When I was a girl, my family would spend long summer evenings in the Orkney Isles watching short-eared owls swooping low over the heather. I must admit that I didn’t have the best attention span for birdwatching, but if any bird was likely to captivate and excite me, it was an owl. They caught my imagination in a way that other birds did not. I have never seen a barn owl in the wild, but I have always thought of them as the most beautiful of all the owls. When writing up this pattern, I divided it into two separate elements – the owl and the mouse. Use them individually or together, as you desire. The Fabric Requirements list below is for the quilt – see Potential Uses for this Block for fabric requirements for the owl and mouse alone.
Owl block: 24in x 24in
Mouse block: 12in x 6in
Quilt: 38in x 40in
COLOUR DIAGRAM (REVERSE VIEW) – OWL
COLOUR DIAGRAM (REVERSE VIEW) – MOUSE
I chose to use relatively realistic colours and textures for this quilt, but it would also be fun in bright and bold colours. A simple change that would make a huge difference to the overall appearance of the quilt would be to use a lighter background. Take time to audition and select your fabrics and to study the diagrams.
Print the templates full size and check the 1in square is the correct size. Cut out the templates – some of them will need to have parts glued together. The owl paper template W is large and contains many small sections. I strongly suggest that you construct the template as you are sewing. Glue the first two pieces together and sew pieces 1 to 5. Glue the next part of the template and sew to piece 37. Construct the remainder of the template to sew the final piece. I also suggest that you sew pieces 1 to 7 of template U before constructing the rest of the template.
Foundation piece the sections of the project (see Paper Piecing: Paper Piecing Process). The challenge when piecing the owl is that some of the fabric pieces are very large and can become difficult to control. I strongly recommend that you anchor the fabric to the paper using the advice given in Perfecting the Technique: Working with Large Fabric Pieces.
The small face pieces can lead to the build-up of significant bulk, so you could trim the fabric seam allowances to around 1⁄8in. The seam allowance around paper sections should always remain 1⁄4in. If you are worried about running out of fabric, sew the large sections first and then make use of your scraps as you sew the smaller sections.
Once each section is pieced, sew them together in the following order:
A→B. AB→C. ABC→D. ABCD→E. F→G. ABCDE→FG. H→I. HI→J. HIJ→K. HIJK→L. HIJKL→M. HIJKLM→N. HIJKLMN→O. HIJKLMNO→P. HIJKLMNOP→Q. ABCDEFG→HIJKLMNOPQ. R→S. RS→T. RST→U. RSTU→V. RSTUV→W. ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQ→RSTUVW
The small eye and face pieces mean that these seams will become bulky, so press the seam between A and B open, and also the seam between ABC and D. There are more seams that you may choose to press open. Remember to pay particular attention to the accuracy of the joins at the critical join points.
Foundation piece the sections of the project. When piecing the eye and cheek areas, there are lots of tiny overlapping pieces. To avoid the build-up of bulk, cut fabric seam allowances smaller than 1⁄8in. Press seam AB open. Once each section is pieced, sew them together in the following order:
A→B. AB→C. D→E. ABC→DE. ABCDE→F. G→H. GH→I. ABCDEF→GHI. ABCDEFGHI→J. ABCDEFGHIJ→K.
Carefully remove the papers from the blocks. Press and starch the work (see Perfecting the Technique: Finishing a Block).
If making the blocks into a complete quilt, you will need border strips. You could pre-cut these from the background fabric before piecing the blocks to ensure you have the correct lengths, as follows – one strip 121⁄2in x 241⁄2in (a), one strip 121⁄2in x 301⁄2in (b), two strips 21⁄2in x 361⁄2in (c) and one strip 21⁄2in x 401⁄2in (d).
With reference to the Quilt Assembly Diagram, sew the border pieces in position. Sew strip (a) to the bottom of the owl block. Sew strip (b) to the top of the mouse block. Sew the mouse unit to the left side of the owl unit. Sew strips (c) to the top and bottom of the owl and mouse unit. Sew strip (d) to the left edge of the quilt.
Prepare a quilt sandwich of the quilt, wadding (batting) and backing (see General Techniques). Cut the backing fabric in half, into two pieces 45in long. Remove selvedges and sew the two pieces together along the long edge. Press the seam open. Trim to 48in wide.
Quilt as desired. This is the only quilt in the book that I quilted myself on my domestic sewing machine. I stitched in the ditch around the mouse and the owl and sewed gently curved parallel lines in the background using a walking foot. I then free-motion quilted feather details. As a finishing touch, I added a few diagonal lines radiating from the owl’s claws towards the mouse. I quilted these lines using thicker thread in a contrasting colour. If you are not confident in your quilting ability, straight line quilting could be effective. Consider the direction that the straight lines should run.
For the binding, cut four 21⁄4in x width of fabric strips and bind to finish (see General Techniques: Binding). I chose to use the same fabric for my binding as for the background. To me, this quilt didn’t need a frame – it felt wrong to ‘cage’ a wildlife scene.
QUILT ASSEMBLY DIAGRAM
COLOURING CHART (REVERSE VIEW) – OWL
COLOURING CHART (REVERSE VIEW) – MOUSE
The fun thing about this quilt is that it consists of two separate blocks, both of which can easily be used individually. I know that my daughter would adore a zipper pouch or cushion made with the mouse pattern.
OWL MINI QUILT: The barn owl would make a great mini quilt on its own. You will need: 15⁄8yds background fabric, scraps of various tan fabrics (3⁄8yd total), scraps of various light low-volume, tone-on-tone fabrics (3⁄4yd total), 1⁄8yd dark brown accent fabric, scraps black fabric for the eye, scraps grey fabric for the face, 28in x 28in backing fabric and wadding (batting), 1⁄4yd binding fabric.
MOUSE MINI QUILT: For the mouse alone you will need: 1⁄4yd background fabric, 1⁄8yd tan fabric for body and head (you may choose to use a different shade for the head), scrap of black for the eye, scraps of white for the eye and snout, 1⁄8yd pink for tail, nose, ears and feet, 16in x 10in backing fabric and wadding (batting), 1⁄8yd binding fabric.