THE BLUE JAY

 THE BLUE JAY

23 3/4" X 19 3/4"

An original design

Rawedged fused applique

Machine Quilted

Details Below

 

THE JOURNEY

 My own inspirational photograph

Thank you all for taking this journey with me.  The Blue Jay was a pleasure to work on and brought me joy as I did not encounter any difficulties throughout the process.   I love this bird even though some may think him bold and somewhat of a bad guy.  He is only doing what comes natural to him and keeps nature in balance.  I love his presence when he comes into the yard with his loud cry and majestic color, markings and size.  He is one of my favorites .

This piece is available for sale in my Etsy Shoppe:

QUILTED BLUE JAY

Unlike many art quilters, I choose to not quilt traditional quilting designs on my pieces.  I want the piece to replicate the reality of the scene and be more mainstream art quality rather then a mix between traditional quilt and art.  I am proud of my traditional quilt background and used meanderings and other fillers in the beginning as well as feathers and leaves on vines and other quilting designs.
However, at some stage in this growth as an art quilter, I personally thought it looked foreign to the art work and chose to now just replicate and add texture with my quilting. My backgrounds are usually organic lines...sometimes wavy..sometimes fairly straight because I do not want the quilting to interfere with the fabric choice.  There are also times when I choose to quilt in parts of the background fabric particularly when it is leaves or branches. In this case with this background I could have easily done that but I wanted the background to totally fade away so the crab apple tree came forward and then the blue jay even further into the foreground..

You may choose differently and that is what it is all about....finding your style.

BLUE JAY CONSTRUCTION

Here is how I constructed this bird.  I start with a sketch on tissue paper, so once all the major pieces are cut out of the fabric I have chosen,   I can line them up properly using the tissue paper sketch as a guide. All is done on top of my teflon sheet.

 He looks good now but will get better with his feathers quilted in.

Winter's Charm

 "Winter's Charm"

22 1/2" X 34 1/2"

An Original Design 

Rawedged Fused Applique

Acrylic Fabric Painted Snowflakes

Machine Quilted by

Barbara Strobel Lardon

October 2013

The journey making this quilt was very enjoyable for me.  I wanted this quilt to be ready to sell to more of a broad based client so kept the theme more traditional and appealing to most.  I had debated over the boarder on whether to frame with a wooden frame or not but decided to do a neutral fused border and binding instead.  Part of the reason for this was cost.  I plan on selling this piece and by framing it, I would have to increase the cost of it by quite a bit so decided I will allow the buyer to make that decision.    Hope you enjoyed the journey making this with me. 

Now on to another exciting piece.

Final Addition

 I thought I would show you how I construct a very small bird for this piece.  This is just how I do it.  No rules here....just what I have found works for me.   this bird is about 2 inches long.  I start with a cutout of him to use as a guide.  This black fabric is very light.

 I have him drawn out on a piece of tracing paper that you saw me use on the quilt itself yesterday as a point of reference.

 I start with the furthest part of the bird from the front and layer as I come closer fusing them down.  This is where the tracing paper drawing helps with being sure it is placed where it needs to be.

I use a thin fabric marker to add some of the birds feather markings as they are way to small to fuse on.

 I continue layering.  I have chosen all my fabrics before hand.  So they are ready to go and I have drawn out the sections of the bird on my fusible web ahead too. 

 The process moves along fairly well as you can see but it is tiny pieces so takes longer then it looks.....but......

At the end of several hours...your blue jay is ready to be quilted on.