day 10 - Swingin' Bird

This little bird still makes me smile. My original design. Made for the Beatles Challenge, it illustrates one of their earlier songs: "And Your Bird Can Sing". It is touring the country. It was shown last year at the Houston quilt show.

The song says the bird is green and swings so I put her on a swing and made lots of notes. Fusible/machine applique and machine quilting. My sister did the applique (my plan of doing hand applique was derailed by an accident) and I did the quilting. She also donated some cool rainbow shoelaces which I used for the swing - they were the perfect touch, Another great detail is the appliqued frog in the bottom right - my Mom cut into her favorite frog fabric :) I also like the eye cut from a dotted fabric and the rickrack legs and the flower buttons too.

"And Your Bird Can Sing"
Sandra Starley 2013

The backing is awesome 1970s vintage floral gingham fabric. Back in the day, my Mom made me a canopy bed cover and quilt from this fabric. It was fun to use some of the leftover fabric many years later.

You can see my Bird and 149 of its friends in the Beatles Book from Schiffer publishing.