Quite a while back I was given a hand carved wooden bird stamp. Someday I plan to print up some fabulous fabric, but in the mean time I did some single birds in a "soft black" acrylic paint (which turned out to be a dark brown) on canvas and filled in the spaces with free motion thread painting. Very much a coloring book type project in process and in result too, I think. Most of them have flown off as holiday presents.
All things quilted and quilt related are heading to Houston starting tomorrow. First comes Fall Quilt Market, then the wholesalers and shop owners clear out and the general public arrives for the grand and possibly overwhelming Houston Quilt Festival. I'm not going but some of my Paisley Birds will be there. Pokey Bolton has organized a fundraiser for a no kill animal shelter (for more info click here). She has asked that folks donate mixed media postcards to be sold at the festival and all funds go to Friends for Life. I suspect my birds will be quite out numbered by dogs and cat postcards, but hopefully there will be at least a couple of bird lovers there.
Lets see if I can remember how to post on my forgotten blog. Repair work on my daughter's house took twice as long (and twice as much money) as expected, but they are done. For now, at least. All of the exterior and most of the house interior have a new coat or two of paint. Basic amenities have been mucked out, refurbished or replaced.
Goodbye Mr. Can!
I celebrated victory over paint can day by going to see the exhibits at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Currently they have an collection of exquisite quilts from the 1800's made in Britain and the USA. The attention to detail is incredible. In a good contrast, the adjoining exhibit shows great storytelling quilts by Yvonne Wells. Here is a picture of my favorite piece by Yvonne Wells called "Lovers with a Broken Heart".
Wells explanation of this quilt goes as follows:"The birds in this story quilt represent two lovers who have fought and broken each other's hearts. One bird has brought chocolate to the other bird in order to mend things between them."
Nice.
Fans of the IFC show Portlandia will appreciate this piece that I currently have hanging in the 1109 Gallery. I took a quilt that I made several years ago and added birds to it. Now it is much better. I call this quilt "Put a Bird on It!"
Last month I took advantage of an opportunity offered by our local arts center. They had been asking artists to come and "do art" in their large and pleasant lobby. I hauled in a sewing machine and supplies to create a new supply of "Paisley Birds".
When they were finished, I sewed magnets on the back so they can hang out on a frig or filing cabinet.
Our younger daughter went to school on the east coast. Just as she was finishing up, my husband took a temporary job in Washington D.C.. Due to these traveling family members, I have made 3 million trips to the airport. Maybe just two million... but anyway, one diversion from the boredom inherent in making the same 50 mile trip over and over and over has been bird watching. (I do try to pay attention to traffic, though.)
Early on, I noticed that one tree seemed to be a favorite of the local turkey vultures. A half dozen or so could sometimes be seen sitting in one particular tree along the road. The vulture population seemed to increase every year, and after a while they took up residence on the top of a billboard at the top of a hill. There can be as many as twenty vultures on this sign at a time, and I suppose the mess they make up there is beyond belief. Last Fall they disappeared suddenly, and I was worried someone had cleared off the billboard with a shotgun. My older daughter reassured me that they had probably headed south where the roadkill was still unfrozen. She was right as usual, and they all reappeared in the Spring. Here is a picture of this year's bunch before they head out:
I've read that vultures have just fuzz, or no feathers on their heads because the stuff they eat would be hard to get off feathers, and too gross to be something they'd want to wear for very long. Also, I have learned that they like to sterilize their other feathers by sitting in the sun with their wings spread. They do seem to do that a lot while perched on the sign. Featherless heads do not make for an attractive bird, so I prefer to imagine them with hats. Really, wouldn't they look good in those hunter hats with the flaps? Or party hats. Someone photoshop pointy party hats on these guys, and just see what difference that would make!
Ever wish you could get inside someone else's head? I do. Generally it is my husband's head... I just think it might be a huge help to be able to see the world through your spouse's eyes. Maybe it would lead to world peace and harmony. Maybe not. Anyway, here is another creature that I wish I could do a Star Trek mind-meld with..Bower Birds.
Male Bower Birds build fantastic sculptural nests and decorate them with carefully arranged displays of flowers or rocks or shells or bottle caps. Whatever is available and potentially beautiful. Some of these birds even mash up berries and paint the insides of their creations. All to attract the ladies. The best nest gets the most ladies. Then these girls go off to build un-fabulous serviceable nests and raise the babies by themselves. I'm not sure if their priorities are quite right, but it works for them. Thanks to You-Tube and the internet, I can watch these birds and see their work. It makes me wish I had gone into Bower Bird studies when I was in school! Seriously, what are these creatures thinking?
Where have I been? Who knows. Napping and staring off into space, mostly. Speaking of birds, which I nearly always am... some birds build amazing nests...carefully woven, magically constructed in gravity-defying spots. And then there are other birds who must be TV watchers like me. Check out these photos on Lilacmoon Studio's blog.
I can just hear the architect... "Open concept!" "Simple line and shape Zen!"
Maybe minimal effort is the best plan.
Here is a second patriotic bird banner that is named, boringly enough, "Patriotic Bird Banner #2. It is also on display at the Community Mercantile in Lawrence, KS.
Third and final set of birds previously seen as Bird a Day participants:
Another small flock of bird sketches, also on display at the Merc.
Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater! This is one of the quilts in my "Odd Aviary" exhibit at the Merc. All of these birds have been previous Birds of the Day, so it shouldn't really count. But hey, my blog, my rules.
This plastic bird is in the best shape of all of the birds in my shoebox. Guess it is a sturdy little bird. I don't think I had ever seen one of these back when I built this model, but they are easy to see where I live now...especially if we put out thistle seed for them to eat.
It has been too dark and rainy to photograph any of my new work. That is my story, and I am sticking with it.
How about a model parakeet? Thirty years after I made this model, I got a real live parakeet, thanks to my youngest daughter. We named it Dreidel. It had a little more personality than this guy, but not much.
This variety of bird does not seem to venture into town very often around here. Back when I put this model together, we had an oriole nest in a tree in our yard. A few years later (thankfully after I had moved out of the family home) my dad got angry with the orioles eating the grapes off of his vines and started shooting them.
So, I suppose they have their reasons to avoid people.
Here is the model woodpecker I put together way back when.
And here is what the box looked like. Judging by the prices online, I should have kept all of my model birds untouched and sealed in their boxes!
I'm sitting here wearing a blue-green cuff bracelet bruise that was provided by my biggest and oldest bird, Major Grouchy Pants. A few days ago I suggested that he might want to step up onto my hand and be put back into his cage. He was not on board with that plan. He did end up back in his cage, but what a bite I got in the discussion!
I think I have always been too interested in birds. Doomed to have my own Insane Bird Posse. I pulled some evidence of this out of the back of the closet this week...
This is a shoe box full of plastic model birds that I painted and put together when I was in grade school. (The box is from a pair of Montgomery Ward shoes. Remember those stores? We called it Monkey Wards.) I don't remember a couple of these birds, but a couple that I thought were in the box are missing. Didn't survive the violence of the passing years, I guess. My robins look like battle victims- one is missing a foot, the other one is missing part of it's beak.
Thanks to the internet, I was reminded of what the box these birds came in looked like, and what the kits contained. I had forgotten that the robins came with a worm to hold in their beaks... mine are missing theirs. Maybe that is what the fight was about?
We'll be looking at the rest of these birds in the next few days, because as I have mentioned...I am rather busy avoiding some work I need to be doing.
My local quilt guild's show is April 24th &25 at the county fairground in Lawrence Kansas. For more info go here. Each year we have a silent auction of mini-quilts to raise money for a variety of charities. The last couple of years, some of these quilts have been made by members doing a "round robin", where the first person donates an orphan block which is passed to a second person to add to. This gets passed to a third person and sometimes a fourth, hopefully at the end there is a lovely small quilt. One of the blocks I worked on was a blue and yellow star block by Nan Doljac.
Naturally, I added birds.
Then Barbara Brackman added a border and finished it up.
Cute and cheerful and available for purchase at the quilt show!
Whenever I am in full procrastination mode and unable to work on projects with deadlines, I make nap quilts for a local Headstart Class. These small quilts are so fast and easy... and I have a hard time stopping, once I get rolling on sewing them up. So, just one more (or two, or maybe four) and then I am really going to get busy.
So, just to add to the general gloom of a snowy start-of-Spring weekend that included a sad KU loss in basketball... My entry in a "Beneath the Surface" exhibit was not accepted into the show. I will admit that the quilt is a bit of a mess, but there are still elements of the quilt that I like. Maybe the show was looking for a less literal take on the subject. (Or, maybe a better overall design, better color use, less general sloppiness) My quilt was about Burrowing Owls. Sometimes what is beneath the surface are creatures of the sky. Here is a detail shot:
I'm a textile artist, independent curator, faculty wife, mother of two above average daughters.
Recent Comments