Abstracting a Bird of Paradise

I made this quilt about 10 years ago. It’s only 12 x 12, but I really like it.

I was looking through my photos the other day and I thought this image might look great somewhat abstracted. And increased in size.

So, I started working on PIECING it, to be about 24 x 24. Here’s my very early start.

I was keeping everything big and loose. I wanted the pieces big so I could cut them down later to their more accurate sizes and shapes.

Right away I found it difficult to abstract things. My very LEFT brain wanted to reproduce things fairly accurately and I spent WAY too much time thinking about that! I did find that I could add a little abstraction by cutting and off-setting pieces.

As you can see above, I left a good bit of excess fabric initially.

I added some more and pieced some more. WHY did I decide to piece this??? Collage would have been so much easier.

Still, I’m enjoying the challenge – slow as it is.

Ellen Lindner