Pelican

Pelican

10" x 7"

(The black part is the background, and not a part of the quilt.)

I really love this little pelican.  It is a reminder from my childhood on the beach when they were so extremely precious.  There were so few of them.  DDT pesticide had made their egg shells so fragile, that they would break before hatching, thus the numbers were declining.  Fortunately, some protections were put in place, and instead of another extinction story, we have a come back story! Now, when I go to the beach, I see multiple flocks of pelicans, flying over the dunes, and then over the waves, diving in for a little lunch.  It warms my heart to see them doing so well!  

I made this little quilt for SAQA's Trunk Show.  The Trunk Show is made up of these little quilts that are divided into a number of different traveling exhibits.  The goal is to show a lot of different styles of art quilts made by the members.  They keep the quilts for 3 years, and at the end, the quilts go on sale.  Sweeeet!

I have been experimenting with screen printing for another quilt I am working on.

After pouring on the black fabric paint, and pulling it through the screen, it looks like this:

I would say that it was an easy way to put my drawing on fabric, but it turned out to be much more complicated than I anticipated.  Next time I will have more realistic expectations.  Suffice to say, I eventually got there, and was quite happy with the results.  

After printing, I was curious about adding color.  So I got out some markers and colored it in.  It reminded me of my early days of coloring in coloring books.  I am still excessively fond of flat 2D images, with the drawn line look. I also like the way the markers kind of bled together to create a watercolor effect!  Very cool! Then I heat set the piece with my iron.

All that was left was to add the quilting.  I used matchstick quilting with 10 different thread colors. For such a small piece, it went relatively quickly.  Then I faced it and added a label to the back.  I have already shipped it off to SAQA.  It was fun to finish a little project so quickly!