Big Red, 41” x 41”
Here’s another recent finish- Big Red- which is another book quilt. This one was made for The Undercover Quilter’s book pick last year which was Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I didn’t finish it last year because our exhibition opportunity was cancelled due to the pandemic and it took a while to get my mojo back for finishing. I finally decided to machine quilt most of it, but added a little bit of hand quilting in the diamonds and the bird. If you’d like to see where this one began, you can go back the this blog post. You’ll also see some of the other quilts made for this book.
Big Red is a Herring Gull, so named for the red spot on his bill. The main character, Kya, befriends this bird when her own family abandons her in the marshes of North Carolina. I wanted to create a modern esthetic with the piecing and then a simple finish for the bird and the girl’s hands. I really love how it came out and will proudly display it when I can find a spot on our walls. This plan is for this quilt and the rest in our group to be displayed in a special exhibit at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show this July. As of this writing it is still unknown if the show will be in person or virtual, so stay tuned for that news.
embroidery details
Big Red is machine pieced, hand appliqued, and hand and machine quilted with a little bit of hand embroidery for details on the bird. I love the backing fabric. It’s been in my stash for a while and I always knew it would make a great backing. Imagine my delight when I realized the colors were perfect for this quilt. I also used it for the binding, for a little pop of color and pattern on the edge.
perfect backing fabric!
As luck would have it, while writing this post I discovered the photo of 11 week old Joey on this quilt top, so I needed to get a photo of the 11 month old Joey on the completed quilt. So cute!
Joey, 11 months old
Joey, 11 weeks old
how in envisioned it last summer
Awwwwww