buffalo wings

sometimes i shop for myself and give whatever it is that i think i can't live without to Melissa

 to give back to me for whatever holiday is next...

a couple of christmases ago

Melissa gave me a buffalo panel

i wanted it cuz of the buffalo

for the White Buffalo quilt that i'm supposed to be making but hasn't seen the light of day for a gazillion three years

but when i got a good look at it 

i fell in lurve with the bluebirds...

do bluebirds actually hang out with buffalo?

i dunno - but i'd like to think that they do

anywho...

my mom lurved bluebirds, too

i was really missing her 

and i thought

why not surround that big old buffalo with a bunch more bluebirds?!?

so i bought the Feathers pattern from The Pattern Basket

and, since it was spring, tested it with robins...

and after tweaking it a bit, drafted it for paper-piecing

then did a mirror image so the birds could be facing each other

and went shopping for blues and oranges and creams

and started piecing birds

boy birds and girl birds with prairie point beaks

that surrounded that big old buffalo...

it was getting a bit larger than planned and i was running outta background fabric

and even though there were more birds in the flock 

a decision was made to STOP with the front

 and add the other birds to the back...

along with another buffalo panel 

that was also purchased for the White Buffalo quilt  - twice - so there was a spare

cuz i can't ever remember what i have and what i think i have in the Great Pile of Stuff

and then sent off to Liz the World's Most Awesome Longarm Quilter in Michigan 

to be quilted with buffalo...

stomp

after Liz worked her magick 

it was trimmed and bound...

the girl birds are facing right 

and the boy birds are facing not right for a reason, y'all

too bad i used all that leftover fabric from the front cuz i was gonna need more of those blues a couple of months later when i started the piecing for Serenity!!!

 and named Buffalo Wings!!!

cuz, seriously, with buffalo and wings 

what else could it be named?!?

Left wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me.

Woody Guthrie