One Piece at a Time

Bird One: Thread Painting

So, now that I have the general outline of my bird in fabric I’m ready to start painting him with thread. The first time I tried this I used a hoop and some lightweight tear-away stabilizer. THAT was a mistake because the fabric really got sucked in and I had A LOT of wrinkles. This time I’m using a hoop and this stabilizer.

For my bobbin thread I’m using Bottom Line.

For my top base layer (more on that later) I’m using this thread by Superior

And Isacord. Both these thread are polyester and provide a nice sheen, kinda like feathers.

To finish and add detail I’m using YLI Variations. I think these threads are beautiful and mimic the color variations of feathers very nicely.

To do the thread painting I used my Bernina #9 foot and lowered my feed dogs. I had to play around with the tension to prevent the bottom threads from poking up to the top. I ended up having to tighten the bobbin tension on my bobbin case. I have an extra bobbin case just for these situations. I don’t like to mess with my bobbin tension when I’m just piecing so I keep a spare around for playing with. That way I can just stick my standard bobbin case in when I’m done thread painting and go back to regular sewing.

My first step was to fill in the eyes. Here I just “scribble” with the thread until I get the pupil and iris all filled in.

The next thing I did was to use a feather like motion (about 2 cm back and forth) to apply a base layer of thread in all the areas. My hope was that if I had a base layer down the fabric wouldn’t draw up as much. So far so good. CAUTION: This takes PRACTICE.

Next I used the YLI Variations thread to go over all the major areas to give them some depth.

After that was all done I used the same thread to “paint” in the details of the feathers on the face and body. All in all I’m pleased with the result. I had a little wrinkling but nothing I can’t handle with the machine quilting. At first I really tried to make him look like the original watercolor but I figured that was impossible and I was happy if he just looked like an owl.

Quilting for the Birds: Bird 1

A while back I did a post about one of my current projects making a raffle quilt for EFTA. You can read more about this here.

When I first started thinking about this project I was going to do each bird in a kind of “Pine Needles” style and have a small amount of thread work to finish it off. The more I thought about it the more convinced I became that if there ever was a project that screamed for thread painting it was this. My only problem was that I needed to learn to do this.

After some trial and error I have my first bird done. Isn’t he cute?

The next couple of tutorials are an explanation of what I ended up doing and why. As I said before, I’m not an expert on this by any means so if you have ANY ideas please leave a comment.

First I started off with my pattern. I traced each part onto Lite Steam-a Seam 2 and fused this to the batik fabric used for that part.

I’ve found over the years that if you are doing any kind of fusible work a Teflon sheet is invaluable. You can get these here. I really like these because I can put my pattern down on my light box, place the Teflon sheet over it and pre-assemble my project.

Since it’s hard to “see” through several layers of fabric I first pre-assembled my eyes.

Here are some shots of how the rest of the bird went together.

Here he is all fused and ready to be embroidered. Check back tomorrow for how I did this.

Once I have things a little more figured out I’m planning on offering these patterns for a small donation to EFTA. Each pattern will have directions for a “thread” version and a fabric one as well. The fabric bird will be done mostly by fusing and all the edge finishing can be done with machine quilting. If you are interested in this could you please leave a comment? Thanks.

"Quilting for the Birds" gathering supplies

 

Before I launch into the preparations for “Quilting for the Birds” I want to introduce you to my friend Sue from EFTA and let her describe this organization to you.

Sue and I met and bonded back in 2008 when we took our kids and their high school orchestra to Europe. Luckily for the adults on this trip, all the kids were lovely so we (the adults) could wander around beautiful European cities, drink coffee and basically have a blast. We even had a tour bus to drive us from venue to venue, sort of like the Rolling Stones only nerdier (is that a word?). Since returning Sue and I and the other parents have all kept up with each other and it has been a huge blessing to me these past two years.

I had Sue write up a little description of EFTA for you because she is much better at those kinds of things. So here’s Sue:

“Environment for the Americas (EFTA) is a non-profit organization that works to increase awareness of birds and their conservation throughout the Western Hemisphere.  Through our programs, we provide the framework educators need to provide public programs, from presentations and bird walks to full-blown, multi-day festivals.  Our keystone project is International Migratory Bird Day, a celebration of bird migrations that takes place from Canada to South America.  If you haven't taken part in an IMBD event, there are a number of opportunities in Colorado in May 2010, including the Boulder Wild Bird store's bird walks at Walden Ponds, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory's event at Chautauqua, and the Front Range Birding Company's event in Denver.  Our annual art is one of the focal points of the event each year, and each piece represents a specific theme.  The birds are carefully chosen to represent this theme.  In 2010, we are celebrating The Power of Partnerships in Bird Conservation.  Each bird species in the 2010 art (by Robert Petty of Missoula, Montana) represents a species that has benefited from the efforts of creative partnerships formed for its protection.  Visit our website at www.birdday.org to learn more, and thanks for following Erin's bird quilt tutorials!”

So today I went in search of fabrics and supplies to begin “Quilting for the Birds”. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this but I’m not a big batik collector. I love them but I find them hard to appliqué by hand. I do really like them for projects like this however. Anyway here’s what I’m starting with.

Here is a book  by Ann Fahl I’ve found helpful as well.

My first bird will be the Burrowing Owl. I’m going to teach Sue to do this as well and she’s going to do the Wood Thrush. I just love that owl. It must be something about the full on stare. It kind of reminds me of the portraits I like to take when working with my camera.

I’ve even turned a few of my portraits into quilts. My kids hated them. Around here they are affectionately referred to as the “Creepy Face Quilts”

 

I'm glad I’ve moved on to birds. They don’t roll their eyes and talk back.

Come to think of it, those quilts are a little creepy…I like my flowers better…off to get Florabunda Block 3 ready.

Quilting for the Birds

Back in my student days (which went on forever it seemed) I saw this PBS special about an artist who painted birds. He had this gorgeous studio surrounded by woods with beautiful natural light coming from multiple windows. I was enchanted. At the time I was spending 12 hours a day in a windowless basement lab where everything went wrong more often than not. I remember thinking to myself, that’s what I want to do, be an artist who painted birds. The only problem was, I couldn’t paint. I also knew nothing about birds. Luckily the University I was at had an ornithology lab so I did learn a few things about birds while I was there. I’m still working on the artist part…minus the painting …which I still can’t do.

So the other day I was having breakfast with my friend Sue (more about her later) who runs EFTA (more about this later) when she told me that her current poster for her organization was designed to look like a quilt. I don’t know how exactly it came up but the idea is; why not make it into a quilt that can be raffled to raise money. Well, let me tell you, my little brain started working over time. Maybe I can’t paint with paint but I CAN paint with thread and fabric. And I know other people who can too.

To make a long story short; some other quilters and I are working on turning this gorgeous poster into a quilt that can be raffled to raise money for EFTA. So, in addition to tutorials for Florabunda I’m going to do a few on this process as well. If you know anyone who is interested in thread painting and nature quilts send them my way.

Other News: I’m going to work on getting the blogroll up over the weekend. Thanks for sending my your blogs. I’m so impressed.