I have been using Instagram a lot more lately and finding all kinds of wonderful artists and art communities to follow. While browsing around for fabric art groups I discovered “Project Quilting.” Based on Project Runway… one of my favorite shows… this website offers a weekly challenge prompt. The only requirements are the project needs to be created start to finish within the week and be a 3 layer “quilt”. I found this mid-season and have jumped on board!(Check it out: https://kimlapacek.com/project-quilting)
The first one I did was the “Put a Heart On It” challenge. The only requirement was to have a heart somewhere in the quilt. Since I am starting an online free-motion quilting class, I was rearranging my fabrics to find “ugly” fabrics to make practice quilt sandwiches. I discovered this kinda ugly fabric and saw a bunch of hearts in the design. So it became a heart free motion experiment. In the end I am quite happy with it, even though my FMQ is still rather beginner.
The second one was “Birds in Flight.” This one required using the Birds in Flight traditional piecing block. This block is new to me so I had to do some research on how to make it. I knew I also wanted to collage something on it. The colors that called out to me led me to a hummingbird. Again, as I work to better my FMQ I am most interested in perfecting my feather designs. This block and prompt fit perfectly with that design.
So here’s a little bit on my process
First I made the block using the directions on my favorite block pattern website. https://www.patchworksquare.com/index.php?function=DisplaySheet&sheet=birds-in-the-air-quilt-block
Then I hunted for some reference pictures and drew a hummingbird. I used my light box to trace this pattern onto Pattern ease, which I use as my backing fabric. I also used the light box to pencil the shapes onto the back of the various fabrics to cut out the collage pieces. These pieces I just layered on my pattern ease. I did not use any steam a seam or glue at this point, although I have used steam a seam in the past I didn’t want to for this little collage.
Once the bird was in place I did glue down in some areas and cut away the excess pattern ease.
I sandwiched the bird onto the block and added a layer of tulle over the top before quilting.
I did some feathers in each corner and some ‘thread painting’ type stitches on the bird along with some little zig-zags around the bird to give it the illusion of movement.
I think that you can see that I was very inspired by this theme and super happy to create this little 12″ x 12″. I plan to enter this in the the “Little/Big” Show at the Schack Arts Center that is organized and juried by the Contemporary Quilts Arts group. www.contemporaryquiltart.com
Nice job on your feathers and on your feathered friend, too!!
Wonderful job. Very lovely.
Welcome to Project Quilting!! Your hummingbird is fabulous as is your quilting!