Rosellas in my garden quilt

Inspiration for a quilt can come from many sources. My sister gave me an old calendar some time back with prints from an artist who specialised in Australian Native birds.

There was a page with a pair of Eastern Rosellas and at the time, there was a pair which visited our garden in spring.

I decided to start a small wall hanging featuring the rosella, and the calendar as inspiration.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto.com

but hard to see in the bush

Rosellas are very brightly coloured birds, and I am always amazed at how difficult they are to spot in a tree.

Unless you see them move, you wouldn't know they are there.

The male is brighter than the female, while juveniles are rather dullish.

Image courtesy Wikipedia

a few years ago and stalled

My students at the time used to comment on how much I had done (not!) when they came to class as it sat on the design wall awaiting inspiration.

I used crazy patch technique

I decided to use crazy quilting to construct the background, as I thought it led the eye to 'see' different leafy trees, some sky peeping through, and variety behind the birds.

I built up the areas from darks at the bottom, to lights at the top.

Because this quilt was not to be made up of blocks (as in a bed quilt), I made areas of crazy patch and then combined them into the whole, to completely cover the foundation fabric which was cut roughly to the finished quilt's size.

from bird photos

Using my Gould's bird book, I worked out how the plumage would need to be positioned.

I cut out a shape for each of the two birds, and then began to cut fabrics which would give an illusion of having been painted. Painted with fabric instead of brushwork.

Great wing fabrics came from a butterfly wing, some of the feathers are actually leaves from a rainforest print. Others are irregular striped fabrics. I used whatever would fit the colours and the space.

Using the techniques from Free Style Quilts by Susan Carlson enabled me to begin these birds and my Ulysses butterfly quilt Daintree Dalliance.

Yoou can buy your own copy of this book (See the link below.)

As I chose each piece, I glued them down with a spot of fabric glue to keep them secure until I started the preliminary thread work.

I was inspired by this 'new' approach for designing quilts.

I made a wonderful butterfly quilt which is one of my favourites, using the techniques described here.

with the bird at the front

He seemed to have a growth out of his head!

The lighter background area above his head appears to be shooting out from it. It's not so obvious in this little picture, but in the 'flesh', it is very visible.

I will need to cover that area with some of the gum blossoms below him.

until I have finished the free machine embroidery

So far, I have added gum blossoms around the branch on which the rosellas are perched, stitched over much of the bodies of each bird, embroidered the leaves at the top of the quilt, stitched down the tree branch.

There is much left of the bodies to stitch, and then I will be almost done.

Then I will quilt it, and enter it in our local show next year.

Keep dropping in and I'll add pictures as I progress.

Jan T's Utopia has lots of quilt galleries and tips

And now my paintings, too