Colourful Birds

I don't know how you feel about panels, but at times they can be an inspiring way to form a quilt. A friend of mine bought a panel of birds - beautiful watercolour birds. And since her other half is a twitcher, and the illustrations were indistinct in terms of being a particular bird and perhaps not being rendered completely accurate - (which can frustrate bird watchers I guess) she thought this was a good option.

My friend, however, was not confident to quilt the panels, having put all the borders on. So I volunteered, since I really do enjoy free-motion quilting. So I set about stippling around the birds, not outlining them as we wanted them to stay kind of free-form. Aren't they cute?

The artist is Connie Hayley and I love her colours and style. Having done the stippling, I did a stitch in the ditch around the first small white border, but on the second white one I thought I'd give some leaves a bit of a try. I'd done them on a placemat previously, and thought they might fit in this border. 

They seemed to work well, so consulting my friend, asked whether she might also like some in the green border - she thought that might work too, so there they are. I think the binding will be a dark shade like the central framing of the birds, either that or a green, we'll see what works best. 

For the backing, a lovely beige/light brown grunge type fabric works well. 

You can also see I did a very large loose stipple around the border with birds in it - they wanted to fly freely! I really enjoyed doing this and my friend is delighted with it, which always helps!

One final photo of one of the birds, they really are lovely. 

So that's what I've been working on this week. 

Until next time,

Lynn