Birdie Stitches BOM - another one done!

Yes, I know that these Birdie Stitches blocks from Little Miss Shabby's BOM were meant to be being saved as my portable holiday project, but I have caved and stitched up another one.  Their cuteness is too hard to resist, and you all know what my willpower is like!  This one is the March block with its promising rainbows.

I am taking the remaining blocks so far (Apr - Aug) with me on hols to while away a few hours of an evening or when I am enjoying peace and quiet as the boys head off mountain biking.

Before I do, I'm just trying to decide how I might adjust the block designs for June and July to sit a little better in my quilt.  The original June block is a typography based block and while I think it's lovely, I might just like to simplify it a little (as a personal preference, and if I'm honest to cut out on a little of the stitching - there's a lot in that one).  Not sure which words to leave in and which to leave out.  I have pared it right down to just the name of the quilt and the year of stitching, and think I'll maybe go with that, and maybe add my signature too - would kind of make it the quilt label but in a whole block.
Hmm ....

Also, the original July block is fabulous but, not being American, the 4th of July doesn't have the same significance for me, so I was thinking maybe a picnic basket birdie - what do you think?

Before you go thinking that I'm in any way talented with a pencil, let me let you in on my secret ... I used a few motifs (picnic basket, bee and butterfly) from Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching - The Motif Collection book for the redesign of this block.  And since Little Miss Shabby cleverly matches her birdie's tummy each month to the rest of her design, I gave this birdie a checked picnic blanket tum too!

If you like this simple kind of doodle embroidery, this wee book is a very useful resource, particularly if, like me, your own drawing skills are a little challenged!  The book comes with a CD-rom which has all the motifs on it so that you can open each one, re-size it to suit your project or combine it along with others to create you own design.  I used it before to help plan my design for Judith's birthday mug rug in June. (I bought the book from Amazon, if you're interested.)

So, as long as I don't change my mind on these, I'm all set for some fun holiday stitching!

PS - here's what was waiting for me in my son's room this morning -

Isn't that sweet?

Then we had fun knocking them over!