Tuesday Tutorial-The Birdhouse

Today is Tuesday.  Time to get our doodle pads and our quilt sandwiches ready for a tutorial.  Today we are quilting birdhouses.

I love when an applique quilt has free motion quilting that echoes the theme of a quilt.  For example, a flower quilt would look lovely with butterfly or bees free motion quilted around it.   These birdhouses would look charming nestled in a quilt with birds, flowers, or houses.   Or, just stitch a row of them to create a small quilt.

One of our readers, Raewyn of Love to Stitch  – (one of our many New Zealand followers)  is teaching a class with applique birdhouses and has added The Picket Fence to the design.  I thought a few birdhouses with the picket fence might be even better.

For this pattern, I drew several lines, one inch apart.  Each bird house will be stitched a long a drawn line. By drawing evenly spaced lines, we know that everything will be kept tidy…

Begin by stitching up several stitches to create the “pole” of the bird house.  Then stitch a little zig-zag: left, right, left.  Stitch up a few more stitches and stop.

Now stitch a spiral (see tutorial HERE), ending on the top of your spiral.  Stitch up a few stitches and stitch the right half of a triangle.

Next, stitch the left half of the triangle, stitch down one stitch and echo back around the triangle.

Stitch around the triangle, then down next to the spiral.  This creates the right side of the bird house.

Next, stitch across the pole–stitch from right to left, then up the left side of the bird house and back down again.

If you’d like to create a “triple” bird house, simply stitch three spirals before you begin the triangle roof.

The essence of a bird house is a base, an opening, and a roof–rectangle, circle, triangle.  When you are stitching, just vary those three elements, add a perch or two, and create your own birdhouses!

In no time at all, the birds will be flocking to your yard!

Winging it here in Minnesota,

Lori

Lots more quilts and fun this week.  Please join Open Line Friday--where you can ASK and ANSWER questions…Our opening topic will be “How and where do YOU doodle?”—One of my favorite topics!

Also, give us a look on Facebook–I’ll be adding a few of my bird house doodles later today.

As always, thanks for Pinning!  Please remember all images and tutorials found here are the property of Lori Kennedy and are for personal use only.