Monday, May 21, 2012

Bloggers' Quilt Festival Spring 2012


Amy's Creative Side

It's time for Amy's Spring Bloggers' Quilt Festival!


"Parrotpalooza"
12.5" by 14"
Acrylic inks on cotton.  Wool batt with cotton threadwork.

I chose this quilt because it still makes me smile.  I made it about a year ago;  it was an experiment.  I had some new acrylic inks and I wanted to see if I could use them to paint fine lines with a tiny brush.

I think it worked!  I left the birds mostly unquilted.  The background was a wash of a couple of different colors of the inks -- they are very rich in pigment and when mixed with water, they have a tendency to spread.  But when used straight out of the jar, they are wonderful for fine detail.  

 This is the finished painting on cotton before I layered it and stitched it.



This is the central bird -- this was taken from a photo I took at the Milwaukee County zoo a couple of years ago when they had an exhibition of birds -- mostly parrots-- from Australia.

I snapped lots of photos and pulled this beauty from those.


This is another ink on fabric drawing from that day at the zoo.  This is my daughter.  I did this with Tsukineko inks -- they're quite different.


9 comments:

Daryl @ Patchouli Moon Studio said...

Wow that is beautiful!

Wacky Woman said...

So clever. Love it to bits. I may try and join this next year if they have it. I have so enjoyed going to an on-line quilt show.

What Comes Next? said...

what a fun quilt! The parrots all looks so bright - the detail is great with the inks, you definitely won with this experiment!

CitricSugar said...

That is really interesting! Thank you for sharing it and a bit about the process!

Beth@IHaveANotion.com said...

You're right the parrots make you smile!!! Especially if you have ever had a relationship with a parrot.... They are really fun pets too.

Jan said...

Nice work Karen, love these birds. I have never bought any of that ink, which do you prefer after having tried them both, the acrylic ink or the Tsukineko ink? I suppose it depends what you are using them for...

PersimonDreams said...

love those parrots and love reading about your technique - super cool!

The Nifty Stitcher said...

Very nice indeed!!!

Lynne said...

Love your work!

The parrots may be pretty but they are noisy and messy! But we Aussies love them anyway!