Studio Kit

It feels like I'm developing a routine, but don't get used to it! :)

And speaking of getting used to things - don't be frightened by this combination of fabrics, you're just going to have to trust me!

They're not going to be laid exactly like this, as you'll see - I was going for a brick pattern.

Once all of the pieces were sewn together it was time to quilt. As usual, I'm doing background quilting first - in this case, very thin parallel lines, followed by the elements I plan to draw out later on.

More spirals....

And some odd shapes...

And coming up next - some white acrylic paint and encaustic wax. (Uhm, what? )

Method to my madness my chickens, I assure you! :)

See what's next on Wednesday ...

P.S. I've been insanely busy the last week (both at work and at home - I'm trying to get ten NEW pieces together for a submission that's due in ten - no - NINE days) so if you posted something you'd like me to see, please let me know and I'll go check it out - otherwise, I think you'll find me quiet for the next little while!

Well, here it is, my little Tom (a yellow throated warbler), enjoying a wind bath in a convenient tree.

This piece is quite large for a sketch/journal piece (I think it's 32 x 15 or something like) but it's purpose was to learn two things. One, to quilt better sprials (which I failed miserably at, lol) and two to learn to make realistic looking feathers as I have had a piece in mind for a couple of years now that needs angel wings.

Here's a close up of that spiral quilting (as you can see it leaves much to be desired) but no sooner did I finish up the background, than I saw an article in Quilting Arts about how to make them. By that time I had already started needle felting my branches, so it was too late to pick out my spirals and begin again.

The other reason - learning to make fiber feathers? I felt was quite successful!

Next week, I'm taking on something new again for another sketch/journal piece - I want to try two new-to-me things: one involving encaustic wax (yup, I'm gonna give it another shot!) and the piece actually involves ::shudder:: hand quilting (!). And you know how I feel about that.

But the experiments are necessary because I have a piece in mind that's beautiful and scary and meaningful - and I before I try working with encaustic wax for that piece, I need to make sure that my idea works!

P.S. Hooking up with Tracy for Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday! Have a great weekend everyone!

Here's Tom - skinny legs and all.

So, to make a bird, you start out (as always), with a sketch. Now as you know, I'm not a drawer by any stretch of the imagination...

...so don't be intimidated by the word "sketch". No one's going to look at it except you (or in my case, you and me, but we'll just keep it between ourselves); and the point of it is, to be a guide - so that you know the direction you're going in. You know, so that you'll be able to work with intention (hah! I bet you thought I forgot about my word of the year, didn't you?) :)

And then, the fun part - pulling fabrics from your stash! I actually pulled about four bags of white, but I figured there's only so much interest you could possibly have in bags of white scraps.

One of the bags contained all these delicate white fabrics that had already been cut into little squares for a super secret commission I'd done last year, and some of them were perfect for little Tom. So, I fused some of those and some of the other whites, and then...

Commenced to cut out feathers.

That coin is a subway token (slightly smaller than a dime) so you'll get an idea of the size of all those tiny little feathers. I blithely assumed the amount I had here would be enough to cover the bird, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong!

It wasn't even enough to cover the first layer!

Here's a detail shot so you can see how naked poor Tom was after two layers. All in, I ended up using about 800 of those little tiny white feathers, which were painstakingly fused down about ten at a time.

(Keep in mind, however, that I chose to use very translucent fabrics and netting to get the look I was going for. If someone doing this technique chose to use opaque fabrics, I'm sure they could get the look with 300, or even 200 feathers. )

When I was "done" this is what he looked like.

I didn't like that his body was so egg-shaped and he looked rather serious to me. Despite BSP's ssurances that Tom was "perfect!" and "beautiful!" I decided that his upper body needed developing to give a better suggestion of wings, and that his head would look more engaging if it were tilted as in the original sketch. (This is why it's important to refer to your original sketch!) lol

So, I painstakingly snipped off his head (no birds were hurt in the making of this post!), added feathers to his wattle, re-applied Tom's head at the proscribed angle and then fluffed up his body to get what you saw in the first pic. Much better!

And because you've seen me needle felt tree branches about a thousand times now (if you've been with me since the beginning), I won't bother with that again.

But come back on Friday for the big reveal!

P.S. - Hooking up with The Needle and Thread Network and Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. Go and see what everyone else is up to!

the beginnings of a new piece. Here are the fabrics I've chosen...

and the grid pattern I've been quilting for the background.

and your teaser:

The inspiration photo!

See you on Wednesday. :)

When I first saw this piece of fabric with its bleach discharged pattern, (how to here and here [something I was doing for And Then We Set It On Fire a couple of months back]) I immediately saw roiling waves - so of course, the thing to do was to add rocks for them to crash on.

And then I decided that it also needed a water bird diving into the ocean, so I made a coppery-gold foiled kestrel with a golden moon shining down on it all.

Of course, birds don't fly at night - much less do they fish - but let's suspend our disbelief shall we? (After all, just a short time ago, I introduced you to a flying rabbit. :) )

Or, if you're like my BSP , a self described "literal Libran", you think that this little technique testing piece depicts a monster coming to eat the bird. So, "Fly Fishing At Night" or your interpretation in the comments! It's a Rorshach test. ;)

P.S. I'm linking up with with MR over at Quilt Matters for Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday and I'm also joining Meg and Sarah. Click on over and see what everyone else has been up to!