Yellow-Winged Blue Birds
The Conway Quilters were given a challenge in the winter of 2008 to look around their homes and find something, perhaps a plate, a vase, a lamp, a picture, that would inspire them to design and make a quilt. I had a plate that I had imagined would make an interesting quilt. I was very excited on a trip to Dallas to Quilter's Connection to find a group of Asian fabrics from Robert Kaufman's Oriental Traditions 5 collection with gold metallic as a part of the design which would be consistent with the look of the plate. I copied the paintings of the birds and tried to duplicate their bodies with the Asian fabrics. The flowers and buds in the piece are from another Robert Kaufman line called Stargazers. I used Electric Quilt 6 to make the split saw-toothed circle border and outer borders.
The 25 1/2" square wallhanging is hand appliquéd with the saw-toothed borders being paper-pieced. I machine quilted the background with silk thread to keep the shiny look. I must say that is an expensive way to quilt! It took three spools to complete the small quilt. I used the silk on the back but I will do something different next time. The birds and borders are quilted with monofilament so no thread color stands out. I am so happy with the outcome that I am using these same fabrics as a jumping off point for my Conway Album quilt designed by Irma Gail Hatcher which I will be making in 2009.
Just for fun at the last minute I made a fabric postcard from this Christmas card for another entry in the Challenge. My Sweet Mary Jill is another quilt I have made which was inspired by a pastel drawing of my grandmother.
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