“Psychedelic Peacock” is done!

It is done! I don’t know when I’ve been happier to say that about a piece. This one was a bear. Partly because I ran out of my favorite fusible adhesive – Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 – and had to use a heavier one, and partly because I underestimated how much threadwork I’d need to do to achieve the proper look for the feathers, and partly because of the size. It is 48" square, and has my favorite stabilizer — Pellon 910 interfacing — under the whole surface. I have stitched king-sized bed quilts on my home sewing machine that have been easier to wrangle under the needle than this one was!

I estimate that I spent at least 100 hours working on this piece!

I made it to showcase collections of fabric by StudioeFabrics, a wholesale division of Fabric Editions, a company in Greenville, SC, for whom I have done design work. It will hang in their booth – with other art quilts by some fabulous fiber artists I know! — at International Quilt Market in Houston, Oct. 28-31. Fabric Editions has been in business since 1996, specializing in packaged fabrics known as “pre-cuts” and “kits” which are sold into the mass specialty markets. They offer fabric collections, pre-cuts, patterns and kits to independent fabric retailers only.

Here are some detail photos:

This piece is based on a photo I took this summer of a peacock of a zoo in Colorado. (See earlier posts for more information on how I started this project.) I changed the colors of the tail feathers to showcase the fabric line. After tracing my photo, and blowing up the line drawing, I created pattern pieces for each element using paper-backed fusible adhesive. 

After fusing down the fabrics, I backed the quilt top with Pellon 910, and then thread-sketched the lines in the feathers using 50-weight Aurifil Cotton Mako thread. Once I added the batting and backing, I quilted the piece, going back over some of the lines in the feathers with quilting thread (mostly 40-weight Aurifil Cotton Mako) to make them stand out more.

I wish I had kept track of how much thread I used in this piece! I do know that I emptied more than 10 small spools of 50-weight thread I used in the bobbins alone.