Wednesday, September 1, 2010

A Lorikeet in North Dakota


When Brenda announced the lorikeet theme, I was so drawn to the photograph of the lorikeet bird. I love birds and enjoy attracting them to my yard and spotting new varieties. Of course, I don’t think I’ll ever spot a lorikeet in my yard, so I have to enjoy them only in the photos I see.

I tried to come up with some ideas on this color theme, but my mind kept drifting back to the bird. I decided I just had to create that bird and sought permission from Brenda to use her photo as my starting point. This will probably be the only lorikeet in North Dakota. I guess I could take the quilt outside and declare I’ve seen a lorikeet in my yard.

My quilt is created with many fabrics that I prepared with Mistyfuse. I then cut the shapes and fused them to the batting. It is free-motion quilted and I played with using two fabrics to create the binding. It’s sort of like piping, but without the piping…just folded fabric.

11 comments:

Deborah Boschert said...

He's fabulous, Terri! It has such a quilty feel with the wonderful variety of fabrics and yet looks so very realistic. I'm so intrigued by the free motion zig-zag. It's perfect for a feathery feeling.

Elizabeth said...

Terri!! I adore your Lorrikeet!!! Thank you so much for posting the detail shot so we can see the effects of the zigzag stitching that you used. This is such a neat way to give a fuzzy feather like effect to your fabric bits!!!!
Wonderful!!

Gerrie said...

This is such an elegant looking lorikeet. I have used that zigzag free motion stitch and it is very effective. I think you got the colors perfectly!

Diane Perin said...

What a fabulous lorikeet! You have captured him beautifully -- and as always I love how you use printed fabrics to add texture and energy. The zig-zaggy free motion quilting looks perfect to define those head feathers, too! (Were you truly free-motioning with a zig zag stitch?)

Kristin L said...

Well done. I think this guy could become our unofficial mascot. ;-) I especially like the head detail with the perfect colors and ruffled feathers.

Karen said...

This is so great Terri, I love the way you blended the blues in and the red beak. It looks very much alive!

Virginia Greaves said...

I lvoe your lorikeet. I think that adding the neutral background to offset the bright mediums really offsets the bird -- and then the eye is drawn to the bird's eye -- for that little shot of black in the eye & carrying over across the top of the beak. Nice composition.

Françoise said...

This is brilliant Terri! I'm impressed.
Birds scare me sometimes (that's Hitchcock's fault...), and this lorikeet looks so real and bright. I don't want to meet him. ;-)

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

I love this bird. Since I am working on a bird quilt myself right now I can use some of these techniques.
Just gorgeous and with personality to boot!

Nikki said...

Love him! You have captured him in a very realistic way. I'm with Francoise, I don't know if I'd want to meet him in a dark alley. I think there might be a touch of eagle in North Dakota Lorikeets.

kirsten said...

Hey, he's so cool!! The open zig zag stitching is ideal and (this is going to sound weird!) his beak looks EXACTLY like lorikeet beaks look! There's a sort of transparency to their beaks and the subtle pinky colour has made it look just like that!