My Big Hoot

I’ve entered two pieces into the Birmingham Quilt Show inspired by the Big Hoot art exhibition that took place last summer in Birmingham. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, so I’m just going to tell you the back story and show some samples that I’ve used for practice.

Last year was my second time in Birmingham for the quilt show, and my first time leaving the NEC to explore the actual city. I bought a train ticket at the station and asked for a map. The man at the train station gave me this map, which I discovered is a map of where all the owls were located around the city, not just the city itself:

I ended up spending the day exploring the owls as much as the city, it was a great way to see the city. It also gave me a reason to talk to people, mostly families out for the day exploring the owls too! It was then that I decided I would make an owl quilt the next year. I used this picture from the map as my template. It is one of my favorites from the exhibition, based on the Owl and the Pussycat (in a beautiful pea-green boat) and viewed from the back of the owl, it’s the pussycat!

Here’s a 3 owl practice that I put together. The fabric is different for each owl, as it is a bit of a memory quilt for me. All owls are made from fabric from my stash. I’ve used the quilting to add the owl-like features, and iron on gemstones for the eyes:

You can see the detail in an individual owl, this owl is about 2.5 inches high:

My Big Hoot quilt will be my first large quilt I’m entering into Birmingham. I didn’t feel that I was good enough before, and I do think that this is the best quilt I’ve ever made. I can’t wait to see it there!