Update: Blue and White Small Quilt Challenge with 4" bird block tutorial

I joined a small quilt club on Yahoo groups and Facebook hosted by Kathleen Tracy.  

This small quilt is made with 4" unfinished blocks and finishes at 12 1/2"  I did a bit of hand quilting.

When I heard about the blue and Cream/White challenge...

... it appealed to me because I haven't got to do much sewing this summer and this small project was so doable!

I've been wanting to sew some log cabin blocks so pulled out some blues and creams and cut 1" strips and began to sew!

I designed a little blue bird block to go along with the log cabins.

4" Bird Block (3 1/2" finished)

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Cut these pieces: (Please note change of 1 1/2" background square to 2" square)

 Draw a diagonal line on these squares and sew the right sides together as shown on the diagonal line.

Again: Don't forget, this background square is 2" instead of 1 1/2".

Trim as shown leaving 1/4" seam

 Press open and square up.

You can see I've laid out the pieces, showing how they will go.

Next

Sew the leg pieces and background together into a strip (I didn't sew the right background piece on here, but recommend to do it.)

Bird Body

Sew together as directed above by the numbered steps (note: do sew the right hand background piece to the leg section which I didn't do in the picture)

Your bird section is now complete other than the background with the beak.
1.  Sew the beak/background piece and the left hand border piece on
2.  Sew the top background piece in place

Your finished block!  Note:  this version has a bit of a hunch back.  To correct that, I changed the square size used to angle the wing.

Here is the sample block I just tested on the tutorial Note:  I used a 1 3/4" background square to curve the wing, but I think if you use a 2" background square (as I directed in the above cutting diagram) it should take the hunchback away completely.

I'm including these photos I took as I just tested the tutorial and they show how to make the bird face the opposite direction.

Cut out all the pieces as directed above

Draw a diagonal line on squares as shown and then sew on that line to round the corners.

Press all rounded corners open.

Sew the leg pieces together with the background pieces.
Sew the head to the background piece.

Sew the head piece to the wing/body.

Sew the front bird body to the main wing-body/head section

Sew the leg section onto the wing/body

Sew on side pieces as shown, then sew on the top border piece.  Square up to 4"