Goals!

I suppose most people make resolutions for the new year, at the new year. Well, I have a goal. It's rather nebulous, but a goal none the less. You may remember Timmy, the Great Horned Owl that was trapped in the fireplace last year; Timmy's release portrait has been my screen saver for a few months and I have come to know his face rather well! So, in the up coming months I plan to use Timmy and some of my other favorite critters to expand my fiber art techniques.

Looking back on my writing this past year, I realize that coloring fabric and yarn are some of my most enjoyable activities! I really could dye yarn and fabric full time! My stash has been reduced and soon I will need to color/print/texturize a whole lot of yardage! Oh darn. The magic of Easter egg coloring is alive and well within me.

I tried my hand at a couple of small scale art quilts, and I liked it. I showed you the process with "Ephemeral". Recently, I created an art quilt based on Timmy using thread sketching and fusible applique.

This is where I began. I cropped Timmy down to portrait size. I opened the photo in Elements and removed the black background. Then I had fun with filters. I pixelated, solarized, and patchworked the file. When I saw the patchwork effect, I was on to something. Patchwork is in my repertoire, so it wasn't a leap for me. But making patches 1/10th of an inch was a bit insane, even for me! Next, I turned the photo into gray scale. Wow. Now I could really see the shading on Timmy. And now I had a beginning. I printed the gray scale photo and selected fabrics that would fit.

I dye value gradations and I had some great ranges of blacks and grays. Golden yellow is a favorite of mine, so the owl eyes were taken care of! I used 11 different fabrics in the bird. I will take care of the background when I get there!

 I used a re-purposed piece of acetate as a clear pattern sheet. I laid it on top of the gray scale print and selected the darkest value areas. I drew these onto the acetate and then cut pattern pieces for the fusible webbing, which was then pressed on the fabric. I then put the puzzle pieces on a white cotton and pressed into place. I drew each value with a different color marker and repeated the applique process until all the parts were finished. This is how my pattern looked after all the pieces were accounted for!

And this is how the applique looked on a variety of backgrounds:

 In my mind's eye, I thought this was it.











And then I saw this....

And then I chose this marbled blue silk. The fabric pieces look blotchy at this point. The thread sketching will add the detail layer. Think of thread sketching as drawing/painting with tread and using a sewing machine as the tool. The fabric has to be stabilized to where it feels like paper in order to support all the thread. This is definitely an art quilt technique, not a bed quilt!

Can you see the feathers and detail coming in? Timmy had a lot of rusty brown areas and a lot of gray! I added all the brown with thread. I carefully studied my original photo for color and texture and used the thread to mimic. He's looking really good and there is still more stitching to do!

I really thought the back looked cool! All the thread ends were pulled to this side, so none show on the public side of the piece. I think you can see the sketching quite easily.










Next, I layered the backing and the batting to make it an official "quilt". I was undecided on the quilting, so I drew a few ideas onto my acetate pattern and came up with a dreamy skyscape for the next step. I drew the moon in the upper left corner and wispy clouds behind Timmy. More thread was added to the owl to create depth. Binding would match the quilt and voila!

RESCUE OWL; TIMMY!

Detail of eye

I am proud of how my owl turned out. I plan to try this technique with gila monsters and other critters! Maybe even a human or two! My journey continues!