Blogger's Quilt Festival -- Statia's Hummingbird

"Black Chinned Hummingbird on Oleander"

From a photo © Statia Dougherty - used with permission

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats

Finished quilt measures : 20" by 25"

Special techniques used : painted on wholecloth cotton with fabric paints, trapunto, thread painted and quilted with cotton thread

Quilted by : Karen Silvers

Best Category : Art Quilt, Home Machine Quilted, Wall Hanging

I created this quilt after being inspired by my friend Statia Dougherty's wonderful hummingbird photos.

I had some new fabric paints from Prochemical and, after securing permission from Statia, I tried them out with her photo as my guide.

The little bird was layered and quilted first before I layered and quilted the background so that he would stand out from the background.  I used Aurifil 50 weight cotton threads.

I chose to finish it so that it would resemble a matted photograph with a frame.

I'm linking up with Amy's Creative Side Blogger's Quilt Festival, Fall 2012 edition. 

Hummer Progress

I finished the painting part of my interpretation of Statia Dougherty's wonderful hummingbird photo.

I really like these paints from Prochem.  They behave like Setacolors (long my faves), but I think the colors might be brighter and more intense.  They're cheaper too and since I can no longer obtain Setacolors locally, I have to do mail order.  The only thing I don't like is the little jars they come in.  I made a bit of a mess pouring them on my palette.

I wanted the hummer to stand out from the rest of the quilt, so I added wool batting and stabilizer (I used DecorBond by Pellon).  Then I added thread.  I used 50 weight Aurifil.

For Beth: here is the back side of the bird after adding the thread.  No, I didn't trim the threads very well.

I left a bit of the stabilizer extending beyond the edge of the bird so that it would get caught in the quilting and make the bird stable.

And here is the finished hummingbird before I layered and quilted the rest. 

Playing With New Paints

I recently ordered a starter kit of fabric paints from Prochemical and Dye (here).  Since I finished the quilting on the hibisci, I rewarded myself with a little paint play.

I got permission to use this wonderful photo from my old friend Statia Dougherty.  There is a wonderful yellow glow behind the leaves, so I masked off  the hummingbird and the branches and painted the background with lemon yellow mixed with extender medium.  Then I went over that with some greens mixed with extender.

Here is painting so far with the mask removed.  You can see the photo I'm using for inspiration at the top of this picture.

I had a couple of tiny jars of Prochem paint that were given to me some time ago and I added them to my color wheel along with the jars in the starter kit.  I can see that I'm going to need more extender immediately.

I'm linking up with Nina Marie at Off the Wall Fridays (here).