Grasshopper

Whilst my other two projects were in time out, I have been quietly appliquéing the other Sarah Fielke 2018 BOM 'Grasshopper'  This quilt was designed as a lesson in hand piecing and appliqué.

I really loved the folk art style bird appliqué centre,  and unlike the other quilts I knew exactly which fabrics I wanted to use. I belong to the Queen Bee Quilters, so I had to use this fabulous bee background :)

 I also wanted bright happy flowers in yellow, orange and coral with soft green

 I started to piece the outer border of sampler blocks, but after the first couple of months I felt they were too busy for what I wanted; the centre square is about 56" square already, which I felt was large enough.  I turned the blocks I had made into a charity quilt for Project Linus (it's not really that wrinkly!)

I added a little aqua blue for the birds and I am really happy with how it turned out

I plan to hand quilt it with aurifil 12wt thread, I have a nice selection of colours leftover from Happy Days and I bought this variegated beige/taupe for the background.

I have made a rough plan, the background (on the bee fabrics) will be a hexagon grid and I will probably use this stencil to make a feature of the outer plain border.  I have a striped fabric for the binding which should work well to tie it all in.

I embroidered this bag a couple of years ago from a kit and have never used it, it's just the right size to carry all my hand quilting supplies.

I just need to sort out my backing and batting and get it basted!