Carpooling and the Bird Quilt

This year, with Jeremy getting out at noon and Matthew at 3pm, I have three trips to school every day. It takes 20 minutes each way, except in the morning, when it takes 35-40 minutes to get there during rush hour.

Until today. Today I and another mom who lives about 5 minutes from our house begin carpooling for the afternoon pick-ups. She has the double afternoon pick-up like I do. So, one of us will do the noon run and the other will do the 3pm run. We'll switch every week or so. I am very excited about this, from a time perspective and because of the rising costs of gas.

I thought I'd show you my second applique quilt today. (I know, beat me up, but I don't have a picture of the first quilt I made with applique.) It's named "Birds Outside My Window".

This one was a present for my brother Bill, who loves birds and spent many hours of his childhood trying to catch them. I drafted the patterns from a Dover coloring book, simplifying as necessary to get the look I wanted. The birds are cardinals, chickadees, grackles, and blue jays, all frequent visitors in eastern MA where we grew up. The blocks are placed in the attic windows set.

There is hand and fusible applique and a very tiny amount of free-motion machine embroidery to make the buds on the branches on which the grackles are perched. The bird's egg fabric in the outer border was found in the Portland, Oregon area. (I traveled nearly 100% in a former job, and often had time to stop in local quilt shops.) I had just started working on the quilt and when I found that fabric I almost levitated - I knew it would be perfect for this piece.

I am one of those fortunate crafters whose family truly appreciates handcrafted items. They use and/or display them. I feel so blessed to have this kind of acceptance and appreciation for my work!