The Quilt Files, Episode 21

I'm always thinking ahead when it comes to gifts for holidays and birthdays. If I see something I think someone in my family will like, I snap it up even if the appropriate occasion is six months away. When I saw this pattern in the Keepsake Quilting catalog, I knew my mom would like it. I also knew exactly where she could put it (always something to consider when gifting something that hangs on a wall), especially if I changed the color scheme from the pattern picture.

The original pattern, for a chickadee sitting on a pussy willow branch, was pictured on an olive and brown-colored background. Blech. I'm not big on earth tones, as is evident to anyone who knows me; besides, my mom's newly remodeled kitchen bathroom had royal blue as one of the most prominent colors. So I raided the stash I had left over from my nephew's aqua-blue quilt, added a couple of scraps, and came up with the following:

Isn't that nicer than olive and brown—after all, the sky is blue, isn't it? The applique was simpler than it looks, because I left the edges raw. I could do that because a wall hanging isn't intended to be handled, so there was no need to create clean edges by folding them under and hand stitching. I didn't even need to protect the raw edges with heavy satin stitching, I just captured all the edges when I machine quilted the piece. The white fabric I used for the pussy willow blossoms had silver flecks in it, so I decided to use a silver metallic thread for the quilting. I stippled most of the background, although you might be able to tell that I tried to create a cirrus cloud-like wave pattern near the top. A friend who creates beaded jewelry gave me a tiny pearl for the chickadee's eye for the finishing touch. Here it is in detail:

It may not be the most finished-looking applique I've ever done, but I think the overall result came out pretty well. It really didn't take very long to put the whole thing together, but I was really pleased with the result. It made a very nice Mother's Day gift.