Eagle Quilt

I took a class last weekend on surface design- using thickened dyes to paint on fabric. (Confusing to call it painting- because it is definitely dyeing, not painting...)

Anyhow- I "invented" (someone has probably done it before me) a technique to make a variegated

line. I took a squeeze bottle and stacked yellow and red, so it would squeeze out yellow, red, and shades of orange.  Then I drew a stippled  line all over a piece of fabric.

When I got home I had this idea to stipple all the white space. Following the curve of the line I stippled about 75% of the quilt, all but inside one big blog near the bottom. I thought it would look cool to pebble that- if you look closely you can see the change of texture.

This was my idea for a finished project, but it didn't look like anything.

So I thought I should overdye it.  I overdyed in a light orange dye bath.  Now you can see the white quilting lines better, but it still didn't look like anything.

I had the idea to make it into a sunset. I went through Kevin's animal photographs (I wanted a giraffe, but couldn't find just the right one) and found a gorgeous eagle sitting on branches, and went to work in photoshop tracing it as a silhoutte.

I used freezer paper to cut it out of fabric backed with fusible, and fused my eagle onto the quilt. It is just fused, not stitched, so super easy raw edge applique. My freezer paper didn't want to stay attached, so cutting the fine detail was a bit tough.

It still needs binding, but I am so happy that my sunset silhouette turned out nicely!

Sorry- it has been a really long time.

I can't even remember the last time I blogged...
Is anyone still out there?

Since it has been so long, you'd think I have tons of projects to share- but mostly, I've just been doing machine embroidery. Christmas shirts, birthday presents, and I've started tackling onesies.  Not for me!

The first onesies I made are for one of my childhood best friends, who is expecting her third child and first girl. I made 4 for her- but only have a photo of 3, oops

 
There is a bit of a baby boom going on in our neighborhood and later this summer we are having a baby shower for 5 neighbors together! (Another neighbor just had her baby, and she got a personalized onesie, the same flip flop design as above, since 1) I knew that baby's name and 2) I didn't have this design yet.)

But for the 5 new Moms, I made onesies that celebrate out neighborhood.  My neighborhood is the best!

I also made 3 onesies for my first college roommate. But all three are for her! Her triplets are celebrating their first birthday next month.

The 3 month size is the smallest I'll embroider- they are still really tough, and I've had a few mishaps where the needle has caught extra fabric and caused a giant mess; but these are much easier than I thought they would be. I had always heard onesies are really really hard!

I'll try to share more of my projects soon.