fantasy garden, birches and a chickadee

I sat down after lunch with the intention of finishing up the machine quilting on my Fantasy Garden which I did. It didn't take long though and the next stage requires some hand work which I didn't feel like getting into today. I also added a little more paint to the forefront fronds. They still look a little stripey but I'll have to live with it.

Since I was at my machine, and it was set up for free motion, I looked around to see what else I could do. Well there are a pair of my husbands jeans that need a patch, but darn, I couldn't find one in my cabinet. I would have had to go downstairs to look further. Scratch that idea.
Then the shibori birch trees on my design wall caught my eye and I thought I might do some thread work on it. I had thought to use it in with my other birch trees. Wait a minute though, didn't I just read an email from the new editor of Quilting Arts, Vivika DeNegre, with a tutorial on how to do appliqued birds? I rolled over to my desk and opened it. Yup, and it looked straight forward.
 I opened up My Pictures and went looking for some chickadee photos that I've taken on my various walks on the trail. You know my fascination with them! I drew up a little sketch based on the photo.

Next, I grabbed some freezer paper and traced the parts onto the paper side. This is a picture of each section ironed onto the right side of the fabric and cut out.

Following the directions, I peeled off the paper and laid it out. There is no fusible on the back of this. Vicky says to add a bit of glue and stitch. I've never tried it without the fusible, so we'll see how that goes another day.

I ended up in a totally different place than I imagined today and look at my cutting table! I'm satisfied non the less.