Bird Of Paradise - Finished !

The good thing about having lots of projects on the go at once means - lots of finsihes one after the other.

I'm a happy bunny today because I've finished my Bird of Paradise and am so pleased with how it turned out.  All the applique was done by hand as was the embroidery on the bird.

I machine quilted the background and the borders and only machine quilted the birds plumage very lightly.

Close up of machine quilted feathers on 'feathers'

You can see in this photo that I echoed the flower in the background pattern.

Close up of hand embroidery.  Feather stitch using DMC stranded cottons.

Flower detail. Click on photos for extra close ups

I'll be keeping this one for myself for a while.  I feel as if I am making progress with the machine quilting but I still have 'bad' days.  I broke 3 needles making this. Perseverance and patience work wonders!

Today I was working on blocks for an exchange I am taking part in although I can't show you them  - yet.  They are looking good and I hope the ladies like them.
My iron broke  today also - so first on the shopping list tomorrow is a new one.  Just can't quilt without one!
Have a great weekend what ever you are doing.  I plan to sew.
Happy Stitching.

Appliqued Bird of Paradise

Hello

Today I thought I'd show you my newest project.  It was something I hadn't planned to do but sometimes a project just screams out at you and this was one.
It started with a tattoo design by my sister.  She pinched the feathers from me after she saw me quilting some, so I in turn pinched her design.  I thought it would be perfect for an applique.

This is the original drawing.
I scaled it up to the size I wanted and away I went.  I had decided to try my hand at needle turn applique.  that was ok on the small flower sample I started but when it came to doing the feathers, I could not get the accuracy I wanted.   So I switched to raw edge applique.

It is a lovely project for sitting in front of the tv watching Wimbledon.

It didn't take very long to get all the main parts stitched down and now I am working on the top stitching, using dmc stranded cottons.

I plan to do a colourful boder with more appliqued leaves and perhaps a flower.
Please come back to check my progress over the next few weeks.
If any of you like tattoos - go check out my sisters Facebook page - here is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Inkantation-Tattoos/160083404008307

Think I might be stopping by there myself to see what else I can 'borrow'.

Have a great weekend everyone - hope it includes lots of sewing!!!
Rhianon.