Bird - "Bird: Past Tense"

The minute I got the word "bird," this image flashed into my brain. It must be my warped sense of humor! I had fun drawing it and might do a little series on this guy. Anyone want to help name him?

Not much to this quilt; one of the simpler quilts I have done. The background, white and pink are all unknown fabrics from curtain samples. The quilting was fun, small spirals on the cat and the background quilting is something that I made up...I call it "lightning spiral." If someone else has done this, I don't remember seeing it!

The whiskers are handstitched wool embroidery yarn.

Sorry this was posted too late. Life has a habit of getting in the way. I can't wait to work on the next word, Spring. I already have an idea. Let's just hope I can get this one done before life turns the tables on me once again!

Lisa Kay

Bird challenge

TRACES close view

Birds - they wake me in the morning, I see them fly by or sit on a roof or a tree. Or I see their traces. 
I have taken a picture at Lake Erie of bird's footsteps on the beach. That was my starting point for this challenge. 
I took monoprinted fabrics and made a collage. Normally, I love working with strong colors so it was an additional challenge to stay in black and white - more or less! 

TRACES

Unfortunately, the colors don't show well.
Heidi

"Blue Bird, Blue Bird" by Jan Girod-Bird

When the word for this challenge was announced I lept with joy as I have been using these birds in my work quite frequently....this would be so easy. At midnight last night as I stitched away I was thinking, oh what a fool you are, but it is done and I feel absolute relief. For several years now I keep finding myself using trees and birds in piece after piece....sketchbook too. I have attributed it to growing up in Minnesota, following behind my uncle who became a wildlife biologist. My friends never did get my affinity for snakes, oh well to each his own. I began with a unique piece of hand painted fabric I had been saving for a special project, it fit perfectly. The branches are drawn in freehand and colored using Derwent Inktense Pencils...love using them. Once everything had dried I transfered on the birds using TAP-Transfer Artist Paper. Leaves are a combination of painted Wonder-Under, sheer fabrics and free motion quilting.

bird challenge - Lynn Krawczyk

Blue Line
Lynn Krawczyk

I chose the theme for this challenge and it wasn’t a difficult thing for me to choose Birds.

Its a combination of my love for the little fellows and my intense desire for winter to be done with us. Spring, please.

My favorite bird imagery is birds on a wire. There’s something very romantic about the silhouette of a small bird, high on a single line against the vast sky.

Thrills me every time.


I started my piece with some soy wax batik fabric. I stamped the fabric with a wood batik block I found at a flea market and then did a wash over it with watered down black dye-na-flow. The effect reminds me of the variation in the colors of the sky depending on the time of day and the season.

I wanted to experiment with the stitching on this piece. I am a loud and proud hand stitcher but when I thought of this piece, I wanted really tight long vertical lines. What I had in mind could best be accomplished with machine stitching.


I decided to do the stitching before I printed the imagery. I used two different thermofax screens to print the birds. The smaller scale birds are done in black and the larger birds are white and the one single line of blue.

I particularly like how stitching first broke up the screen printed images, making it feel more daydream, produced more shadows. I think its something that I will do more of.

Birds of a feather

I have a beautiful blue feather that was calling out to me when the topic was chosen. I have been playing with Inktense pencils so I drew the feather on freezer paper backed fabric and colored it in with the pencils. I used fabric medium to wet the pencil marks and the colors came to life. Then I freehand quilted the feather and appliqued it to a fused collage background. I like weird outside edges and I love the technique of zig-zagging a binding. It all came together very quickly and I am happy with the results.
Here you can see the blending of colors from the pencils and the quilting.

New Word for June 1 reveal

Spring sounds so trite........but it is so on our minds as we all start to recover from what was for most of us a hard winter.  Here in Northern California we just emerged from 21 straight days of rain. Unusual for us for sure. So I looked up "spring".  It has some other meanings that are also fun.


the first stage and freshest period: the spring of life.



a source or fountainhead of something: a spring of inspiration.


an elastic or bouncing quality: There is a spring in his walk.

a leap, jump, or bound.

Do have fun...........that's what it is all about!

Beauty of birds

Here is my version of this challenge.  I am lucky enough to live where I can look at birds in flight all day long if I wish.  The primary feeling I wanted to demonstrate was both the simplicity and the grace of a bird  in flight. The lines are smooth and graceful. Gliding is the best. So here it is.......in abstract, but here it is. Thanks for a great "word". It is my turn to post a word and I will do it from work today....

BIRD CHALLENGE

Well, it's April 1st, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we have made.

I hope I haven't gone too far around the bend on this one, but the first thought that popped to mind for "bird" was a woman I admired for her work in ecology and the spreading of wildflowers across the US. I'm thinking, of course, of LadyBird Johnson.

I studied many on-line photos of her, and modeled my image on several from her later life. I knew she always tried to wear bright colors, so I gave her a dress made from Kaffe Fasett fabric with a big flower as a collar, a red silk hat, and set her among as many pieces of floral fabric as I could squeeze onto our 11 x 17" format.

I had fun making "LadyBird."

Sue Walen