quilting

Art with Fabric Blog Hop

The Art with Fabric Blog Hop began Monday, and today is my day to share about my project. Art with Fabric Blog Hop, Spring 2018, hosted by Tweety Loves Quilting

I want to thank Alida of Tweety Loves Quilting  for hosting this event. This is my first year participating, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I also have to thank Karen from Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats for encouraging me to join in on this blog hop. Karen is posting her project today too, along with two other fellow bloggers, so if you haven’t had a chance to visit their sites today, please do. I have links to those blogs at the end of this post.

The theme for the hop is 1 + 1 =3, and while my piece doesn’t exactly tie in with that theme, you will find many talented quilters who have done some amazing work.

The Artist

Clare Youngs is a paper and mixed media artist that I follow on Instagram. Her designs never cease to make me smile. I thoroughly enjoy her clever use of paper and mixed media to create texture and visual appeal. It took me days to muster up the courage to send her a direct message and ask if I could use one of her designs for this hop. She graciously said yes. I specifically asked her if I could use this design. I hope that my work honors hers. Thank you, Clare, for generously allowing me to use your work for inspiration!

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - Art by Clare Youngs, Chinese New Year, used with permission - piecefulthoughts.com
Clare Youngs – Chinese New Year – Used with permission
The Fabric

I wanted to use the same colors as the original design, so I was on the look out for blue/white fabrics that were graphic and full of texture. While we were on a trip to Utah, I found all of the fabric I needed for this quilt, with the exception of the Kona Snow background fabric, which I had in my stash.

Art with Fabric - Fabric chosen to work with for the Art with Fabric Blog Hop, Spring 2018 - piecefulthoughts.com

The fabric is a mix of fat quarters and fat eighths from various designers.

So without further ado, I present to you —

Sundance the Rooster

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - Sundance the Rooster, inspired by the artwork of Clare Youngs and her Chinese New Year rooster. She gave me permission to make this quilt. - piecefulthoughts.com

Why Sundance? Well, our trip to Utah was for a conference at the Sundance Mountain Resort. Since I found all the fabrics in Utah, the name just seemed appropriate. Besides, Sundance is kind of a cool name for a rooster, don’t you think?

The Construction

This is where the fun began. The quilt was constructed using improv techniques. For the body, I used improv piecing with the blue/white fabric. I had sketched out the design, so I made templates to use when I pieced the body together. Art with Fabric Blog Hop - the construction process for the rooster body - piecefulthoughts.com

Once the body was done, then I began work on the head. Honestly, I was winging it as I went along (no pun intended, ha!). I just thought about how I wanted it to look, and started sewing to see if I could get it into fabric.

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - rooster head construction - piecefulthoughts.com

There were a few hiccups along the way.

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - oops, where's my ripper? - piecefulthoughts.com

Not quite what I had in mind, so the ripper and I had a good time!

Before I knew it, I had Sundance constructed. Now to add those tail feathers and he’s ready to be squared up.

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - Sundance, the rooster - piecefulthoughts.com

Constructing a quilt this way certainly lends itself to interesting seam intersections. I’m pretty sure there was an easier way, but what fun is that?!

I made the tail using the trimmings from some of my improv blocks for the body. You can see how I made those trimmings in this post. The tails were the last thing added to the quilt top. I appliqued them on using my machine.

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - rooster tail using trimmings - piecefulthoughts.com

Honestly, the trickiest part of this was quilting around the strings. I think the tail gives him a bit of a rakish personality, don’t you? Either that, or he’s waking up from a rough night of protecting the roost!

The Quilting

I had to ponder the quilting for a little bit, but in keeping with the Sundance theme, I decided to incorporate rays of sunshine in the quilting. I used yellow Aurifil thread for the rays.

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - quilting detail, sun rays with yellow Aurifil thread - piecefulthoughts.com

I may go back and add a bit more yellow thread quilting so that it stands out a bit more. We’ll see.

In the foreground, I stitched slightly curved lines for the ground using a natural thread from Aurifil.

Art with Fabric Blog Hop - Quilting Detail - piecefulthoughts.com

You can see that I used some straight line quilting in the rooster body as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process of constructing Sundance. I hope you enjoyed reading my process and seeing the finished work.

Grab another cup of tea or coffee, and pop over to my fellow bloggers who are posting today:

Thanks for stopping by my blog today, and I hope you’ll be back again!

Wendy

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