I've been cleaning in the studio, because I can't sew if I haven't got any room to work. I have also been ironing the fabric I bought over the last couple of months, which is nice because that fabric has been stacked on one of the chairs in my living room.
I have been wanting to work on the New Hampshire bird quilt, but when I looked at the list of names on my list, nothing really jumped out at me. When I made the Colorado quilt, I made birds based on what I saw around me. Looking out of the windows in my studio I saw Winter. I happen to like Winter. I thought, "I'll make a winter bird."
I saw blue, white and brown. Those would be my colors. Now I had to choose fabrics.
I bought this blue batik about 7 years ago when I made my Four Seasons quilt. I don't think I'd ever made a bird using this fabric, so I chose this for the wing.
This is what I chose for the background of the Winter Bird. I decided to use this print because I could fussy cut it and suggest the trees.
This Effervescent print has both browns and greens. I decided I would make the legs out of this fabric.
I liked the greenish end for the legs. Why Green? Because when I looked outside I could see green on the tree trunks.
It took me a bit to figure out just how to fussy cut the blue fabric for the wing.
Since I had chosen busy fabrics for the background, legs and wing, I wanted to keep the bird breast fabric fairly low key, but I did want the direction of the print to be consistent.
One rule of good design is that you should repeat your colors throughout, and not just have one color in one place. That meant the beak had to be green, or green-ish. I liked this fabric, but from any distance the beak disappeared, so I had to change it.
This is the finished Winter Bird, and I like him a lot.
Yup, looking good!
If you would like to make one of my birds, you can get my tutorial here, in my Etsy shop. I'll tell you everything you need to know to make your own unique birds. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.
9 comments:
Excellent fabric choices. Love the background; it cuts up beautifully.
Love it !! Love it !!! Who knew "winter birds" were so pretty?
WOW! You really are good at designing!!
That looks great.
Nancy and the kitties
What I love most about these most recent birds is your backgrounds NOT being strictly WOWs. The subtle prints are adding another whole layer of storytelling to your flock. Beautiful winter bird!
Since winters are long and days so short here in New England, we sometimes forget how blue, or I mean BLUE the sky can be. Sunny days in Jan and Feb make up for all the drizzly days in March. Blue is absolutely vital to NE in winter.
great job
You have truly caught the essence of Winter with the gorgeous bird! Beautiful!
Well, didn't this all work out so beautifully! Thanks for sharing your process...it made for interesting reading. And birdy is beautiful!
I've just purchased your pattern and tutorial and I'm looking forward to creating my first bird. I think you have chosen an Australian Indigenous fabric for the legs. I notice this mostly because I'm in the midst of hand piecing a hexagon quilt using all Indigenous fabrics. I don't audition nearly as well as you and have made a few mistakes I'm not sure I can live with. I also need to take a leaf out of your book and fussy cut into some beautiful Aboriginal fabrics, but hey, it's not gold is it (as you say). Really enjoy your work.
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