This piece is a piece I made years ago when I first started really exploring curves and more intricate piecing. I made this really cool background and sun and clouds and then made an attempt at piecing the phoenix over it - raw edge. The pieces didn't all match up, so I ended up doing a lot of bead work (which I was also just beginning to explore) around the edges to hide where the pieces didn't come together. When I was about 3/4 of the way through with it I decided I didn't like it and put it away to pull out again one day. That was 5 years ago. It seems like yesterday I was envisioning this quilt. Well, about a year ago, I was cleaning out my closet organizing my old drawings and I came across the sketch for the bird again, which inspired me to pull out the unfinished piece and consider picking it back up to finish, but when I looked at it, I KNEW my skills were much better than that now and I had loads of new ideas and possibilities, so I put the original back in it's place and set to making this one all over again... and as I told Jason, I have no shame in being proud of my quilts. My whole life I wanted to find my creative voice and I have and even though I can find plenty of mistakes throughout a piece each one is an opportunity for growth and I see new ideas explored in each one and I love them all and if I don't, I put them away until whatever I was trying to accomplish is within me... I am VERY excited about this one! The piecing is intricate, the quilting is intense with lots and lots and lots of thread couching and the sparks I made twice to get them right! Sometimes it pays off to start all over!
(you can click on it and it will show it to you bigger!)
Tell me what you all think! I love feedback - especially good feedback!
Oh Sarah. It is breathtaking! I hope I get a chance to see it in real life before it goes off to live somewhere else. Or is it going to live at your house?
ReplyDeleteYou have every right to be very proud of your work- it is amazing and you are very talented. Thank you for sharing your skills with us!
It's going to stay at MY house for a while yet. I've been loving this bird for many many years. It has been one of the many birds that have spoken to me as totems over the years... It has special magic for me that I'm still working on cultivating and until I know the phoenix has taught me all she has to teach, she will stay with me.
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