Cardinal Block

At the start of the year, a quilter contacted me and asked if I had designed a Northern cardinal block. I hadn’t but I thought it was a great idea!

A few months later and here he is! What do you think of him? I used two different shades of red, a deep red for the wing and a scarlet for the tail and body. The beak is actually a deep orange although I’m not sure it shows up too well in the photo. You can get the pattern here.

The cardinal pattern makes a 12.5″ block including seam allowances. It is sewn with straight-forward , traditional piecing techniques. There is nothing more tricky than half-square triangles and a flying geese unit! Some of the pieces are quite small though (the smallest is 1″ square) so accurate cutting and piecing are a must! You could check out my tutorial on testing your seam allowances if this is tricky for you.

I added a couple of applique branches and a leaf to the winter scene. I wanted this block to be versatile so the pattern contains all the instructions and applique templates to make both a left and right facing cardinal bird. This allows multiple blocks to look great when put together in a project. You could make a gorgeous table topper as a festive gift with three cardinals in different tones of red. And how stunning would the cardinals look in a full-sized winter quilt!

I have been delighted by the reaction to this pattern so far and as ever, I am grateful to my testers for your valuable feedback and prompt responses. You know who you are!

If you love this block, check out my flying bird block and some of my other Christmas projects, ‘The Reindeer Crew‘ and ‘Warm Wishes‘ pillow.