Piecing a Turkey

I have been wanting to start something new in the studio but trying not to – – – I do have a lot of UFO’s. Then I came across this turkey pattern that I have had forever. This certainly is turkey season and an appropriate time to work on him.

The photograph of the completed project (as the title says!) shows a wild turkey, who has some black and white areas and some browns. I have a lot of browns left over from various Colorado quilts and really wanted to use them. So I started a little online research pertaining to turkey breeds. It turns out that there are some spectacularly colored birds. Along the way I discovered that the story of Benjamin Franklin wanting the National Bird to be a turkey is a myth. Here is quite a fun article about the topic with an excerpt from Ben himself weighing in on the “character” of a bald eagle!!!

But getting back to the turkey breeds, I think my favorite is the White Holland, but I don’t want to try to piece him…so I have chosen the Bourbon Red. He is a lovely guy with lots of brown in his body and white tips on his wings and tail fan. We’ll see how that looks. {Perhaps this turkey will end up being a special breed only found on the shores of Lake Robinson.}

This is a turkey I saw when I was at Sauder Village some years ago. He is a black turkey but that name does not do him justice. The many colors in his feathers were absolutely iridescent in the hot Summer sun. When I went over to the enclosure, all the turkeys were inside. I was disappointed, but then they started coming out. This guy walked over to me and fanned out his tail. Puffing up all those feathers makes a noise {!!!) perhaps like a feather fan opening, a p-f-f-f-f. Those guys absolutely knew how amazing they were.

This guy walked by me and swung his head. Look at his snood! Did you know that thing is called a snood? Here’s a guide to the parts of a turkey. I discovered that the red stuff is called caruncle, not the wattle. The wattle is right underneath the chin. {There will be a test on this next Thursday.}

Back to the task at hand. The packet includes a paper piecing pattern and the directions indicate that I was to use the thick white paper to piece on. That will be unpleasant to do, so I am transferring the pattern on to freezer paper, as I piece each area.

 

I wanted to start piecing the head and caruncle, but decided to “back into” the design and work on the feet. I thought they might be red or orange, but they are a beige color. Unlike the pattern shown, I want to have grass and sky and picked out some fabrics that might work. I have also sub divided some of the background areas so that I can use more fabrics.

And here are his feet and some grass! This is so fun.