Flora and Fauna

I have been away from my online quilt family for the past couple weeks, being other wise occupied with my biological family – as it should be! I have a new granddaughter who was born to my son and daughter-in-law on May 11, 2016. She is the recipient of the Nestling Owls quilt from my previous post. I was busy helping to care for her two-year-old big sister.

I did manage to sneak in a quick trip to a fabric store in the area while I was away. I supplemented my stash of burp cloth flannels with these cute prints. 

When I returned I did a bit of FMQ practice. A simple fabric panel had a whimsical design and I outlined the shapes. It is more of a coloring book approach rather than a creative endeavor, but I liked the effect. I used an echo foot to parallel the wavy lines in the border.

The back turned out kind of cool, too. This quilt is destined for the Community Outreach Program of one of my quilt guilds so it is my custom not to display it in its entirety on my blog – just snippets to show technique. The endeavor did inspire me to do some other panel work.

I thought this sea creature panel was too cute to pass up. I purchased it while away, at the same time I bought the flannel. Lo and behold, when I got home I found two fabrics in my stash that I think coordinate very well. The striped one looks like the seaweed swaying at the sea horses tail. The dotted one makes me think of bubbles and reinforces the googly eyes of the ocean animals. I like that the dot and stripe fabrics are a bit different in that they play up the greens and oranges and play down deep blue typical of the sea themed fabrics. I would like to whip up something simple out of this combination. Maybe I will quilt it in an outline coloring book format like the previous panel. Hmm. Perhaps I can throw in some waves or seaweed between the blocks or in the border.

Now I would like to do some catch-up with other bloggers at Let's Bee Social #126.