Saturday, October 24, 2009

Zebra


9" x 12" Satin

Update 11/5: I decided 1) to rip the binding off and redo it, 2) following Cynthia's suggestion to add a bit more quilting on the large black stripes, and 3) outline the background leaves in ink. This photo seems to show them better than the original did.
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As soon as I saw "Animal Kingdom," I wanted to do a zebra! I'm not sure why, wished I had some zebra stripe fabric, but no such. And reverse applique was something I had read about, but really didn't understand, until yesterday, so this is my first use of that technique.

My original thought was to have the background half-white, half-black, but making the wide uneven stripes like a zebra coat seemed more effective. I quickly realized the need to simplify the stripe pattern, as thinner stripes would be nearly impossible to cut away. And as usual, my husband had a final suggestion, the dot of red fabric paint for the eye.

And since the white satin was fairly thin, I added some of the black and white grassy fabric that I used last month just behind it for a subtle background.

I am planning to donate this as a Priority Quilt to the Alzheimers Quilt Initiative, hence the rectangle and the size. All comments welcome!

10 comments:

Jan said...

Toni, this is one of your best yet! I love him. The stripes are just right. He' a very striking animal. Great job!

fastfriday said...

What a great zebra! and the red eye is the right touch. Wish you were here. I have lots of zebra scraps as I just made a costume for Halloween for my granddaughter!
Of course you didn't need them! Very nice!
Elaine Koenig

janice pd said...

Nice work Toni. I like the play of size between the background and the zebra.

Kathy Angel Lee said...

I really like this piece. It made me look twice to discern the zebra and that was good. Nice work using the different size stripes.

Cherie in Del Mar said...

What can I say Tobi...I ALWAYS love your work...:-)
Cherie

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

This is just great. I love your background, great idea. And the red eye...stands out!

Joni said...

Nice work Tobi, I like the contrast of scale between the subject matter and the background.

LAQuilts said...

The background works perfect with the zebra - I do like the small red eye. Makes a nice focal point.

Roberta Ranney said...

Hi Tobi - What a great piece. That one dot of red paint adds a nice touch. I too like the contrast in scale between the zebra and its background - it took me a moment for my eye to sort it out.

Cynthia Ann Morgan said...

Hi Tobi, perfect zebra on a perfect background...The only thing I would suggest is to add background quilting to give more texture to the background and make the animal pop out more.
Good job
Cynthia