Bleaching the birdies.

At the weekend I decided to have a long stare at my bird quilt that has been sitting about feeling unloved in every way possible. 

I considered cutting it up into smaller pieces.

But when thinking of where to cut I kept finding bits of it that I liked that would be lost in the process.

It was actually the middle strip that was annoying my aesthetic brain.

The dullness. The this isn't doing anything bit. And the white circles should be under the water with the fish and not in the trees with the birds.

So I experimented with discharge paste on a smallish section. Surprisingly it didn't work. It didn't remove any of the colour. Perhaps it has a use by date. I bought it from Art Van Go about three years ago.

So I used bleach!

Watered down a bit.

And that worked, and what a joy it is to paint bleach on a surface and watch the colour change before your eyes.

It lightened up the whole feeling of the quilt.

And I coloured in most of the circles with my inktense blocks and added more colour on the left side with the inktense as well.

And now I like it.

Here are a few details.

I have since coloured most of the white circles on the right too.

 I wish I could enter it for the reflections exhibition but it is too big, as there is a size limit of 30 inches.

REFLECTIONS REFLECTIONS REFLECTIONS!

Playing around with ideas....

I'm thinking about trees reflecting on windows.

These inner blocks are about 2 inches by 4 inches and the grey strips are quarter inch.

Thought I would play around with a bright fabric for the fun of it.

It all feels a bit soulless in a way.

The trees are flat and lifeless.

No excitement.

But wait to you see this!!!!!

This is an image I have on my phone taken straight off google images.

I think this is amazing. 

A quilt waiting to happen.

And there is so many similar images mostly of buildings reflected on buildings. Or machinery, cranes reflected on windows. 

I think this is just waiting for me to explore.

On Saturday Alicia Merrett came to the Patchwork Guild and her work was beautiful.

I really enjoyed seeing her map pieces.

She can be Mapwoman.

I am Windowwoman.

Last but not least I have to get on with my blocks for The Modern Irish Bee.

We are doing a star burst block.

I have had a go, but unfortunately my block didn't work out right.

I will conquer the block today.

modernquiltersireland.blogspot.com/

If you want to see the block and the tutorial scroll down through the blog to the post on March 1st.

xxx