Friday, April 15, 2016

Carolyn's Cock-a-Doodle- Doo



When I heard that our challenge word was “doodle,” my first thought was "cock-a-doodle-doo".  But, being the avid researcher that I am, I began by doing a google search for the word “doodle.”  Try as I might, I could not get the image of a crowing rooster out of my head.  I found some delightful pictures of hens, but very few roosters, and none that were colorful enough for me. 

I decided that my rooster would be made out of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and that he had to be appear very cocky and proud.  I made several attempts at drawing the rooster and kept making his chest bigger and bigger with his head thrown way back until I was satisfied with his cockiness.  I used Laura Wasilowski’s technique of building a focal piece onto a leftover paper backing (resist paper) that was peeled off and salvaged from a previous fused piece. Using my iron, I lighted attached a fabric outline of his body to this paper backing.  Using a variety of pre-fused Kaffe florals, I carefully and tediously cut out each feather individually, layering them one on top of the other by lightly touching them with the tip of my iron.  I quickly discovered that cotton fabrics proved to be much harder to adhere in this manner than batiks.  After I was satisfied with my rooster, I lifted him carefully off of the salvaged paper background and placed him on a commercial hand-dyed fabric background. Then I added the grass, feet, “sound” streams and some sunrise shadowing with fabric pencils.  I machine stitched each feather and the entire rooster using my walking foot.  The background was free-motion stitched on my new Bernina sit-down long-arm. Aurifil thread was used for all of the stitching.

After I made the rooster, some of my favorite Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey tunes from the late 1940s popped into my head.  I remembered that one was called “The Dipsy Doodle.”  It was actually a dance that young people favored during that era.  I picked up an unfinished machine pieced project I had begun in a class with Sheila Frampton Cooper.  I had not had an inspiration of what to do with it.  I decided to make it into another 12x12 doodle.  I wanted to try my hand at making pebbles and circles on my new long-arm, and did so in the areas you see in the photo.  After that, I used my walking foot to finish the rest of the quilt.  I like to think of the trumpet part of this quilt as an actual trumpet blaring out the big band sound of “The Dipsy Doodle.”  This jive-inspired quilt was made with cotton fabrics stitched with Aurifil thread.  I like it so much that I think I may try this difficult curved piecing technique on a larger quilt in the near future!


11 comments:

  1. Gorgeous, fantastic, extraordinary--I could come up with many more adjectives to praise both of these quilts, but I'll stop with these three! I love your cocky rooster; not only does he bring a smile to my face, but I am awed by the his real beauty! And the obvious hard work that went into the construction--WOW!!! I am delighted you found a superb way to use the project from that great class you and I took from Sheila Frampton-Cooper! That technique IS challenging, but as with all challenging quilting techniques, to imprint it we need to keep doing it. Congratulations on TWO beautiful quilts!

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  2. Really the type of chicken I would want. Brilliant in many ways.

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  3. My kind of rooster!! Very cocky and the fabric choices are perfect!! The second is very cool too!!

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  4. Stunning!!!! Love both of them!
    You are amazing!!!

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  5. Both pieces are wonderful! I do love roosters. He has quite the attitude.

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  6. From Rita: As I was fixing lunch today, Randy was looking at the posts. When he came to yours, I was called away from my tasks when he said, “You just have to come look at this!” I agree with Randy, it is so much fun and made us both smile. Great job!

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  7. OH MY GOSH ! Your quilts are outstanding ! As I mentioned on another comment, I was so 'into' Zentangle and Zendoodle that other "doodles" never entered my mind. "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo" is extraordinary, and your use of the Kaffe Fassett fabrics was perfect ! And using that same fabric line for the binding was the perfect finishing touch ! You must already know that I think "Dipsy Doodle" is equally extraordinary ! You accomplished so much in these two amazing quilts! BRAVO !

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  8. Thanks everyone. I feel like a quilter now!

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  9. Wonderful quilts! I especially love the rooster as an interpretation of the theme. The other quilt is truly well done. Quite a difficult technique. Well done!

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  10. Wow - two successful interpretations of the theme. I love the cheerfulness of the rooster and how well you used the commercial fabrics to give the little guy life. Your curved piecing piece came out great - you are a quilter - a very talented one!

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  11. a fan of the rooster! like the colors you used. great use of fabrics

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