Something that intrigues me....

 While biking alongside a river a few weeks ago, I noticed that lots of tiny swifts were darting back and forth over the water.  There were so many and it was fascinating to see them weave back and forth, dodging each other while staying on the same flight path over the running stream.  It seemed to me that, if you could draw a line of their flight paths, it would mimic the same flowing lines as the water and that's an idea that I've been mulling over ever since in my mind.

My main concern in creating a quilt with this subject was how to make sure that the swifts (or would I make them swallows with their great silhouettes?) would stand out against a busy background of water and foliage?  I finally came up with an answer that I liked while hiking a few days ago and have been playing around with the sketches that you see here.  (Very rough sketches, I might add with lots of notes to myself so I don't forget any details.)

What if I make the background muted tones?  Not pastels, but a lot of monochromatic grays, browns and black and white fabrics?  Then the birds could be done in a strong value and color that would easily contrast and stand out.  I don't want to do detailed birds (I am piecing, after all), but a large quantity of birds that could be broken down into three or four pieces, easy shapes to sew on a small scale.

So you can see here that I've been playing with the basic bird shapes.  One or two I like, others look like bats or UFO's.  The piece definately needs to be a horizontal shape, given the flowing lines of the water and the birds in flight that I want to use. Maybe I'll take some sections of the background and do a little detail in some pockets of color.  But I'm excited about this idea and think it has a lot of possibilities.  Time to start sorting through my fabric stash now that I have a vague idea of the color palette that I want.....