Apologies...this was scheduled to post and didn't....anyone having troubles with Blogger?
Just in time for spring comes this great blog hop..... Tree Bird Hop! I can tell you that the birds are actually returning to Indiana in full swing with temps in the 40's and 50's. The snow is melting and will be soon be gone ... my shovel will be retired to the garage and the mower will come out to take its place.
This is another hop from dear Madame Samm. She continues to keep us "hoppin!" And I also have Lana to thank for being our hostess. There are lots of participants in this hop and it has to take a lot of checking and rechecking to keep us all under control. A HUGE thanks to Madame Samm and Lana!!
This hop was all about the birds. We were asked to make something bird related. It was suggested.. only suggested.... that we might want to use some fabric from Elizabeth's Studio called Beautiful Birds. It was designed by Tracy Lizotte. Well, I loved the fabric so much that I really wanted to use it in my wall hanging. I started with this panel of several birds nested in their colorful houses. If you are interested in this fabric line, there are many different bird fabrics, all colorful and delightful.
And then, Pat, my sweet blogging friend, sent me this panel.... an empty tree, just waiting for some colorful birds. Thank you so much Pat for sending this to me and making the vision that I had in my mind come true.
And lastly, a picture of Oliver that was printed on fabric. I had intended to thread paint this, but it just didn't work out. I'll have to give it a try on a future project.
Here's the finished hanging. Although Oliver is no longer with me, I have tons of memories of him sitting by the window and "chatting/cackling" at the birds in the backyard. I took a few of the birds from the bird panel and combined them with some "blank" tree sections from the tree panel. I had intended the tree to kind of extend as one into the window sections. Somehow, when I added the borders and the seam allowances, they were far from lining up. Oh well... the eye really doesn't pay much attention to the fact that the tree doesn't exactly flow from pane to pane.
A closer look at Oliver. I added a layer of fusible fleece under him to make him look like he was in the room and give him a bit of a 3D dimension.
These shots are trying to show that I actually did quilt this wall hanging. Even in person, the quilting lines kind of disappear. I didn't do heavy quilting, but quilted all of the trees and the window sections. I think it would have turned out better if I had used a thicker batting.
This is a little template that I made to do the window sections. It was the first time that I had done a version of Attic Windows and was concerned about messing up the Y seams. With this little template, I just marked the intersections and stopped sewing at the marks. I machine stitched the whole thing and they went together perfectly, without a glitch. I was a happy camper!
Thanks for stopping by today and checking out my Tree Bird project. There are other talented bloggers joining me today and here are the links to visit their blogs. Please fly over to each one and let them know how much you enjoyed your visit!
Tuesday, March 17
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Gracie Oliver Arts-You are here!
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