Leaving Lida

She's done! Lida Luna is finished at last. After cutting out a jillion sections of gradient batik for binding strips, then piecing them together so that the dark-, medium- and light-gray sections were positioned just so around the quilt, I machine stitched the whole strip onto the front--only to discover that after the first 2 feet or so, the sections had not landed where I'd planned. Seems I'd made a geometric miscalculation at the corners (let's leave it at that). Being in no mood to rip it out and start repiecing, I told myself the new arrangement looked better than the original, that fate had stepped in and improved my plan. Yep, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. So here's how it worked out (minus the pins at the top and my bad photo-crop job). 

 

Lida Luna by Linda Wulf Koenig, June 20, 2013

Lida's boa and tail feathers have been attached for some time now, but she just got her beak painted last night and her eyes sewn on this morning. By that time we'd bonded, so when I took her to Moore's Sewing and Learning Center this afternoon to put her on exhibit, it felt a little like taking a pet to the kennel for a long stay. I kept waiting to hear a screech from the trunk on the drive over.

 

So now she's hanging side-by-side with my previous landscape quilt, Rock of Ages.

 

 

If you're in or near the Louisville, KY area, stop in at Moore's and take a look. There is no way to convey the texture of a landscape quilt with a photo, it just doesn't translate. But here's a side-angled shot that at least hints at the dimensional effect of the bird's body, which was appliqued over two (graded) layers of extra batting. Still not entirely obvious, though, until you see it in person.

 

 



 

 And one more shot, a close-up of Lida the moonbird:

 

 

Darn it, it looks like her right eye needs to be moved a bit further from her beak. Oh well. As Rosanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner) of Saturday Night Live often complained in her nasal whine, "It's always something." That's ok, I'll fix it before Lida goes to a permanent home. For now, she and I can use a break from one another.

 

Meanwhile, I'm on to my next project. Don't tell Lida, but it involves a family of geese.

 

Hooking up here with Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday post, as Lida's completion is definitely a whoop whoop. Sarah's beautiful quilted pillow has spurred me to get that un-used pillow form out of storage and get busy.

 

Also hooking up here with Leah Day's FMQ Friday post. She's creating a specific space in her house for handsewing, and asking if we have a particular spot where we like to handsew. Interesting coincidence, as I've been debating whether or not to use this nook in the studio for that very thing. 

 

When the room was a bedroom for my boys, I made a cushion for the window seat (which is actually a storage bin my VVHH built). They could sit there and read or just stare out at the beautiful foliage between our house and the one next door. I'm not sure they actually did that, although somewhere there's a photo of the younger one climbing up there in his diaper. So now I'm considering making another cushion for it and using the space again for something other than storage (the bin is full of batting and that pillow form I mentioned). And the thread couldn't get much handier for handsewing, now could it?

Looking forward to seeing other folks' handsewing nooks over at Leah's site. Instructions for hooking up at her site and Sarah's are on their pages at the bottom of their posts (links above), and are very easy to follow. Check them out, along with their reader hookups. Inspiration abounds!

 

Happy summer, everybody!

 

Linda