Birdsong Fabric by Pat Sloan!

We all know Pat Sloan is fabulous, and now we have another fabulous new fabric line from her - Bird Song! And you've brilliantly found one of the first stops on the blog tour!

When Pat asked me to play with her fabric and take part in the blog tour to show it off, I thought maybe she had forgotten that I am a scrappy designer who struggles to be contained with a finite number of fabrics, but when Pat asks, you say yes and ask questions later. It turns out, I think she just wanted me to stretch my creativity with a line of fabric, and I had such fun doing so!

I ended up making two projects focusing on the panels in the Bird Song line. Panels! I know! When have I ever used panels in my designs? Well, I'm telling you, there is a first time for everything, and I thoroughly enjoyed how they made these projects come together really quickly.

I created this table runner (or wall hanging, you decide what works for you) from three of the six smaller square panels and a variety of the coordinating fabrics. How pretty is the shade of blue that Pat chose to be the dominant blue in this colorway? So summery and joyous.

I used a simple "boxing in" of each panel with a couple of the coordinating fabrics, and then added some flair with...you guessed it...some half square triangles in the corners, which were of course created with my Accordion Sewn HSTs™ method. 

If that photo looks weird to you, or you are saying "How in the WORLD would that make half square triangles? This chick is crazy," it just means you haven't had the pleasure of my life changing technique yet! I invite you to check out my YouTube videos and hopefully be inspired to try some of my books or patterns that use the technique! 

As can happen when I get all excited about making accordions, I wasn't quite sure how I'd use them in this project until I got a few done. I ended up deciding they just needed to be random little pops in the corners of the panel blocks, kind of like a photo corner might look. 

But then came my true moment of zen. I was feeling guilty about how much of the panel fabric I hadn't used in my project, when I looked at this piece in a whole new way, and decided that the blue/yellow flower border around the large panel would make a really awesome binding for this little project!

I mean, granted, once I cut the blue/yellow flower strips away from the rest of the panel to make them into a binding I discovered that I needed to ask for more panel fabric from Benartex because now I didn't have quite enough length of what I needed for the binding, thereby totally ruining my attempt to be efficient and use up fabric with little waste but THESE ARE JUST DETAILS. Whatever. One of my mantras: Fabric - they make more. 

I mean, worth it, though. Even the having to join the ends by matching the prints; I admit I shocked myself with my skills.

Kind of a fun way to look at a panel, I think - breaking it down and seeing what elements can be used where. So why stop there? Now I had TWO pieces of the larger panel, and another moment of efficiency guilt and not wanting to waste them. So....

...enter a cute tote! 

Since I'm not a three-dimensional designer as a rule, I used a few of the guidelines I found here, Sweet Quilted Tote {free sewing tutorial} - SewCanShe Free Sewing Patterns for Beginners and adapted a few of my own twists. The SewCanShe tutorial is great for helping those like me think about what goes where when creating a project that is not meant to be flat.

I made sure both panels were cut to the same size, then did some simple wavy crosshatch quilting just to dress things up and make it look like I put in a little effort. In all honesty, the quilting part took like 20 minutes tops. 

Once again, I saw some of the panel in a new light and cut 2" strips with the floral-y print centered in the strip. I added some iron-on stablilizer to the reverse side, then sewed them into tubes and turned them right-side out. Straps! Cuteness!

Full disclosure - because I did not want to be crowned The Most Disorganized Pat Sloan Blog Tour Participant Ever, I ended up using a (very old) coordinating print that I had on hand for the lining of the tote rather than asking for even MORE fabric AGAIN. But imagine it in one of the Bird Song prints rather than this basic beige, which is probably from 2007. I show this photo mostly to show that I got the handles on correctly (ie the print in the direction I wanted and the handles on the correct side of the bag) the first try, which was a bit of a miracle, honestly. 

Once I had the two sides of the tote together, I boxed the corners of both the lining and the quilted parts. It's a great way to strengthen the corners and also help the tote to stand upright on its own - helpful during photo sessions.

One last photo because I haven't killed these flowers yet.

So, you've made it this far in my ramblings; that for sure deserves at least the possibility of a prize! Comment on this post with any kind of bird story from your life. Maybe you've traveled internationally with a bird watching group. Maybe every spring you get a nest in the same tree. Maybe as a child you were attacked by a seagull on the beach and it is burned in your memory. Maybe no matter how many times you are in charge of Thanksgiving you just can't seem to cook dinner without calling the Butterball hotline. We take all kinds of stories, good and bad, and the winning comment will be chosen at random, but must involve a bird.

Should my winner be in the US, they will receive this Birdsong layer cake courtesy of Pat Sloan and Benartex.

Should my winner be outside the US, they will receive this thread set courtesy of Pat Sloan and Aurifil. (Side note- it's my dream to create an Aurifil thread collection and I'm very jealous of this delicious one.) 

Be sure to check out ALL of the blog posts this week - we all have prizes to give, so you'll up your chances of winning. But more importantly, SO MANY GREAT IDEAS for using the Bird Song fabric! Creative people are the best people!

Their IG handles and company names are here:
@abrightcorner  (A Bright Corner)
@rosebudscottage  (Rosebud's Cottage)
@carolasmussen  (Carolina Asmussen Designs)
@pamkittymorning (PamKittyMorning)
@fatquartershop  (Fat Quarter Shop)
@aurifilthread  (Aurifil)
@ivory_spring  (Ivory Spring)
@evapaigequilts  (EvaPaige Quilt Designs)
@jacquelynnesteves (Jacqueline Steves)
@bluenickelstudios  (Blue Nickel Studios)
@quiltjane   (Want it, Need it, Quilt it)

@patternsbyannie  (Patterns by Annie and ByAnnie.com)
@benartex_fabrics  (Benartex)
@byhilaryjordan  (By Hillary Jordan)

Enjoy!