I finished my Bird of Paradise quilt!! Appliqued and quilted by hand - only the assembly of the blocks and basting was done by machine.
I started with the Threadbear Civil War Bride quilt pattern. I made 10 of the blocks just like the pattern, 4 blocks slightly altered and the remaining 6 blocks I drew myself using some of the flower and leaf shapes from the pattern and my own drawings. For my borders I took inspiration from the original 1862 Bird of Paradise quilt pictured in The Quilt Engagement Calendar Treasury. I wanted the horses for sure to be included - they add so much energy to the quilt. I also really liked the top border from the original so I sewed mine to be similar. The sides and bottom are of my own design.
With the horses racing along the bottom you'd think I'd have been racing to a finish. Actually I started this quilt in September of 2010. Quilting began in May of 2016 and finished in Sept of 2017. Yeah - September. It took me 5 months to trim and bind this quilt. It was like an anticlimax. And, I'm not sure why. I loved working on this project so much - I miss working on this project. It's a fairly large quilt and I really don't have anywhere in mind to hang it. I'm really happy with how it turned out - I'm just not really sure what to do with it.
Here are some close ups. I love the squirrels :0) They've been so busy hanging upside down off of our bird feeder eating seeds all day today. (I was less happy with them when they were digging up and eating my carrots in the summer though)
It's a large quilt to display. I'll find a spot for it somewhere I'm sure.
It was a tremendously fun journey. I learned so much about applique and designing blocks and borders while working on it. Honestly I'd love to make it again.
It is fairly densely hand quilted. After I saw Hilda's beautifully quilted
Civil War Bride quilt I wanted that look as well. I learned a few things about marking while I worked on it too. There were challenges :0)
Overall, it was a wonderful ride :0) What next??
Happy Quilting!
