Birds quilt in progress
It is always a challenge to think up a new theme to try for my Felted Applique technique. I have been kicking around the idea of birds since my Birds and Flowers machine applique pattern is about to run out. There is so much more I can do with felting than machine applique to make the birds look more real with shading and hand embroidery for the details. The trick to getting the birds to look like their real buddies out at my bird feeder is getting the beaks the right shape and with sharp points. The dove at the bottom left still needs legs and feet, but they may go into the border. The crazy quilt stitching where the blocks overlap is my unique take on basic stitches like feather stitch or herringbone stitch and adding more stitches to the “arms” of the base stitch like a chain stitch, or fly, or French knot (I prefer a Colonial stitch to French knot because they don't get pulled to the wrong side of the quilt top). On our trip to M...