another quiltalong

I put together all the pieces from Lori's Cascadia mystery doll quiltalong.  This was such a fun project to make. It's a good thing she did it as a mystery because I don't think I would have attempted it otherwise with all this piecing at this time of year.  At least there was very little cutting as this mostly came out of my baggie of 1 1/2 inch squares :0)

I have some plans to add some applique to it to make it more rectangular. This was Lori's 10th doll quilt quiltalong and I've participated 8 times.  I have some delightful little quilts that I enjoy using in my home and some little tops waiting to be quilted...  :0) 

Happy Quilting!!

horses

The horses are ready to race across the bottom of my Bird of Paradise quilt.  I even started on the embroidery last night.  I added a flower to fill some space between the horses.  The space above the horses backs is just the right size for my initials and the date. I thought about appliquing them on but after getting some good advice I will stick to quilting them in perhaps with colored thread.

 My embroidery encouraging friend was over last night and she taught me how to do stem stitch - again.  I have a bad attitude towards embroidery but I do like what it adds to the applique.  She is very patient with me :0)

Jane of Jane's Threads and Treasures made a version of this quilt as well and I looked very closely at the embroidery on her horses before beginning mine. One more horse to do and some owl eyes as well and I can start assembling the top.  Exciting times :0)  (Of course I still have the side borders to applique)

Happy Stitching!!

current projects

I started a new project.  A smallish one :0)  I like so much the coffee table cover up that I showed here  and decided to make another.  I wanted a lighter one to use in spring and summer.  Now that I've taken this picture - it looks like a Christmas project... Oh well, these are the colors that go with my living room rug.  

 I need to make 50 blocks to completely cover up my "well aged" coffee table. I have 13 made so far.  It's not a terribly creative project but I wanted something fairly simple for this space.

 I couldn't resist joining in Lori's mystery doll quilt quiltalong.  I hardly had to cut any squares for this as I found plenty of variety in my bag of 1.5 inch squares.  I wanted a few hst's like Lori's so I used squares from the 2 inch bag for those.  This is my first mystery quilt. A doll quilt didn't seem like too big of a commitment :0)  And, Lori's quiltalongs are so fun!

I've been really enjoying quilting feathers in the border of my Crowfoot quilt.   I'm making big, loopy feathers so it's going pretty quick.  I'm over 1/4 finished with them already.  This picture shows how they are sprouting out of the corner motif.

I plan to have the feathered vines meet in the middle of the border.  I will switch back to blue thread to fill in the pieced border up to the feathers with diagonal lines and probably on the other side as well.  I bet that part will go slow...  Anyway, I'm making progress and it is so cozy to sit under this as I work in the evenings.

Happy Quilting!

owls

I have half of the bottom border appliqued for my Bird of Paradise quilt.  I'm using some shapes from the pattern, some of my own ideas and images from the original quilt.  

 I added some apples for color.  My knowledge of owls is somewhat limited - do owls sit in apple trees??  lol  They were a bit tricky to applique and once done I felt that they needed faces so I scoured my stash looking for owl face fabric.  It's interesting to look at fabric in a whole new way :0)  They still need some embroidery details but I'm sure I can procrastinate about that until the whole border panel is done...

 Another black bird to add some black balance.

 And I thought a sprig of flowers would be nice for the center because on the other side -

there will be 2 race horses galloping along.  I just adore these horses from the original quilt.  They have so much energy and their shape is beautiful.  Julee, one of the posters from the Civil War Bride blog was generous enough to send me the shape for these horses copied from a photo of the original quilt. I decided to put them on the bottom border instead of the side so you don't have to turn your head to view all the parts of the quilt.  (Mine is going to be a wallhanging not a bed quilt like the original was likely intended)  I'm so excited to be getting close with this long, long term project!

Happy Quilting!