Ok...Only one person guessed....Shady (aka Mark) guessed a fish...which is amusing because he's a birder. No, my "Inner Animal" was a DOMESTIC turkey. For anyone who knows me, they know the struggle I have with piles of paper, keeping things neat and tidy and balancing working in the garden or quilting with HOUSEHOLD TASKS. Except cooking. But even that sometimes becomes a chore.When I quilt, I use a lot of texture. The feathers are layers of organza and other sheers fused together to give some body. The area behind the bird's head is a damask which I heavily quilted to make it look "feathery."
His wattle and the area around the eye is Tyvek which I painted with acrylic pain and then distressed with heat. I stitched it on, and with the area in the head, I then used some decorative stitches which I free motioned on. His eye is a hematite bead.
I didn't quite get his ear in the right spot...I forgot to make my usual acetate or vinyl overlay for placement and I was guessing.
My inner animal wasn't selected for Quilting Arts Magazine, but that's ok as he was really fun to make and I knew that I wanted to work on this when I snapped his picture. Incidently, I found that the tom turkeys at the fair were difficult to photograph as they were constantly flicking their wattles out of the way. I didn't want to use a flash on them as I knew it would frighten them...so if I showed you the picture I used for this, you'd be amused. It is as blurry as all get out!
On Saturday, we had another visitor to my garden. I feed the birds and of course that means that my garden is a smorgasbord for all sorts of hawks. I don't mind, although sometimes it is a rather grisly scene, because hawks have to eat too and they don't kill for fun.I believe that this is a female sharp shinned hawk. We have a Cooper's hawk around here too, but based on the size I think this is a sharpie. They predominently eat rodents and it was amusing to see this one cock her head and look at the ground.
Meanwhile, in the spruce trees on the edge of my property (of course they belong to the neighbors) the chickdees were showing their anger at the sharpie sitting on their fence and not allowing them to eat their thistle seed and black oil sunflower seeds.
Here is her back side. Given the amount of white, it may be an immature female.
9 comments:
Lisa your "inner" Turkey is wonderful the texture and detail really give it life. I also enjoyed looking at your bird pictures. Birds are wonderful to watch and to photograph. Thank you for your comment on Quiltart and good luck with the next challenge
Brenda in Arkansas
I think it's fun and I had no clue real turkeys came in these colors!
I'm a big fan of birds as well (except for the woodpecker that keeps drilling holes all over our house) and this hawk is gorgeous. I don't think I've ever seen one before.
Thanks Brenda and Vivien. I think I've figured out what is wrong with this and I'll do it again with corrections. I have to say that when I look at others who were rejected, I'm VERY humbled...this is a hot pad in comparison!
Hi Lisa,
Another GREAT entry that didn't get in. The finalist must be over the top.
If you want to see my entry that didn't make the cut, please go here
http://designerann.blogspot.com/2010/01/tigress-in-tortoise.html
ann
PS. House hold chores are at the bottom bottom of my list so often I don't make it down that far. My view is that IF the kitchen and bath are clean, nother else much matters.
Hi Ann! Thanks so much...I look at it and compare it to others and think wow....how primative and unrefined. I'll get there. :)
I can assure you, I've seen Vivien's entry which did get in (we exchanged images on deadline day) and hers is really spectacular!
I also think that perhaps had I chosen a different back ground, it might have been better because photographing is difficult...and I also find that sometimes the small format presents new challenges for me in getting things perfectly square....I still haven't perfected the faced binding yet. : ( although, this method (the "L" corners ) is a bit better.
Yours is really wonderful! I love the features of your tortoise!
What a wonderful blog entry, Ann. I'm new to art quilting and was fascinated to learn how you made your turkey. And I love that you make quilts based on your photos. How creative - and industrious! Hooray for you!
Welcome to the dark side of quilting Andra!...Or maybe it's really the bright side. I use all manner of materials in my work and I'm always amused to have ladies at JoAnn Fabrics say "YOU CAN'T QUILT with THAT material." Many of my purchases are the clearance items I pick up when it is 50% off. :) Lisa
Turkey?!? I thought your inner animal (bird) was a goose! ;) It's a great quilt, nonetheless. As for the hawk, I'm terrible with raptors, seriously. But I think you're right about it being a Sharp-shinned. You're lucky to have such a cool back yard visitor.
Yes, Shady, I AM a goose....especially today. Thanks for the kind words on the little bugger. My back yard is host to a bunch of different kinds of raptors...buteos etc. Red tailed and broad shouldered are the most common ones, but there is a Cooper's and also an American Kestrel which come around commonly. No owls though.
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