Cardinal

Now that my LQS has the classes posted for the spring, I can show you the cardinal art quilt I will be teaching.

I have a thing about birds, especially cardinals. This is ironic given that I don’t think I have ever seen a cardinal in real life, but that does not stop me from liking them.

This year, I decided to offer 3 classes that go from choosing a subject, to painting, to embellishing,  and to quilting the piece. I chose the cardinal as my subject.

Without further ado, here is the completed piece! This terrific photo is by Travis Lowe. His photography is wonderful and his bird photos are my favourites.

    

Thread trees made using a zigzag stitch. Tension is set at 9 on my Bernina and the bobbin tension is very, very loose. This pulls the dark brown to the surface.

White puffy paint with sparkly embossing powder added makes the snow.

Hand dyed ice blue background pulled from my stash.

The cardinal itself is all thread. Beak left untouched after painting it except for a faint pale grey to delineate the upper and lower beak.

       You can click on any ofthe pics to see a larger image.

I love this guys fat belly. 

     

Last night (or this morning) at 3am I was done all 4 class samples, had printed out the the supply list handouts, and design boards done. I set my alarm for 8am in case I slept in (I wish) and was at the store by 8:30.

And this morning I even made 3 pots of soup! I pot of ham and split pea and 2 pots of chicken broth.

Then I loafed around and watched all of season 4 of Merlin. And ate soup. Sigh…. It was good to be me today.  haha.