Holiday Art Quilt - Little Red Cardinal

One of my favorite back issues - "Quilting Arts" Issue #34 - In this issue, there is a wonderful article by Karin Winter called "Quilted Pet Portraits" - I decided to try creating a bird from several different layered scraps of fabric combined with thread painting, as her how-to article describes.

Here are some photographs of how my little red cardinals came out! : )

And so - I had to create a little "home" for this particular bird, as he was so sweet!
I used the "Impressionistic" style art quilting to create a background for him, with greens and bits of red and white and yellow for contrast - I also used some pre-cut felt snowflakes, the kind you find in a craft store for making kids' crafts! They were perfect trapped under the tulle - added a little bit of wintery effect to the sky, especially when overstitched with metallic silver thread!

I chose to bind this little 16.5" x 15" quilt with forest green binding strips - added an even more festive effect than my usual black binding - reds and greens and blues are great for a holiday feel.

~ Enjoy! ~