Smarter Than the Average Bird
2015
16 x 16
machine pieced, hand appliqued, hand embroidered, machine quilted
I'm very pleased to announce that my entry into the Quilter's Alliance "Animals We Love" contest won an Honorable Mention! The prize includes a 12 spool collection of 50 wt Aurifil thread (my favorite!). Smarter Than the Average Bird is made with techniques gathered from various teachers over the years (including Janet Bolton, Sue Spargo, Jude Hill, Tonye Phillips, and others). I am actually in the process of developing a class to teach how I make my mini folk art animal quilts and hope to teach it this fall at the Stitchin' Post in Sisters. This will also be the subject of my demo at the Fiber Arts Stroll in Sisters on July 5.
I just discovered that I never posted about this quilt although it is in my Portfolio. This one was made at the same time as the Fanciful Blackbird for the SAQA Spotlight Auction and along with the Jungle Crow and Celia's Raven. As I've said before, corvids were on my mind! This one inspired by your average, run of the mill American Crow, but of course, they are not really average. They are Smarter Than the Average Bird! I absolutely love starting with a simple appliqued bird or animal shape and adding life to it with embroidery. I prefer very simple stitches though, even after years of Sue Spargo classes and having lots of fancy stitch guides.
Please do take a look at the other winners of the contest. You can find them here at the Quilter's Alliance website. They are all fantastic and the animal theme is one of my very favorites of all time.
In other news, Chloe's graduation was nice. I'll post some photos from that next time. She has also moved to Portland and started her new job this week! It's been a very busy and tiring month, exacerbated by a huge de-cluttering effort here at home.
I have not sewn since I finished Chloe's quilt (she loved it, by the way!), photos on that to come too. When I have an hour at the end of the day I've been spinning! I know, weird huh? I've had a spinning wheel for many years and also have a huge stash of fiber, but it's been neglected. For some reason, this de-cluttering has made me want to turn a huge pile of fiber into a much smaller and more manageable pile of yarn. So far, so good.
Meanwhile, I have a long way to go with clearing out closets. This week I'm going to be giving away and/or selling some toys, games and lots of books. I still have many closets and cupboards to go through, but it's all good. We used to move every 2-3 years and when you move this sort of clean out happens naturally. We've lived here for 4 years and I was feeling it. Lightening up as our lifestyle changes with the kids grown and on to other pursuits feels really necessary right now.