Bird workshop at Quilt Market - Houston
Last October and November I was in Houston at Quilt Market and Quilt festival for the first time with Irene from Sugaridoo. We had an amazing week, she showed her first fabric line, but we did so much more. Besides viewing the exhibition and of course a lot of shopping, we also attended an interesting workshop. The workshop was called Bird and was taught by Marina Landi, a quilter from Brazil. She makes beautifull portraits of people and animals by playing with hues and shades of colors to create depth and a 3D effect. Below is a selection of the portraits she had with her, but you can find more of her work on her website.
I chose this workshop because it was something I hadn't done before and I wanted to challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone. The description of the workshop was as follows: "Learn to render images with printed fabrics, respecting the concepts of light and shadow." Working with print fabrics in particular attracted me, because I usually work in smaller works with solids (plain fabrics) or a very small print.
All materials were included in the workshop, so I was really excited to open the package and see what we would be working with. The fabric we were given to make the bird was an extremely busy print and something I would never normally use, or even consider. To be honest, I would probably pass it by very quickly in my local Using the shades of the fabrics, the idea was to stick small pieces of fabric onto the pattern using steam-a-seam to create depth and shadow.
Marina gave a clear explanation of how she creates a pattern from a photo or drawing by using a black and white version of the photo. This can be done, for example, with the camera of your phone or tablet and is done to distinguish the different shades. She also did this during the workshop, very educational! To make it a little easier for us, we were given a detailed pattern of the bird. Each piece of the pattern had a letter on it that referred to the fabric, so you knew what to choose from.
There were several pieces of fabric of each shade to choose from, creating so many different birds, even though we all worked with the same materials. When you were done, the bird was ironed onto a background fabric that she had also designed herself. This fabric had a color gradient of purple-blue-white, which gave a very nice ombre effect.
At the end of the workshop we were able to roll up our finished quilt top and take it home in our suitcases. Back home I finished the project during the winterbreak with free motion quilting and a colourfull binding.
I chose to fill the background with small swirls using FMQ. I also saw this a lot in Marina's examples and I thought it fit very well. In the bird itself I chose a kind of feather pattern and I tried a wood grain. I chose mixed yarn, because there were so many colors in the quilt top that I could never match it properly. I thought this gave a very nice effect.
For binding I used a rainbow stripe from the first fabric collection by Kristy Lea, the designer behind Quiet Play. This fabric line is a few years old called Create. I thought it to be a perfect addition to this colourfull happy little bird.
I really had a great time during this workshop, it is so nice to work with fabrics in a different way than I would normally do. For me it was really educational to see how much you can do with print fabric. I also gained more experience about shades, hues and tones. How you can use them to enhance your work. In addition, I think it is always a great experience to do a workshop on something you know little about. I am definitely planning on following more workshops in the future.
What is your favourite workshop you have followed, I would love to hear your recommendations!
Sanne
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