Barbara's Birds
by Linda Frost and Barbara Brackman
2000-2014,
28-1/2" x 38"
Years ago I got an idea---to do a state birds quilt
that was sort of like the diagram below.
A Double Irish Chain quilt with alternating
blocks of checkerboards and appliqued birds.
I appliqued a lot of birds before I realized I made a big mistake. The contrast between the birds and the olive green backgrounds was so minimal you could hardly see the birds.
This is as far as I got.
Dot on the voluminous bad idea file.
So I filed the birds away in the bad idea file for a decade or more.
A few years ago I cleaned that file out and gave the poor bird
blocks to my friend Linda Frost, who loves birds
and a challenge. Do what you will, I said.
To increase the contrast between bird and background
she painted a dye remover on the backgrounds.
Read her account at her blog here:
Now that the contrast was better she worked on my hand applique by drawing black outlines with
her machine stitching.
She embellished the birds by adding some evolutionary details the actual robin never thought of.
The birds now look skillfully drawn.
The blocks finish to 9-1/2"
The quilt looks out of focus in this overall shot
but that's because of the repeated outlines.
It's a great quilt if I do say so myself.
Thanks to Linda...
Tumbled Stones
by Linda Frost
who has a quilt in the Dinner at Eight group's special exhibit Reflections in Houston this week.