Firebird - Applique Quilt at BQF

Jumping on the bandwagon of the Bloggers' Quilt Festival, I want again to say a great big thank you to Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side for all the time and effort put into organizing this event!

With my second entry to the Bloggers' Quilt Festival I was at a loss as to the category it suits best, being a small quilt (32'' by 44''), an appliqué quilt, an original design and something of an art quilt, too (quilt show categories generally seem bewildering to me). Well, I decided on the Appliqué Quilts category, because raw edge appliqué was the technique used, and I find that it did a good job creating the feathery texture.

Firebird is a character in an old Russian folk tale that became famous due to Igor Stravinsky's ballet. This colorful and appealing image and has been used by artists many times, illustrating the tale, creating ballet costumes, other works of art as well as symbols and emblems. Here is an article with lots of Firebird illustrations by various artists from various times. What appealed to me in this image was the opportunity to play with color/value gradation to create an effect of glow.

I had some scraps of yellows, reds and oranges left from my sampler, but I also asked my brother to bring some more from a shop in Moscow, which in addition to by-the-yard and precut quilting fabrics stocks scraps and remnants - ideal when you're doing appliqué. I also asked for "something dark green or dark blue" for the background and my brother brought me this beautiful piece which fitted the bill perfectly.

I worked on this piece in Kharkov, Ukraine, under the supervision and with advice from my dearest teacher, Svetlana Kachalova. I made a life-size sketch in color pencils to see where I'm heading, but didn't have any templates or piece-by-pice plan. I chose the fabrics for every feather and then just cut the shapes free-hand, layering and stitching them to the assembled sandwich. I started with the tail - the lower larger feathers that had to appear underneath the others, then moved on to the wings, the body and the head.

Love how the fussy-cut design embellishes the eye

To enhance the glow (and heat))) effect, I quilted the background in shades of yellow, orange and red as well, then added some seed beads to represent fire sparkles.

In the tale the firebird was stealing apples from a garden, so I bordered the quilt with appliquéd apples and leaves and some leaf-shaped quilting to fill in the remaining space.

The leaves are mostly dark, being in the shade, but those that come close to the bird's feathers are lit up.

Once again, don't forget to visit the Festival and vote for your favorites next week!