
A fiery phoenix soars up into a star-filled sky. This bird is my whimsical take on the mythical phoenix, a magical bird that symbolizes rebirth, transformation, and power.
This fabric picture was one of my early creations. I made it shortly after I started experimenting with fabric. I wanted to experiment with transitioning from one color to another without using a gradient, and a fiery phoenix was the perfect subject. I remember struggling with designing the sky. Mom came to the rescue. ”Just put some swirls in it,” she said, and then made a quick doodle on an envelope as an example. That 2-second doodle was utterly perfect, and it was the inspiration for the fiery swirls in the sky.
One other fun fact about Flight of the Phoenix: This is the first picture I ever sewed, although it’s not technically a quilt (for a number of reasons that would only matter if it were ever entered in a quilt show). The curls in the sky were sewn with metallic thread, and the edges of each piece of fabric were zig-zag stitched with invisible thread. I wanted to see if I could make fabric pictures that didn’t need frames, but after making this phoenix, I decided it was way too much work. Little did I know, 15 years down the road all of my new fabric pictures would be quilts, and they’d each have far more stitching than was needed in this phoenix. Ironic, right?
Reproduction Style | Fine Art Print Canvas Wall Sticker Stretched Canvas Framed Canvas |
Size | 10” x 8” 14” x 11” 20” x 16” 30” x 24” |