What I’m hoping to do going forward is pair a map piece with a fabric piece. Say I complete a map-based Mockingbird, I want to one on fabric that might tells a different aspect of the same narrative. Coincidentally, a Mockingbird fabric piece is in progress! To help me along with that, I found these quilt builder decks from my favorite local quilt shop; Chestnut Bay Quilting in Caledonia, NY. The decks have quilt block patterns with instructions and measurements so one can make different sized blocks. Since I’m new to working with fabric and quilting, having this information really helps. Not all of the patterns are applicable for painting a bird somewhere within the block, but most do.
Whenever I visit a quilt shop I’m always poking around the bargain bins or fat quarter shelves. Ideas usually emerge from these scraps. Sometimes the idea disappears when you bring the fabric home and store it. You pull it out later and ask yourself what in the world you had in mind when you bought it?! When I found a fat quarter with leaves a different shade of purple, it was a good enough excuse to work with purple!
When I got home I hit the deck – the design deck. I pulled out several that had a 6-inch center block and settled on one called Susannah. Its completed size would be 12 X 12 which would be perfect for pairing with a smallish painting. What attracted me was the center diamond and the fan – almost windmill-like – pattern off the center. I returned from another visit to Chestnut Bay with that lighter mottled fabric.
I dug thru my reference photos and selected a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird photo I took the previous summer and set to work painting. I used a piece of sky fabric I had – bluish with what looks like puffy clouds. After piecing, I sandwiched it with a piece of unbleached, ungessoed lined I had along with its backing fabric. The backing fabric is a blush-purple with a pattern that looks like plants and flowers. I just quilted an echo of the inner diamond at one inch intervals and used a piece of lavendar fabric to create the binding. This is only the second piece I’ve done a traditional binding on. Not too bad.
Now I just need to figure out the companion piece!
