Happy Birds

Our small group has decided to tackle Jen Kingwell's Happy Birds quilt together. I didn't find any quilt alongs or instructions, so I thought I would try to document what we are learning as we go. I think I will post on Saturdays any progress.

I used leftover pieces of freezer paper to trace the template and then ironed it to the wrong side of my fabric. I could cut 4 melon shapes from one freezer piece, just folding the fabric.

The piece was shaped so that the flat spot on the top of the melon piece fit on the flat spot of the on the side of the center piece, looking for all the world wrong, but it works. I set my stitch length down to 1.75 for more control of the sewing. It was better to sew just a few stitches and rearrange.

I keep my needle down during the readjusting of fabric. The trick is to think of straightening the bottom fabric into a straight line while following the curve of the top piece. Clear as mud.

It looks odd until it is pressed. The first two seams were easy, the next two were challenging.

tweezers or a stiletto are helpful. and faith that curves will happen

I won't know until I add the next round, whether this was accurate enough. For me, it was, even with the bottom left corner a little funky. If not, I'll change it.