Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Student Birds!

 I love it when students send me pictures of the quilts they make from my classes and my tutorials. Here are some that I have received lately.

This is Sara K's quilt. A lot of happy birds, clearly chatting with each other.

This is Sue P's quilt, and it includes some applique'd birds. I also love the striped chevron legs.

These are Bea G's birds, in a hanging that hangs in her house.

I am always particularly interested in students who make unique birds and push boundaries. This is the second bird quilt I have seen with a gray background. Here there are big and fat and little birds. I love bright colors and the triangles border.

One of my students described the birds as "bulletproof" and the next quilt really epitomizes that.

This is Ken with his quilt of birds. Now before you think, OMG, those are all wrong, let me stop you right now. This quilt has VERVE! It has JOY! It has PANACHE. It has EXUBERANCE. I think it is just FABULOUS!

A couple of years ago I sat at a dinner table with a teacher who teaches precision piecing. I told her she'd probably have a coronary if she saw how I teach and how I make my own quilts. 

I remembered a word of advice I received when I first started making quilts many years ago. "Always leave the evidence of your hand in your work," I was told. "You never want your work to look like it was made by a machine." 

Afterward I told one of my students (who was sitting beside me that night), that I want my students to be happy when they make quilts. I do not want them to feel inadequate. I want them to be successful with their work, and you can tell by the smile on Ken's face, that he's happy!


If you want to make your own birds, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. I'll show you how to make birds, and I'll tell you how to make them yours! The tutorial is an instant download, so you can get started right away.

6 comments:

Poppy Q said...

They are all awesome. It must give you great joy to have so many people share the love of your birds.

Just Ducky said...

Love the last quilt, he truly owned the process and made birds large and small. As birds are large and small! purrs to Miss Millie.

Joyce said...

Love your birds and will definitely be adding them to my project list!

Susan Smeltzer said...

I love all the quilts but Ken's made me chuckle and look again. I particularly like the red legged bird bottom left. Made me sad that I'm not more free spirited and un-stitched mine. Thanx for the share. Susan

Quiltdivajulie said...

Kudos to your students for their birds and quilts (I quite like the birds on gray or light blue backgrounds rather than white - also LOVE Ken's spotted Grunge background).

Raewyn said...

Oh I love these quilts - that bird block leads itself to such fun projects!