Patchwork to save birds - and the environment. Tutorial.

It is spring - although it is still really cold here in Sweden. But the birds have already come back. The area next to my house is full of starlings, they nest in holes in the trees.

This reminded me of a sad thing that happened three years ago, my first spring in this flat. One of the starlings flew into the window and died.

I checked what we can do to keep them away from flying into the glass, and found that a black silhouette of a hawk is the usual solution. But who wants to look at a dark shape all day? So I made a shape, made it dark on one side and nice and colourful on the other. It was actually one of my first attempts at patchwork. It is hanging in my window ever since and we had no more accidents, thank God.

I though I would like to make one or two more, and that I can perhaps make a tutorial while I am at it. But please, don't expect something very precise, it is more a description of my own experimenting, that you can follow and make your own, if you want.


I made two pieces, using the method known as "quilt as you go". I used a very thin, iron-on batting (Vlieselin X50) on one bird, and on the other one something that is more an interfacing for bags to make them a bit sturdier - sorry, don't remember what it is. But I don't think it is very important what kind of batting or interfacing you use. It can also be something else, a piece of felt, for example, or perhaps some sturdy leftover fabric sprayed with starch. For the back, that needs to be dark, I used some old jeans, this way this also became a recycling project!

I am not very good at drawing but luckily there are thousands of such silhouettes on the internet to download and use. I used this one. I printed it on an A4 page, then enlarged with the photocopier to an A3 size (140 %).
(Later I realised that it was silly of me: I should have drawn a line around the bird, and only photocopy and enlarge the drawing - it was a waste of ink to print all that black.)

So, draw your shape or find one on the net you like and make it as big as you wish.

Cut around the shape and put it on the material you want to use as the base of your work: batting, interfacing, felt etc.

Draw around it and cut out the shape from the batting. Also gather some small pieces of fabric scraps, mostly strips. Make it randomly colourful as I did, or choose a colour scheme that suits your home.

Choose a piece of fabric that is long enough to cover one section of the bird. Put it down right side UP. I started in the middle, but I think it would work just as well starting at one of the wind tips, too.

Take your next piece and put it on top of the first one, matching one edge, right side facing DOWN. As you see, my fabric edges are not very straight, and it does not really matter.

Sew a 6 mm - 1/4 inch - seam allowance.

Flip the second piece up, and finger press well. This is one of the disadvantages of using an iron-on batting or interfacing: you cannot iron your pieces as you open them. (I did have some creases on my work because of that - but luckily they are not very visible.)
If you are using something that is not sticky, go ahead and iron your pieces as you go.

Continue in the same manner. I think it looks nicer if not all your fabric pieces are of the same width, and you slant them a little as you go. You don't even need to cut the fabric pieces in advance - just sew them and clip the seam allowance afterwards.

Soon you will have the whole shape covered with fabric pieces.

Cut around the shape, leaving about 1 cm of the fabric pieces overhanging the base.

Put it face down on a piece of denim - preferably (for the environment) from some old, worn jeans.

Pin, and sew around, trying to sew right next to your base shape. Leave a hole for turning it inside out!

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the next few steps. But it is not very difficult. :)

Cut around the shape once again, this time cutting the jeans. Clip the corners and curves. Turn it inside out, fold in the seam allowance of the opening, iron well, and topstitch all around - this way closing the hole, too.
I forgot to add a piece of ribbon before sewing them together, so I sewed it on from the outside - not very elegant.

Here it is all ready to hang:

With the ironing the batting got glued to the denim, so I did not need any quilting lines - this is why I chose them for the base. But if you want to use something that is not iron-on, you can add a few quilting lines to keep all the three layers together.


The second bird was made almost exactly the same way - only with the interfacing. I made the shape just a bit bigger, and planned my lines a bit more carefully in advance. I drew the lines I wanted to follow on the paper pattern, but not on the interfacing. I tried to follow them as good as I could just eyeballing it, without stressing too much about it.

This is what it looks like halfway done.

Put it on the denim face down, the same way as the first one, and sewed around. Only this time it was really hard. The interfacing did not want to move under the presser foot, it got stuck all the time. It was not my best sewing experience. Perhaps I should have got a teflon coated presser foot or something.

Anyway, I managed. Turned it inside out, folded in the seam allowance on the opening and ironed it well. Sewed a piece of ribbon on the tip of a wing to hang it with - this time remembered to do it from the inside. Then topstitched around the bird.

As you can see, the topstitching did not go very smooth either, it got stuck under the machine a few times. Luckily, it only shows on the denim side - and that side is only for the birds to see. I hope they will not complain. :)

Make some patchwork birds! Hang them in your windows, help the birds stay alive and at the same time create something cheerful for yourselves too look at.

Now I am thinking that this would look lovely in a kid's room, too, in any shape, not only birds. Hm…

I hope you guys will find this tutorial helpful. Happy sewing.

Bookmark for St. Patrick's Day

Hello there,


I have another St. Patrick's Day pattern for you. There is still enough time to stitch it if you want to make a statement or a gift. I hope you like it.

If you are interested in St. Patrick's Day patterns, why not take a look at my other freebies here, here and here?


If you want to see what I have been up to lately, here are some pictures.



I have been sewing for my university assignment. First a simple skirt, (Simplicity 2655) that I made more complicated for myself by having to match the checked fabric. Did not turn out to be perfect but not too bad either, I think.

I also started a pleated version but haven't finished it yet, still need to do the waistband and add a zipper.

And I finally found a way to use my bird appliqué pieces that I made a while ago. They have become the centre for two free patchwork pieces. I am turning them into covers for some old and battered ring binders. One is finished with some hand quilting, the other is waiting for me trying my hand in free motion quilting.

Swedish folk pattern and some WIP

Hi, dear friends.

I have been really busy lately with my sewing machine and other stuff.
I am learning quilting. Here is my second attempt. (The first one was a simple piece sewn together from 10 x 10 cm squares, not very well - I am still thinking to do something with it.)

I was trying to do a log cabin quilt. I cut lots of 5 cm wide strips and started working. I don't have a real fabric stash, absolutely no quilting fabric, only some odds and ends that I bought in second hand shops or got as donation from colleagues. I tried to pick some light and dark fabrics, and started sewing them together. Here are some pictures of the process, but mostly I was too excited sewing, so I didn't take many photos.







As my blocks grew, I had to realise that my seams are not precise and my cutting was not ver exact either, so some of the lines on the blocks turned out to be a bit wonky. After some thinking I came up with a "brilliant" solution - I will make the blocks so that the log cabins are leaning a bit to the left and right, this way it won't be so visible that they are not perfect. Ha! As if this was a solution - for someone who is a beginner!
I saw some pictures and calculated for myself what size triangles I need for the edges. And I didn't have much fabric that was good with the other colours so had to be careful. Of course, I made mistakes when cutting and sewing again, so at the end it turned out even worse. There were even more seams to match.


In the close-up you can see the not-so-matching seams:




But there are some that are almost OK - purely by accident, though:





Anyway, here is the final result - and in spite of all the mistakes I am VERY happy with it. :D





This is only the quilt top, now I am going to learn how to quilt it. I don't have any batting, need to buy something for the back, too. Until I can do that, I will practice with smaller pieces. It will have to be straight lines quilting, because I also need to buy a free motion foot for the sewing machine and buying all that might take some time.


I have also been knitting a pullover for my daughter. It is almost ready now, I only need to sew in the sleeves. It was made, as most of my knitting, without patterns, just improvising. I knitted the body on the round, and the cowl neck, too. One of the problems with improvising is when you have made one sleeve, it is terribly hard to duplicate it - so I decided to make the second sleeve different. Purely for laziness - but I think it looks really cool. I hope Eszter will like it. It is absolutely soft and warm, it is an alpaca boucle yarn from Drops. Of course, since spring is here, she will need a really warm pullover - NOT. But I didn't manage to finish it in winter, so she will have to wait until next autumn to wear it. :=/







And I also crocheted a little cat for her, to go in the packet when I send the pullover:



This was also made without pattern. Perhaps I should try and write it down?


And here is a small Swedish folk cross stitch pattern for you all to enjoy, I think it is lovely. It was inspired by some old patternbooks I have.

Have fun :)

Geometric quilt cross stitch pattern

I have made another quilt-style cross stitch pattern.

The smaller squares, I think, are perfect for a biscornu or ornament and the bigger is just the right size to stitch for a needlebook, if you fold it in the middle.

You can also stitch it vertically, for a book cover. This is what I plan to do with it when I have time.


The colours are:

326 rose vy dp
3778 terra cotta lt

and the white squares are left empty, assissi-style, but of course, you can stitch them or substitute your favourite colours.

I hope someone out there will find pleasure in stitching these. :)

Tutorial: a hawk in my window - English paper piecing

A few days ago a starling died after colliding with my window. I have windows both on the east and west side of my living room, so it probaby saw the light and thought it could fly through.
I decided to hang one of those hawk silhouettes in the window. But I didn't like the idea of having something ugly black... so I came up with this idea. I took pictures of the process, so here is a tutorial how to make one.

First I printed out a silhouette from this site - but I was in a hurry at my boyfriend's place so didn't get the right size. Of course, the best is to print it enlarged to an A4 sheet or enlarge it with a photocopier, but as I had none at home, I had to use the old-fashioned method: divide the picture into squares, draw the same number of - bigger - squares on the cardboard, and try to copy the shapes for each square.

I cut a side from a muesli-box and draw the picture on it, then cut it out. Later realized that simple printing paper would have been better. This is only my second attemt at paper piecing and I forgot about the basting. :(







Then I cut it up into five, trying to cut straight lines. After that took out my scrap fabrics and found a few pieces that were big enough to cover each segment.






For sewing the pieces together I used the English paper piecing. I learned it from
this video - although this time I didn't do the basting, just pinned it. I regretted it as I was sewing :D
Then I sewed blanket stitch around the shape folding under about 1 cm.



This is what resulted:




However, when I lifted it to the window, the folds and hems were very visible. So first I ironed on some thick white batting, then the thin black iron-on interfacing that I had at home. I am sure sewing the whole shape to a piece of black fabric, e.g. felt, would be just as good.



This is it hanging in the window - I cannot really make the colours and patterns be seen in the photo against the light, but it is really lovely.



And for the birds it is just a black shape. I only hope they will see it through the window and will not be fooled by the reflection. Fingers crossed!