Sunday, January 15, 2012

Judy W. "South Bound"

"South Bound" by Judy Wedemeyer
After looking at the previous postings for this theme, I was surprised how many similar renderings of flying geese were depicted.  Originally I'd been focusing on spirals and staircases due to their downward 'southerly' direction.  Heading south kept coming to mind, probably because as a lifetime Alaskan, heading south is a  term we Northerners deem for resident 'snow birds' desiring to escape the long, dark, cold winters here.

Alaska has glorious sunsets and my neighborhood is within honking distance of Potter Marsh bird sanctuary where I can hear the geese and Trumpeter Swans call as they flock to rest at night during their migratory Fall conditioning exercises.
Southern view from my back deck.

Trumpeter Swans at Potter Marsh, South Anchorage
I Googled flying geese images to determine which Sillouette shapes I preferred for my design.  After drafting a diminishing, curved flying geese pattern, which migrated in a southerly direction, I quickly chose the background batik fabric I felt best suited the environment and subject matter.  I'd never drafted a curving pattern for foundation piecing and was a bit apprehensive, but thankfully, it came out remarkably well.  The subtle striped fabric was intended to reinforce the directional pattern.  I used an iron on stabilizer as the foundation and chose not to remove it after the piecing in order to avoid fabric stretching.

Hand stitched reverse applique enabled me to insert the geese pathway onto my background with the most precision. Once inset, I trimmed the path to within a quarter inch of the seam.  Fusible applique using WonderUnder adhered the geese Sillouette's (including the white accents on the geese) to the quilt top.

My chosen finishing technique was to layer the batting, backing (face up), and then the quilt top (face down) in a sandwich, before stitching entirely around the quilt on the pre-marked seam line. I carefully cut a slit through the batting and backing to pull the quilt right sides out.  This is not how I normally do it but I needed to stitch on the tops seam line for proper alignment.  I placed the opening where my label would cover the slit, and adhered a finished label over the slit with fusible web before I quilted.  I choose this method when I don't want a binding and know I will be quilting in an all over pattern.

Preferring not to individually stitch around the shapes to permanently anchor them to the fabric, I machine quilted a simple echo pattern using a variegated Isacord thread (Saffron color) that would subtly blend with the background while simultaneously securing the shapes and echo the flying geese pathway for an added sense of motion.  I enjoyed my first Maven's challenge and look forward to our next one.


9 comments:

  1. Welcome again, Jude/Judy (never remember which it is!) and what a beautiful start to your time with us this is! Your colors are breath-taking, and I love the silhouettes of the geese as well as the Southerly directed quilters' flying geese! Thanks for including such lovely photos of Alaskan scenes, too. That one of the sunset is beyond-worlds beautiful! Love, love the echo quilting and its gently curving lines. Thanks, too, for explaining your finishing technique--I am always fascinated by that topic and love hearing about the neat way that you accomplished this task.

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  2. I love seeing all the various versions of flying geese. Fabulous background fabric which perfectly depicts your breathtaking sunset photo.

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  3. Hi Sistah ! And Welcome again to the MMs.... so glad to have you on board ! Your work is always extraordinary, innovative and uniquely yours ! I remember those beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and of course our beautiful Potter's Marsh - thanks for sharing your , as always, beautiful work and the lovely pix. Much love to you, Kath

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  4. Judy, I enjoyed your website or blog today. I especially love how you captured the colors of the sunset and the flight of the birds in the southern direction, down from Alaska. The silhouettes are exquisite and the stripes lovely. This is just a perfect piece!

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  5. The color of the sunset in the picture is simply gorgeous and you've captured it perfectly in your background. Beautiful!

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  6. Hi Judy. Welcome to your first challenge with us. I loved reading about your quilt and viewing the photos of the beautiful Alaskan sunset and swans What beautiful scenery! The colors of the background make the sunset come alive. And I love beautiful stitching that accents the birds southerly flight.
    Beautiful!

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  7. Judy W., Welcome to the group! Love your color choices. They certainly mirror the sunset colors in your photo and I love the silhouettes. It was fun to see that we both drew our first curved flying geese in this challenge!

    I liked hearing about the spiral and staircase idea's. I never thought of those, but can definitely see how that could go with the South theme.

    I can feel the crisp air and hear the geese in your quilt. Of course it isn't 8 degrees like you are having today.

    One thing you mentioned that I think we all need to make a note of is to Label our quilts.

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  8. I'm blushing here big time! I just realized I totally misinterpreted Judy's comment about the need to 'label our quilts'. For some inexplicable reason, I thought labels was referring to my use of labels on the end of my post, although she clearly stated quilts. More blushing... I just finished posting about labels in response to my misinterpretation. Please forgive my mess up. It's still good information but maybe a bit too presumptuous in hindsight. I'm going to bed, I think I've been on the computer to long today.

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  9. Judy, You were right! I did laugh! Same idea, so different!! It is so beautiful. I love the sunset coloration.

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