Eleanor's Australian Applique Extravaganza

When I first saw this quilt top I thought each of the blocks was a piece of Australian fabric.  Upon closure inspection I realized that each of the blocks was comprised of free form applique!  Eleanor had the vision to applique Australian prints over other Australian prints!

Eleanor's daughter Dawn brought this quilt to me and we discussed ideas for a quilting plan.  After our discussion the note I left myself was "a river runs through it, but not a fast one".  I decided to let the fabric be my guide as that was the star of this show.

 
I followed the print of the border fabric leaving some areas puffy.  I quilted around all the applique shapes and echoed around them. I tried to relax and let the quilting flow as I traveled to each new section of the quilt.

I have to admit that I had to quilt this one in short spans of time as it was tiring to concentrate on all the busy prints for very long.

The quilting designs show up more clearly on the back.

This was a truly unique quilt to work on.  I love the variety of quilts that come through my studio.  Never a dull day around here!

Reneta's Log Cabin

Reneta made this bold Log Cabin quilt as wedding gift for a lucky couple.  The colorful strips came from a jelly roll so it is a fairly large scale as far as log cabin quilts go with the strips finishing at 2" wide.

I decided on large scale free flowing feathers in the black areas.  Reneta is not normally a huge fan of feathers so I wanted to make sure they were relaxed and not too formal.

 I used the points from the piecing as the guide for the straight lines across the colorful log cabin strips.

The back is a grey Stonehenge fabric and it really allows the quilting to stand out.

The light was not cooperating when I was trying to take pictures but you get the ideas of how spectacular the entire quilt is.