The GOAT

I've cleaned up a bit of the studio and am gradually making headway in the office, which is in danger of being overrun by paper. Taxes are a big motivation there. I have also decided to go back to the "New Hampshire Quilt," a quilt of birds based on people I know or admire, places and things that I love or anything else I decide to add.

If you have been reading for any length of time you know that I love to watch tennis, and that my favorite player is Roger Federer, widely considered to be the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT). Right now the Australian Open is underway in Melbourne Australia. Roger has won the last two years. So naturally I am watching. Roger (he's known by his first name) is from Switzerland, and the Swiss colors are red and white, ergo a red and white bird inspired by Roger.

The musical fabric for the wing, with the stringed lyre, is meant to represent (loosely) a tennis racquet, as is the checkerboard fabric of the beak is meant to represent the strings on a tennis racquet. The letters of the body are a nod to Roger's logo, a stylized RF.

In the past I have always used WOW (White on White) fabrics as the backgrounds for my birds, but I have seen birds made with a mixture of WOWs and some small prints on White or some variant, and I thought they looked good, so I am going to use that idea in this quilt. Not every bird will have a patterned background.

And yes, that little "crown" on top of the bird's head is meant to remind you of a crown.

All these little things just go to show you how much freedom you have in constructing and personalizing your own birds. If you want to make one of these birds, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download, so you can get started right away, but I should warn you. Bird making can be rather addictive. It's hard to make just one!