"Who's There?"

Sold my quilt "Who's There" today.  I made this several years ago and I am very happy to see it go to someone who loves it. 

Progress

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I have discovered that Fuchsias are fun to make......I am really enjoying this piece.  It is time consuming though...takes a lot of time and patience.   Keep watching....hopefully more to come soon.

"Chanticler"

 "Chanticler"

18inches X 24 inches

Interpretation of photo by Natalie Rowe

Rawedged fused applique

Machine Quilted

This rooster was a joy to make.  Just totally fun and joyful.  His name is McGuinty and he is a Chanticler Rooster which are rare.  He has the most Beautiful Tail.  Here is the original photograph.

Definitely a Bad Boy!

Ghost Boreal

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Holiday.  Ours was celebrated last weekend so we went out to eat with friends.  When we got home I worked on my next owl quilt.  I decided this one needs to be in a hole in a fir tree.  I chose the Boreal Owl as my subject.    The first thing I did was choose my bark fabrics.  Then I made the circle for the hole in the tree,  The owl will fill most of it but there will be some of the back of the dark hole showing so I put a dark piece of fabric in there.

 Next I traced around the hole piece on the backing and batting sandwich.  Now I was ready to put all the tree bark on the batting fusing it in place.

 Once that was finished, I put the hole back on .  I like it, but need to add some additional pieces later to get it to look more like it is coming out of the tree not a wreath on the tree.

For now I put the tissue drawing of my Boreal Owl in the hole and see I need a bit more dark fabric on the left hand side too.   I am not fusing the inner part of the hole ring down yet as the owl will get tucked under it.  However I will quilt the bark of the tree body now and part of the hole circle on the outer edges once I am happy how it looks.

I just looked out the window because it was getting dark out and instead of rain we are getting snow, big white flakes!   Will winter ever give up?

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.