Bunnies and Chicks

I was deep in the back closet this morning, straightening and looking for art quilts to include in the up-coming exhibit of my work at a local art gallery.  It was a sobering experience.  

If you have quilted for 30 years and love small projects, you will end up with an enormous pile of miscellaneous.  Some are old friends, other I wish would just disappear.  Three have been targeted for donation to the guild's sale table at the September quilt show.

With Easter coming, I thought it would be OK to show these two small quilts. I think that I'll offer them for sale and see what happens.

"Bunny" (20" x 21") features reverse applique with a surprise crazy pieced under layer, technique from Jan Mullen in her book Reverse Applique with No Brakez.  I thank Tonya Ricucci for showing me how to piece letters in Word Play Quilts.  It is hand quilted, big stitch style, with green pearl cotton.

DETAIL

The second little quilt (16 1/2" x 17") was made after I taught a spring paper piecing class.  I saw sample blocks online and used them for models while creating my own patterns on EQ.  It is machine quilted and hand beaded. It features more of Tonya's letters

DETAIL

As long as I'm indulging in true confessions, I'll show the little bit I came across last week.  I found an outline of a puppy, fused on a background square and layered with batting and backing.  It had been a demonstration piece - there was thread and needle attached and buttonhole stitching about half way around.  It hovered over the waste basket for a second!

But I SAVED it!  I finished the buttonhole stitching, quickly machine quilted, then drew guidelines and added narrow folded accent strips.  I've found a fabric to be the final border, too.

I'm going to finish it up as a little pillow.  It might even get a button or two!