Hermit thrush

Spring is here! Birds are singing

 

And the wild crocuses are croaking!

 

Hermit thrush before quilting

 

And after.

Shows you how much free motion quilting adds to a piece.

Enjoy the spring!

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Hermit thrush

I didn't think I had anything to show this week but then remembered this little guy.

 

He is the second one ( remember the purple background?)

The words hermit thrush are quilted in with a gold colored thread.

I really like how the quilting came out. I used a variegated green and yellowish thread that is thicker than what I usually use so it stood out. The fabric I used on the bird didn't really work so I tried painting over it and the results are sort of muddled. Not thrilled about that but it turned out ok so I finished it. I like these little ones hanging from a branch.

Isn't that where birds hang out?

BTW - I'm sitting here this morning smelling my favorite crock pot recipe that I've had going all night. Since quilters like easy and quick I will share it with you. I like it because it's just dump and go, also it's so easy I can remember how to do it.

Here is the original recipe:

White Chicken Chili

1 lb dry white beans (or 4 cans if you don’t have time to crock it)

6c chicken broth (or water and bullion)

1 tbsps cumin

2 or 3 large chicken breasts (cooked if not crocking)

3 med onions, chopped

garlic – lots of it!

(crock it on low most of the day)

add

2 cans green chili peppers

1/2 lb shredded pepper jack cheese

lots of cilantro and sour creme to garnish

 

I like to put it together the night before and let it go all night on low and I use more broth because I like it more like a think soup. Great for a cold day.

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Facing tabs : word of the year

Instead of a New Years resolution I like to pick a word to try to incorporate into my life. The word for 2016 is develop. I would like to develop my skills in my creative life as well as relationships and health, mind and body. It all sounds good bit as you know, the creative part is fun and therefore easy , as to the last bits. Well I will try.

I wanted to be able to hang my hermit thrush art quilt from a branch. That means making tabs or fabric loops to go around the branch. I also wanted a facing and for once I actually thought about the hanging before the edge finish (binding or facing). See! I'm developing my finishing skills!

So first I made two "tubes" or tabs by cutting 2 pieces of fabric about 4" wide and 6" long. Sew right sides together. Turn inside out and press. Fold in half. I like to sew on the sides of my facings first, so after that and pressing, folding back and pinning the sides. I lay the tabs on top, raw edges out. Pin.

Now simply lay the top facing and sew as usual.

I have a tutorial on how I do facing sight here on the blog in case you want to see the whole process.

 

It worked like a charm! I need a better branch. Something lichen covered would be cool. It has to be straight though which is easier said than done in the branch world. This will be my "quest" for my next walk in the woods. Which will be today sometime as soon as it gets to at least 20 degrees.

I'm going to do all my future bird quilts this way.

Do you have a word of the year?

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Flying in the new year

I'm making birds on this New Year's Eve. Quilting the background now and this guy is a hermit thrush so will need to put some blotches on his breast area. Not sure how yet and I probably should have done that before I spent a lot of time quilting in case I screw it up, which is entirely possible but, oh well . That's how I roll.

Do you like the lichen on the branch? I drew it out and made the brown branch smooth and used freezer paper for the template and turned under the edges. No glue. Then used fusible on the lichen since it's all jaggedy. That way there isn't as much glue and is easier to quilt. I really don't like two layers of fusible.

And here is another one being fused together on the parchment paper. This way if I do screw up the first one there will be another to try something else :-)

In the foreground is a postcard in the making. A cairns one, of course.

Here is a photo of Zu Zu and the sweet Summer today. We finally got some snow - about 5 inches although a lot of it melted already. They had fun running around in it.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year! I'm working New Year's Day so will not see the ball drop. If I stayed up to see it, then you would see Carol drop about half way thru the day on Friday - lol!

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update on the blotches - I used watercolor pencil and aloe gel but not really liking it much.

on the left it's wet and on the right dry from this morning.

eh

WIP 4/17

I've been making a lot of mini quilts with cairnes from the pattern I put together

(For sale on Craftsy here in case anyone is interested) and I've found that once the rocks are fused into one piece I can audition different backgrounds and what a difference a background makes!

Both of the above are the same cairn just different backgrounds!

I'm also experimenting with something new. I work in a hotel and they take the stuff off the bottom of the new beds box springs off. It's clean and like new! They were going to throw it out but I felt it and it looks a lot like the lutradur that a lot of artists use. So I put 2 pieces together to see how it stitches just by itself. Traced a bird and stitched with dark thread - seemed to work nicely. I then colored with inktense pencils and wet with hair gel.

Hard to tell from this pic but I out up to a window and you can see thru the non painted parts - cool!

I have much more to try with this stuff and will keep you posted.

I also started a new off the edge quilt. Here is the outline done. Need to do an all over quilting in white and then color in. I will trrrrrrrrryyyyyy to leave it fainter on the colors this time.

Spring has finally sprung here in Vermont so we are enjoying being able to go out without bundling up.

 

Happy tails!

Linking up at Nina's off the wall Friday

 

 

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Paisley feathers

Check out this cool background free motion quilting filler called paisley feathers.

 

I did some practicing and it's really easier than it looks.

 

I think this may become my February prayer flag - the word flow fits this design somehow

And what better background design for a bird? This hermit thrush is almost done, just need to hand sew the binding which will be today. I have the day off and with wind chills today being -20, I see a day of quilting and a big pot of soup in order:-)

 

 

Here's a bird in a bowl (or should I say nest) ready to be born ;-)

So try the paisley feather if you've never done it - you will love it

Stay warm!

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Ecobundle to bird

 

You may remember my echo bundle adventure. Go here to see how I did this.

 

From trash to treasure

 

From trash to thrush (hermit that is) - the state bird of Vermont

Here he is after adding some brown dots using inktense pencils.

Now I just have to figure out where to put him and how to quilt him.

It's warmed up to 6 degrees right now (from -14 early this morning) so I may venture outside to grocery shop but the rest of the day will be hibernation and quilting. One good thing about living here, I have a good excuse to quilt all day :-)

Could be worse

 

 

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