Little Possum

I received word today that my latest commission had arrived, and been gifted, so now I can share it in full. I kept part of it hidden before, because the baby's name is on the quilt top, and I would hate to have given anything away.

I do love this quilt, so there are quite a few photos...

I blogged a series of photos of the possum as I was making it; here she is sitting with her strawberry on the finished quilt top:

I've included a few detail shots, to show how I did the quiting and applique.

This one of the tail shows quite distinctly the two colours of applique. I ended up quilting around the possum using a regular free-motion stitch to create a zigzag sitch which blended with the applique stitches - a 'straight' line would have ruined the softening effect of the applique stitches.

On request, I quilted 'love is everything' into the top, underneath the tree.

This quiltling was done in a pale pinky-purple thread to help it stand out from the background a lttle. It shows better in real life, but could probably have done with being a little darker. However, this colour of thread was almost impossisble to find, so this was probably the ebst  option.

I appliqued the little girl's name with the aid of a super-enlarged font print-out:

Either side of Poet's name I quilted a little bird, again in a contrasting light pinky-purple thread. You may recognise this image; it came from an album cover. I originally intended to seek permission to use it, but on finding the recipient was the artist herself, decided that it would ruin the surprise, and that this was probably one occasion it would be ok to use it! Being a line-drawing to start with, it converted perfectly to a quilting design.

Pluming from the birds' tails I quilted a trio of feather plumes. They are intentionally slightly different form each other, but similar enough to appear balanced. I drew the spines freehand, then quilted the actual feathers without any markings.

Because the quilt is wider than the standard 44in fabric, I use two fabrics for the top; one very subtle cream tone-on-tone for the centre, and a slightly draker one with a little more pattern for a wide 'border'.  I probably should have chosen a border fabric with just a little more contrast, since it's almost indistinguishable once quilted, but it still looks perfectly fine.

To help anchor the base of the quilt and tie in the border, I appliqued a pair of blossoms, matching those in the tree, with a few leaves.

I filled the background with my current favourite - the combination triple-paisley, swirl and double-feather pattern. It's not ideal for filing small gaps, though it worked quite well between the branches, but it's wonderful fun to quilt in the larger open areas.

I'll be back tomorrow night with another peek at the top of the white and aqua quilt - it's quilted and trimmed and ready for me to add the binding, but I'm having an early night tonight - hopefully before midnight.

(ps - remember to click on any image for a closer look!)