Tree Bird Blog Hop Day 4

Neighborhood cat on our birdhouse

Welcome to Day 4 of the Tree Bird Blog Hop!

I want to thank Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt for offering this wonderful blog hop!

Lana at It Seams to be Sew has been our amazing cheerleader.

I just fell in love with the Beautiful Birds fabric line at Elizabeth's Studio and designed by Tracy Lizotte. 

(I also discovered the Carolina Cotton Company searching for these fabrics on-line I ordered through their Etsy shop, but they offer a 20% discount to first time customers at their website.)

Draft Catcher made with tutorial at katydiddys.blogspot.com

My first project was a draft catcher. It was created using this tutorial from katydiddys.blogspot.com. 

I added a handle so it may be hung out of the way 
when our back door is in use.

The next project was a lot of fun to create. I found this free tote tutorial by Dianne Prather at mamaspocketbook.com and thought it would be the perfect way to display these lovely fabrics.
(The brown fabric used for the straps and interior of the bag was purchased at JoAnn Fabric. It seemed too perfect to pass up.)

If you follow my blog, you know my true passion is crazy quilting. 
So, I pieced the pocket.

I framed the birdhouse panel with a stem stitched twiggy vine 
and silk ribbon leaves.

Tiny details were also added, like the little blue bird looking over a nest full of eggs.

A tiny spider dangling from its web.

Swarovski Crystal Elements Butterfly Beads.

And an embroidered butterfly. 

I may have missed it, but in the tutorial for this tote, I was unable to find anything stating where to place the pocket and straps.  This made me more than a little nervous, but I used the photo in the tutorial as a guide and centered the pocket roughly 2-inches from the top, and I placed the straps so that their outer edges lined up with the pocket edges.

I was absolutely delighted with the way this little tote turned out!

Even the back is lovely. 

The tote is perfectly sized for a book bag.

These fabrics were SEW much fun to work with and they left me very ready for spring.

The birds are already very active in our backyard 
and we are hoping more will move into the birdhouses 
a dear family friend made for us several years ago.

As you may have noticed in the first photo on this post, we have a neighborhood cat that may be hoping the birds move in again, too. 
Last June, I could hear the birds going crazy in the backyard. 
Before I could check it out, my husband called me from our driveway and told me to look out the back window. 
Three panicked swallows were frantically trying to figure out how to get to the babies in the birdhouse that our neighborhood cat perched upon. 

Luckily, he was camera shy, so I only had to take his picture and he opted to leave the poor birds in peace.

Thank you so much for stopping by! 

I hope you will hop on over to visit the other bloggers posting today.

DAY 4, March 18, 2015

Red Eye Crafts

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Ridge Top Quilts

Stitching by the Beach

Seams to be Sew

Living My Dream - You are here

With Work in Hand