Barred Owl

 "Barred Owl"

21 inches by 15 inches

Rawedged fused applique

Couched Yarn binding

Machine Quilted

First Quilt of 2013

 I finished the binding this morning and the quilting yesterday.  Woo Hoo!   I am very happy with this owl and the piece overall.  Since I do not physically plan out my quilts other then the main character, I always hope that what is in my head transforms successfully into the piece.

 I added more quilting to the downy type white feathers and left that darker ones more simple.

 I couched yard on as my binding.  I learned this technique from my good friend, Nellie Durand.  If you are interested in learning this you can go here:  Couching Yarn
I do not use it on every quilt but on this one I like how ti added to the naturalness and texture in the piece.

Here is the back.  I am showing this just to show the amount of quilting on this one.  I am a firm believer that the art is on the front!  I am always mystified at the judging that is done on the backs of art quilts.  I get it on a bed quilt and yes I do think that your back should be neatly done without anything horrible going on with tension, loose threads, birdnests and things like that but
that is it.  I think my backs are nicely done over all .  I refuse to bury my threads and instead choose to take several very small stitches to end a line of stitching. This results in a perfect top and maybe if quilting in a thick or dense area, a tiny knot will appear, at times, on the back.   I do not think it matters.  

Face Time

 Everytime I vistied my blog last night I felt so bad that this guy was sitting there with a big black
hole on this body.  I could not wait to get up this morning and give him a face.  Here he is before quilting.

Seemed strange to me when I first learned about the Barred Owl that he did not have the typical yellow eyes that you see on most owls.  These dark eyes are mesmerizing and they say, look into your soul.  I hope I have captured that.  Now on to the quilting.