Which came first: the manatee or the egg?

In this case, I can tell you it was definitely the egg. Simply because that's the tutorial I went with first. I don't know how I got there, but one day I ended up over at the bright and cheery Retro Mama blog. She has a super easy and adorable tutorial for these patchwork fabric eggs. I couldn't wait to sort through some scraps and get sewing. I made fourteen, but it took no time. I was shooting for an even dozen (y'know...like a dozen eggs?) but I didn't realize I had seven combos until I was almost done. So fourteen it is. I think they came out pretty cute:

I got the cute little basket from Target. The table runner matches it, but you can't tell from the photo.

Here's the obligatory close-up :)

 All snuggled up together. The red ones aren't exactly Eastery but I needed to throw some of that polka dot in for good measure.

So if you have a nest of eggs you'd have to assume they came from somewhere, right? Baskets of eggs don't just appear... And fabric eggs would naturally be laid by fabric birds. Brenda shared her cute little flock here, and when I was thinking "fabric birds" I remembered her post and had to go off in search of the tutorial she used from Spool. Fun fact: Spool is right here in Philadelphia. I knew in my mind which fabrics were going to be used. I only made two because there were only 2 combos that matched well (I know! All that fabric and not much of it matches!) Plus I have a terrible habit of cutting up piles and piles only to find myself getting tired of sewing the same thing over and over again. So I started small, and I'm glad I did. They're a little bit....er...they have a sea creature quality....

 You look at it this way and they're not bad looking. And my fabric placement worked out well.

This one isn't awful, but it's still bad. I probably should have left the tail unstuffed. It looks like the back end of a beluga whale. And the beak should be much pointier.

This one is much worse. I decided to help it along by drawing an eye on. This not only did NOT help but enhanced the manatee-ish-ness...

I'm proud of myself--I didn't pursue a week-long quest for perfection and end up with a flock of birds in assorted fabrics...I took my two (because two was all I really wanted--a boy and a girl) and they are taped to the side of the basket, watching over their eggs. They may have been  better if I had hand-sewn the beaks...or not drawn on eyes...or stuffed the tails. Maybe it's best they look more like manatees...I wouldn't want my brother to freak out. He's wicked scared of birds.

Happy Monday! It's a short work week--I am unspeakably excited!

I'm going to link up here: click on over for some fun crafty ideas!