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The Elusive Crested Batiki Bird

Batiki bird

Thanks to Lark Books for letting me share this picture with you!   They are publishing another quilting book in Spring (May ish) 2009 geared to beginning and intermediate projects. I submitted several proposals, and they accepted this one, for a 26 1/2 square quilt or Euro Square pillow top.  Obviously, I’ll let you know more (like the title of the book) when it is out!

In the meantime, the piecing in this quilt is dead easy…NOTHING needs to match! It is four different white on white prints and a soft green-gray (used the wrong side to make the color even more muted) for the background.  The “birch” tree is improvisationally pieced also in  blue, aqua and green batiks, while the bird is fussy cut from a piece of batik. (Detail photos are clickable for larger views.)

Close up of Batiki Bird

Oddly enough for me, after quilting the background to death (which IS typical), I hand embroidered the bird using some variegated DMC floss (one of the requirements was that all materials had to be pretty easily found, not like hand-dyed this or that or imported or whatever).  And here’s a close up of the quilting (can you tell I had fun?)

Quilting on batiki bird

And I MUST give credit where credit is due…. a whole bunch of years ago, when I lived on San Juan Island, we did a sort-of round robin with the Wednesday evening quilters (aka the Wild Rose Quilters):  each person (one a month until all of us got through) picked a block, then we all made blocks and gave it to the person.  Lunnette H-H. picked a block of birds, and we could make a sorta realistic bird or go wild.  Christy H.  made (or saw a block someone else made?) one of batik; when asked its name she said it was the rare batik-y bird.  I have always remembered and loved that name, so I adapted it to title this quilt… sure hope that’s OK!

5 Responses to “The Elusive Crested Batiki Bird”

  1. sueeeus Says:

    Oh, there’s just nothing better than a batiki bird! Very nice. I love it!!

  2. Marie Says:

    WoW! He’s wonderful SB.
    It’s gonna be such a winner of a book !

  3. Maggie in E. Central Illinois Says:

    LOVE IT! So simple,yet so powerful! Can’t wait for the book!

  4. Judy Coates Perez Says:

    Beautiful Sarah, I love the graphic simplicity of the shapes with the complimentary colors and texture of the quilting. Lovely contemporary folk art feel.

    BTW thanks for the lengthy post about Digital projectors. Since I have the same computer, it has given me more to think about, it was helpful to hear where your problems were. I think I may go for the pricier heavier Canon since it is most often happily bought by photographers, who would tend to be Mac people. So there is less of a tendency to be compatibility issues. And I am buying an extra remote with a laser pointer so no having to stand near the laptop.

  5. Art and Quilting in Camden » Blog Archive » Bird in the Woods Says:

    […] The Elusive Crested Batiki Bird […]