and birds again

With all the focus on our domestic and wild feathered friends, it came to me that I've loved birds all my life. When I was just 5, my playmate down the block brought me a parakeet from a family trip to Florida. That bird became the first of many parakeets or canaries in our home while I was growing up. And even after I married my parents were so into having a bird in the house that they continued the tradition. My maiden name was Frank. I named my bird Frankie. Every bird after, male or female, parakeet or canary was Frankie.
I walked around the house this morning noting the bird related "stuff" I have gathered in this nest of mine.
Below are just a few examples.

Though the light is not really good this morning for taking a realistic photo of this glass piece, you get the idea. I'm not sure which window it will end up in, for now it's just perched on the west living room frame.

Here is a shot of one corner in our kitchen. I stenciled the crows onto this diminutive shade a few years back. The ceramic crows are from a quilt show. I do have a fondness for crows. I know some folks think they're a noisy nuisance, but not me.

This fabric panel is pinned to the corkboard in my sewing room. It's cut from a line of fabric called Blackbird Village  by Kathy Schmitz for Moda. The prints in the collection combine quilt block designs and primitive flowers as well.

More crows frolic in this pattern I chose to use for a wool applique using some of the wool pieces I have been collecting at quilt shops wherever I go. I'm itching to get started now that I have my sewing room back in place following the completion of our doors installation this week.

Below are a few shots of my curio shelf in the dining room, now displaying a spring theme.

At the Fresh Air Art Tour  along the Mississippi earlier this month I couldn't resist purchasing this stoneware strainer. It was made by a husband and wife team Judy and Larry (Thor) Thoreson) in their studio Gills Rock Stoneware in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, Door County. They were among a handful of potters showing their work together. I learned they had been students together at Luther College and get together a couple times of year to visit and sell their work as a group. Fun. And I adore Chicadees.

Of course I added a wee quilted bird, just 2 inches square, to the stitched postcard exchange in March.

From my collection,  a few cross stitched birds, finished and in process.

Birds in the bathroom:

and hanging from the knob on my china cabinet:

This charming "coot", a house gift from my husband's mentor Robert Noehren and his wife Eloise 34 years ago. (The link is an article from the journal Jerome edits.)

And here lastly is a shot of the pattern I've decided for some of my international half square triangles. It is called Tree of Life Wallhanging from Edyta Sitar's book Friendship Triangles. It contains just a couple birds and will be my first appliqued quilt. The link is to her shop in Michigan.