Pelicans - a whole lotta progress!

I've been busy - after traveling to Gammill Headquarters, teaching at Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Fredericksburg, and finishing a much overdue client quilt, I took some time off to work on the pelicans.

I started with Mr. Pelican's feet. I did my usual turned edge foundation applique.

And then used Shiva Paintstiks to make magic happen:

Then on to Mrs. Pelican's feet:

And more Shiva paints:

I absolutely love how the feet turned out!

Then on to the beaks,

And then Mr. Pelican after the paint:

And Mrs. Pelican after some paint:

You might remember in my last pelican post how I wasn't thrilled with the dock. Well, after I placed the pieces onto the master copy to look at the layout and I added the feet on the dock - I love it! Its amazing how adding other elements changes your perspective.

I turned the edges to all of Mrs. Pelican's pieces and placed them on the master copy for reference.

And then the painting of feathers began. I must apologize, sometimes I forget to take before pictures. Here's an after:

And again, another after:

One more after (I'm really bad at taking the picture before I start, guess I'm just too excited to create):

Oh look, here's an almost before:

And here is the after:

Finally, a before:

And an almost finished:

And here she is - Mrs. Pelican:

I still need to glue-baste all the pieces together until its time to stitch her to the background, but I am so pleased with how she turned out. Yes, I can see a couple of areas that I'm going to need to tweak with thread when quilting time comes, but nevertheless, I am thrilled with her!

Tomorrow another rush client quilt arrives, so that'll be it for the pelican work for a little while. I missed my original deadline of 10/1, and its doubtful impossible that I'll make my secondary deadline of 10/16. I really, really, really wanted to enter the pelicans into AQS Daytona, but unfortunately I am unable to perform miracles and have this pieced, painted, appliqued, quilted, faced, and sleeved by Friday - I'm good, but I'm not that good!