Thanks Gwenny!

This is a quilt I started last year for my quilt guild's blue and yellow challenge.  It really was a challenge for me to work with these colors.  It took me a while to figure out what to do.  I ended up getting the quilt basted just days before my diagnosis last July and after that I lost interest for quite a while.  It's just been waiting for me to get my mojo back and I started hand quilting it a few weeks ago.  I do actually plan to add more applique on those blank yellow spaces and I haven't figured out how I want to quilt the border- any ideas?

The inspiration for this quilt came right from Gwen Marston.  Another of my favorites is her book, Classic Four Block Applique Quilts.  I started with the applique center which is my own design and then added borders as they came to me.  It's kind of funny that this year's guild challenge is to use Wild Geese.  Well, since I've got those I guess I could enter this one for that too!  Most of these fabrics came from my stash, though I did buy a few fat quarters and the blue floral in the borders.

If you click on the top photo you can see the extent of the quilting so far.  I will be adding more quilting in the yellow background of the center, so far I've just outlined quilted the shapes.  I may also add a bit more applique there so I went on to quilting the geese while I was thinking about that.  This quilt is just big enough to be entered in the Sisters Quilt show, so I plan to do that.  I'll also show it at my guild's show this August. 

For the past month I've been in my sewing room exactly twice.  The second time was yesterday and I made some good progress.  I am working on a pieced back for the pink string quilt which I did manage to get the batting for at the guild's community quilt day on Wednesday.  I also have all the blocks done for the blue Bento Box quilt.  I need to put them together and then I can't decide if I'm going to machine quilt it myself or send it out.  I also have plans to work on the red crumb quilt.  Life is just so busy right now!  It's hard to find the time for the sewing room.  We'll see what next week brings.  Have a great weekend!

Comments

[Wanda]

What teeny tiny little stitches you make. It looks great. I'm no help on quilting patterns but I work like you do, start in an area I am sure of and then something will come to me for the rest of the quilting.

[Tonya R]

yes, Gwen is always inspirational. love your center bit, especially the bird with the extra long legs. um, applique in the corner blocks. I love the star flower, maybe one of those. Your initials and the years. for quilting in the border, write your name out and do that. your city. or write a message of some kind. won't show up necessarily, but still fun.

[Roxie]

Soo pretty and cheery. Very French provincial. For the corners, how about more birds and butterflies to go with the flying geese? Wingy thingies. For the outside border, I like scribble quilting.

[Cheryl]

I smiled just looking at your quilt. It's very happy and I'm a sucker for blue and yellow. And you can't go wrong with Gwen Marston. As for quilting ideas....my first thought was to quilt around some of the flowers and butterflies. Or, a meandering stitch with loops and butterflies scattered around.