Parrotpalooza is Finished!

"Parrotpalooza"

12½" X 14"

Acrylic inks on cotton with cotton threads, wool batt

This is my journal quilt for March.  I wanted the parrots to "spill over" the edge because the March Journal Quilt Challenge theme at the Art Quilt Blog for this month is "spilling over".  The trouble is I liked the background so much I couldn't bring myself to cut off much more than I did.

I faced the edge with some really fine black Egyptian cotton because I knew that this fabric would make it easy to get a clean edge.  I did trim a little too close to one edge and had to add some fray stop liquid and then wait for it to dry so I could restitch it.

I did a little quilting around the eyes and on the beaks, but I left the parrots mostly unquilted so they would remain puffy. I'm considering doing just a little more quilting to provide a bit more depth -- especially under the parrots' heads.   

This was primarily an experiment with the acrylic inks.  I wanted to see if I could paint fine detail and not have it bleed all over.  The only part that bled was the background -- and that was because I mixed a lot of water with just a few drops of ink.  So it was more of a wash.  I'm really pleased about how dark the color is with the tiny amount of ink I used.