Christmas in July with Festive Chickadees

I shared this awesome collection back in April. Check out the post and the cute quilt I made using the panels. I was invited to blog about these fabrics again in our Christmas in July blog hop for Benartex. I have had such fun with these Chickadees. They are a continuation of the original Chickadee fabrics by the very talented Jackie Robinson.

First the fabrics:

Festive Chickadees by Jackie Robinson

And the quilt I made using several of the panels and my own birdhouse patterns (upsized). You can see the steps for this by clicking the link, with lots of photos close up of these beautiful fabrics.

Festive Chickadees Quilt: 43" x 48"

I used 10 of the 14 panels and have 4 left to play with. They are rectangles! Each one features a special Chickadee on black with holly berries. Chirp, chirp!

Now for my next project, made especially for this blog hop. I am revisiting my Twisted Hexagons block because I wanted to fussy cut some of these chickadees in the center of my blocks.

10" Twisted Hexagon Block

I cut a freezer paper template that captures the motif I want to feature. Of course, it helps to have a multi-sized 60 degree triangle which can cut ANY SIZE whole hexagon (and half hexagon and even a triangle - no kidding!)

Cutting my freezer paper template using my 60 degree triangle ruler

I cut out the center leaving about 1/2" border and used it to isolate a Chickadee motif.

Fussy cutting the center hexagon

I cut half-hexagons from my companion fabrics, again using my 60 degree triangle ruler. I have demonstrated this many times here on my blog. (Instructions on how to do this come with my ruler.)

Cutting Half-Hexagons

I made 9 blocks, trying to capture as many of the prints as possible. I had some Chickadees from Jackie's earlier collection (My Little Chickadee) and used some of those, too.

Arranging my Twisted Hexagon blocks

And here she is finished! Check out the 8 page pdf pattern in my Etsy store.

Twisted Hexagon Quilt with Festive Chickadees: 40" x 42"

Now, those Chickadees were still chirping and singing and begging me to make some other things. I like to English Paper Piece, so I decided to make some of my Pentagon Flower blocks (you saw those last week). First, I fussy cut a 2" hexagon for the centers. Here is my freezer paper again.

And also cutting from the light blue print using a pentagon shape:

Cutting 2" pentagons

I surrounded the center HEXAGON with 6 pentagons.

Pentagon Flower Block with Hexagon Center (and 6 pentagons)

Then I thought about using a Pentagon for the center. This uses 5 pentagons. These are NOT the same block.

Pentagon Flower Block with Pentagon Center

Have I confused you? I made 5 using the Pentagon centers and 5 using the Hexagon centers. Here is my little quilt using the pentagon centers. I don't have enough of any one fabric to work for a border, so these birdies are just chirping on my wall. A very pleasant sound (except they want to start at 4:30 in the morning!)

Chickadee Pentagon Flowers

For this quilt I used a layer cake (10" squares) for all pieces except the green outer strips. I was able to get 5 pentagons from each 10" square. I used an oversized freezer paper pentagon which works with my 2" pentagon papers.


I'll share the other blocks I made (with the hexagon centers) later in the Summer.

Well, I think this is enough for now! Check out the other bloggers in this 11 day Benartex Hop and enjoy the show.