still have fabric left from the Madrona Road Challenge to make another project! Well, I might have to buy a bit more but I’m  not too upset about that.

Thanks for popping by!