How to add a little bird to your fox quilt

Any woodland-themed quilt needs some birds and foxes, am I right?!

Of course I am, so here is a quick tutorial on how you can add a little crow (or other bird) to your Fox Tale quilt.

A few notes before we start

• Finished quilt size: 57″ x 69″ or 38″ x 46″
  (identical to Fox Tale in the throw and crib sizes)
• You will need the following patterns:
  • Fox Tale (get the pdf or printed booklet)
  • Little Crow (get the pdf)
• The fabric requirements for the quilt top are basically those of Fox Tale. Just have some extra scraps at hand for the little bird.

Cutting instructions

• You’ll need all the pieces from your Fox Tale pattern, except CC, only 3 AA pieces, and no EE pieces.
• In addition, you’ll need the following background pieces:

• Print the FPP templates for the large, left-facing crow from the Little Crow pattern. Important: Print at 100% for the throw size, at 66% for the crib size.
• Use the off-cuts from the previous steps when preparing your pieces for the Little Crow block.

Piecing your bird and fox quilt top

Making your fox and tree blocks

1. Make all your fox, conifer and hardwood blocks as described in steps 1-50 of your Fox Tale pattern.

Making your bird block

2. Piece a left-facing bird block as described in the Little Crow pattern.
3. RST, sew your BG1 piece to the top, then your BG2 piece to the left of your bird block. Press your seams towards the BG1 and BG2 pieces.
   Your completed bird section should measure 12 1/2″ x 8″ for the throw and 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ for the crib quilt.

Assembling your quilt sections

4. Instead of the 2-conifers section shown in the top right corner of Fig. 26 of the Fox Tale pattern, make the following modified 2-conifers section (press your seams towards the EE* pieces):

5. Instead of the hardwood-and-conifer section shown on the right of Fig. 26 of the Fox Tale pattern, make the following modified section:
   • RST, sew your bird section to the top of a hardwood block and press your seam towards the hardwood block.
   • RST, sew an AA piece to the top and bottom of a conifer block and press your seams towards the AA pieces.
   • RST, sew the two units from above to the left and right of your EE** piece and press your seams towards the EE** piece.

6. Complete all other sections shown in Fig. 26 of the Fox Tale pattern.

Finishing your quilt

7. Assemble your quilt top as described in steps 61-67 of the Fox Tale pattern.
8. Finish (baste, quilt and bind) your quilt as desired.

That was pretty straight-forward, wasn’t it? I hope you’ll have lots of fun with your own version!

If you’re still undecided on a colour palette for your birds and foxes quilt, here are a few more examples:

• Using the colours of my Fox Tale cover sample:

• A nightly forest scene with pink foxes on a dark teal background:

Which one is your favourite? Let me know in the comments!