Pigeons in search of a city

Rats of their air they may be, but for some reason I find pigeons fascinating. So for the class I’m teaching at Quilting LIVE!, I’m using my Bird Crossing pattern to make a runner with the birds as pigeons.

Since they’re city dwellers, I figured an urban print would be the appropriate background, and I have several options in my stash. But which to choose? I’d love to get your help. Here’s a closer look at the shortlist....

Where does the pigeon look most at home to you?

Bird Crossing crosses over into wool

My friend Frieda recently dropped me a line to say she saw this version of my Bird Crossing pattern sent by a reader to American Patchwork & Quilting. Peggy Bruns of Nevada, Iowa, made it for a friend from felted wool garments. I’d never thought of using wool for the birds, but doesn’t it look great?

APQ seems to have thought so too—they’ve included a wool-appliqué pillow pattern in one of their recent special issues that’s looks like it was inspired by Peggy’s version of Birds of a Feather (as the magazine called the pattern).

If you like the idea of a put-a-bird-on-it pillow, the Bird Crossing pattern available on my website includes an exclusive pattern for a pillow featuring a freshly hatched bird in a nest of free-motion thread. Or use the bird appliqué patterns to sew your own unique pillow, runner, or quilt—in cotton, wool, or whatever fabric strikes your fancy!

Charley Harper quilts—and Christmas stockings!

It might be a little late to stitch up one of these Charley Harper stockings in time for Christmas, but there’s always next year! The patterns are available from Keri Designs, who, as I was delighted to discover at the Pacific International Quilt Festival, is the official licensed designer for quilt patterns based on the ever-delightful work of Charley Harper.

Keri’s booth was my first stop at the show in October, after spying her quilted version of Harper’s Jumbrella in the show program. Since it was early, I got the chance to chat with the very friendly Keri herself and see the quilts up close.

Harper’s designs are such naturals for adaptation into applique—just look at the way Keri’s used polka dot fabric as the snowy background in Br-r-r-r-rthday, and quilting lines as the rain in Jumbrella. She even cleverly used fabric show-through to create a semi-transparent effect for the wing in Trumpeter Swan.

I’m thrilled that these patterns are available so all of us quilters can make our own little piece of Charley Harper. As for me, I picked up the Ladybug Sampler pattern, which I’m saving for some just-for-fun stitching after I get my book done.

By the way, this is a completely unsponsored plug—I was just so excited to find Charley Harper quilt patterns that I had to share my delight with you too (especially since I once thought the licensing possibility seemed remote). And Keri says there’re more Harper quilt patterns on the way!

Springtime Stitch projects

With spring’s creeping up on us (it’s almost March? Seriously?), the Spring 2012 issue of Stitch has crept onto newsstands. Meanwhile, my Hexagon Pouf Ottoman, made for the Alfresco feature, remains firmly indoors despite its hardy skin of outdoor canvas. It’s not that it’s too cold to venture out (this is California, after all); it’s more that I haven’t quite got my bum in gear to clear the garden of the weeds and other assorted debris of winter, so the backyard isn’t the loveliest of places to sit, nor to photograph project samples.

I liked the idea of making a fabric footstool that was a little less bloblike than what I was seeing in shops, so I pulled the structural inspiration from the hexagon print. The quilter in me naturally inclined to piecing the top from triangles of striped fabric, while the shaping is probably my first foray into darts—all the dressmaking books that’ve crossed my work desk taught me something after all.

The other pattern of mine you’ll find in the spring Stitch is for this pair of Bird Collage Tea Towels, made with fused broderie perse and some free-motion embroidered details. You may have to zoom in to get a good look, but I was pleasantly surprised at the branch’s bark-like texture, made by just sewing back and forth. I used a finer thread in the bobbin that was a bit lighter than the top threads, and the occasional dots of bobbin thread add some extra color depth too. Now I’m wondering how it would look with a brown variegated thread…hmm…

Both of these projects are quick and fun, and as usual there’s a lot of other great stuff in the magazine too (I want to make the placemats on the cover!). Check it out.

New pattern: Peacocks on Parade

The past week has been a flurry of trips to the printer and putting finishing touches on the page layouts, and now I’m thrilled to announce my newest Feed Dog Designs pattern—Peacocks on Parade!

The pattern turns traditional Dresden Fans into flashy peacocks marching proudly around the quilt. If you’ve been following the Mother’s blog, you might have seen a preview of the version she made in different fabrics (thanks Mom!)…

We both agreed that it was great fun picking fabrics for the dots on the feathers—fussy-cutting flowers, starbursts, and other round motifs to highlight.

The pattern will be available to quilt shops and for online download shortly, but if you’re in Northern California, it’s debuting right now at Sew Many Quilts in Tracy, during the Jingle Bell Shop Hop—check out both sample quilts in person and get the pattern before it’s available anywhere else! The shop is also hosting a trunk show of quilts from my other patterns as well as from the current and previous issues of Stitch. And if you want to chat in person or have a pattern signed, I’ll be at the store on Saturday, November 5 from 12:00 to 3:00. I’d love to meet you, and you’ll love the shop!

See Bird Crossing at Market!

I didn’t make it to International Quilt Market myself this spring, but if you did, stop by the Petersen-Arne booth (no. 2628–33) to check out my Bird Crossing quilt in person before the show closes tomorrow! Petersen-Arne distributes the pattern for this quilt, so if you’re a shop owner, you order on the spot. (If you’re not a shop owner but are itching to make the quilt, ask for it at your local quilt store or get the e-pattern.)

The cool versions I’ve seen made up prove it’s a versatile pattern. Gloria Foley of the Victorian Quilter came up with this one, which you may have seen in her booth on the northern California quilt show circuit:

She called it her “girlified” version, adding hats and baskets to the birds and even showing one of the baby birds snacking on a worm! It’s so fun as a designer to see the creative ways people interpret my patterns.

Gloria recently retired, but her quilt is hanging at Sew Many Quilts in Tracy, California—it’s definitely worth stopping in to see all the details she added (as if you need an excuse to visit a great quilt shop).

I snapped a mobile phone pic of another version on display at the Tokay Stitch ’n’ Quilt Guild’s show last fall:

Check out the bird fabric in the bodies and border! The rickrack in the binding is a nice extra touch, too.

If you’ve made your own Bird Crossing, I’d love to see it! Upload a picture to the Feed Dog Designs photo pool on Flickr to share your creativity.

Birds in the breeze

My Bird Crossing quilt spent the weekend in good company at the Quilting in the Garden show at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore—right next to a quilt by Laura Wasilowski! The outdoor quilt show is always a nice day out; the nursery really thinks about how to arrange the quilts so that they complement each other instead of clashing. Blowing in the breeze under natural light is really a better way to see quilts than under the fluorescent lights of a rented auditorium.

The show also marked the debut of my pattern for Bird Crossing, which includes a bonus pattern for a brand-new, never-before-published pillow. If you’d like a copy, they’re in stock at In Between Stitches in Livermore, or ask at your local quilt shop (any interested retailers can contact orders[at]feeddog[dot]net for details). Or you can download a PDF version of the pattern for US$7.50 from the shop on my website and get sewing right now! Either way, you’ll get complete, illustrated instructions for hand-look machine appliqué using invisible thread, full-size templates for the birds (to print at home if buying the digital version), and the pillow pattern.

This is the first Feed Dog Designs quilt pattern available, though there are more on the way—just last week I taught Slash/Backslash (finished pictures coming soon!) at my guild, and it’s on its way too, along with more fun appliqué projects. So stay tuned!

(See a few more photos from the Quilting in the Garden in my Flickr set.)

Plush birds to go with Bird Crossing quilt

To go along with my Bird Crossing/Birds of a Feather quilt in American Patchwork & Quilting, I wrote up a pattern for these stuffed birds that's in the current (Spring ’09) issue of Quilts & More. Youngest Brother turned the bird blocks from the quilt into the three-dimensional versions and stitched ’em up—check out his blog Campus Crafts to find out what he’s been up to since.

I’ve also set up a Flickr group for projects made from my patterns—if you’ve made the quilt or stuffed birds, please upload it! I’d love to see what you guys do.

And in the same vein, there’s a proper Feed Dog Designs website in the works (another excuse for why I’ve been a slack poster). If you go to the URL now, it pretty much just forwards you here to the blog, which will become part of the new site. But I'll also be adding patterns, tools, and all sorts of stuff in the next few weeks (touch virtual wood). I’ll keep you posted!

Check out the new APQ!

I'm so excited to announce that a pattern for one of my quilt designs is in the April issue of American Patchwork & Quilting! Credit for making and beautifully quilting the quilt (and buying the fabrics!) goes to the one-and-only Mother, who's been alerted by her LQS that issues are coming in now.

I called the quilt Bird Crossing, but it's Birds of a Feather in the mag. Somehow my first quilt pattern slipped into the “expert tips” issue, which has me giving advice alongside the more experienced likes of Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle, Joanna Figueroa, and Amy Butler, and I'm even included in the “Tips from Quilt Designers and Teachers” feature on the APQ website. Not bad, eh? Perhaps I should have the Mother make all my quilts! Alas, it'd be tricky from the provinces of China (more on that later).

There'll also be a pattern for a matching stuffed bird made by Youngest Brother in the next Quilts & More—and it's even on the cover (I'll totally be making that cake pincushion)! Thanks Mom and Bro for lending your talents to these projects.

I have a few more projects in the publishing pipeline too (ones that didn't involve [as much] pimping my family out), so watch this space.

Update: Even if you missed the magazine while it was on newsstands, it’s not too late to get the pattern! Download it (with a new pillow pattern) from my website.

I found a Charley Harper quilt!

I've mentioned Charles Harper a few times before, mainly in reference to the fused bird pictures The Mother made for me several birthdays ago. The geometric, draftsmen-like quality of Harper's animal illustrations have always struck me as readily translatable into a quilt, so I tittered with delight when I saw this quilt in a 1978 issue of Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilts. Here's the caption from the magazine:

Lenore Parham borrowed from a design by Charles Harper in Ranger Rick (The National Wildlife Federation children's magazine) to create this charming wall hanging.

I was at a secondhand book shop, and this picture alone moved the magazine from the "maybe" to the "definitely must have" stack. I had figured it was just a photo to go with an article on the Blue Ridge Quilters, and it wasn't till I got home that I saw they'd patterned the quilt too! So I may just have to sew up my own version. The design is especially fun since the quadrants of the circle use the same basic shape to depict three different animal as well as trees, and the quilting is quite fun too.

My first thought, though, was that something like this could never get published today (he said, pulling out the soapbox and climbing up onto it). Such "borrowing" would never get past the copyright police; a current magazine wouldn't take the chance that some lawyer somewhere might consider the quilt an infringement. I certainly understand the need for artists to protect their work, but the stifling that happens as a result of today's voracious protection of derivative works is sad. And what's the result? Other artists can't make money off the first artist's work, but lawyers and licensing agents can make a tidy sum. An original designer (or their estate, as the case would be for Harper) may or may not be willing to allow derivative quilts or other works that don't compete with the original, but the process of seeking permission is enough to kill the creative impetus. Copyrights and Copywrongs and Free Culture (available online) make the point in more detail, if you're interested. And take a look at Wendy Seltzer's article "Craft and Copyright" in volume 6 of Craft magazine for the most balanced, reasoned, sensible advice on copyright I've seen—a far cry from the many scaremongering articles that combat quilters' and crafters' myths about copyright with more myths. OK, now I can put the soapbox away.

Charles Harper and Eleanor Grosch

I bought these prints by local artist Eleanor Grosch last year. They immediately reminded me of Charley Harper's illustration style (especially the focus on gracefully curved birds). I wondered what she thought of his work, and then I saw on her blog that he's her favorite artist! "I'd like to thing our work has some similarities," she writes; I for one have always associated the two. Do check out her shop, where you can see more of her work, including some beautiful stuff using more pattern. And take a look at Caroline Tiger's interview with Grosch.

Charley Harper, for his part, seems to be cropping up quite a bit recently. After writing about Harper in Handmade Modern, Todd Oldham has a 420-page, $200 monograph, Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life (no, that isn't an extra zero) due out in June. Just a few days ago print & pattern ran a post on Harper, too. I saw this set of notecards at a shop yesterday and was tempted to buy it—if this set had been in stock, I would have bought it. Actually, I probably would have bought two, one to use and one to frame/admire. But for now, I'm waiting for my copy of Introducing Our Western Birds to arrive after reading about it here—it seems to be illustrated in a similar style.

All the bird business got me itching to stamp out the Feeding Frenzy pattern I've had in my head for a while now. I'd like to print yardage too, but for now I wanted to see how the crowds of pigeons looked on these book covers, as I'm thinking of starting an Etsy shop.

And Column Inches? It's still coming along, but slowly due to the slice-and-dice improvisational technique I'm improvising (no, that isn't redundant). The top looks completely pieced together from this photo, but it isn't quite wide enough. I wish some of the text strips were a bit more angled, so I'm seeing what I can do with the last few pieces.

Happy birthday to me!

My birthday was last week while I was away, and look what I got from the Mother! I've already posted some of her great quilts, and she's showing off once again with these fabric versions of Charles Harper prints. Harper did some great midcentury illustration, especially of birds. When the Mother saw them in a book I have, she thought they'd be great reinterpreted in fabric. These are the first ones, based on these prints:



The Mother dug through her stash to find the fabrics and then snipped them into shapes, which were then fused to the background fabric. The details are in pen ink. The print fabrics are a nod to the textures of Harper's prints but also lend an extra depth—the Mother searched high and low to find a scrap that replicated the warbler's shaded breast. Then she stretched the fabric around canvases.

I love them both, but my favorite of the two is the top one. It's always been one of my favorite Harper birds, and there's an extra mixed-media quality to it with the bleach splotches. I'll try to get them hung up this weekend so I can gaze at them all the time. They're be the thing that people comment on whenever they're introduced to my apartment. Is the Mother fantastic, or what? What she can do with textiles always amazes me.

As if that wasn't enough, the package also had a copy of EQ5, which is software for designing quilts. I've been playing with it for a few days to figure it out, and I'm quite excited. Modern quilts with irregular blocks are a little trickier to do than traditional grid patterns, but I'll get there (hell, I managed QuarkXPress). I've been sketching quilt ideas in a book of grid paper, but as a child of the digital age, I can't properly play with designs unless they're on the screen.

And that's still not all—the Mother also stuck in a bunch of fabric. She knew I was planning a quilt with lots of text prints, and she thought the dots would look good with my Plain Spoken quilt. Perhaps in some pillows?

So as I'm sure this blog makes apparent, I have lovely parents. Thanks Mother!