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 Manchester NH for the World Quilt show in August, I was working on the 12th bird in the car.  We got out of the car for breaks and the bird went missing.  I thought maybe he fell out as I exited the car.  Once we got home I found him in between the passenger seat and the console.  The gremlins follow me around and rearrange things like The Borrowers did in the book I read as a kid.  I am so happy I didn't lose this bird, but the quilt top is square and he doesn't fit anywhere.  Now, I need to increase the number of birds to make another row.  I have time yet.  Somebody suggested that I include a hummingbird and the throated flowers they prefer.  If you have a suggestion, email me back.  All new patterns will appear on my home page of my website as they become available. The plan is to have the finished birds quilt photographed so the cover is ready for the printer in California in early December.  We need the covers to complete the pattern by mid-January when I start teaching it in Orlando and Hampton VA and Somerset NJ at the beginning of the year. I am working on one more project to submit to MAQ to teach on Sunday next July.   Four Cat Faces will be in the group for the pattern.  This is what I have so far: You probably recognize her as Grumpy Cat of internet fame. I am struggling with striped cats, trying to get three more examples.  Although they are pretty in the photographs, they just don't work for a pattern, especially for people who possibly can't draw.  So I need to simplify the designs.  Everything is a learning experience for me.  There will be solid colored cats or maybe like a calico cat with spots of color. I have ten days until my proposals are due.  There is no guarantee that MAQ (Mid-Appalachian Quilters guild) will choose my projects.  I'll cross my fingers. If you are interested in taking one of my classes in Hampton VA, make sure you sign up in December, because last year my two half day classes sold out very fast.  The classes aren't ready for sign ups yet, so keep checking back.  This show is probably the best and largest show on the east coast.  It is well worth making the effort to attend.  You will be inspired.  Plan on taking it in for two or three days as there is so much to see. We had a lady at our show in Oaks PA last weekend who wanted to try my Felted Applique technique but she didn't see a theme she wanted to do.  I suggested that she choose a machine applique theme and I gave her a free conversion pattern with tips so she could learn what to do when she got home.  She chose Fancy Fowl.  I helped her choose a hand dyed background and an applique fabric, and she chose the roving colors to do one chicken.  She was thrilled to be exploring something new.  We'll meet again in Hampton.  Now this works both ways, if you like the critters and layout of one of my Felted Applique quilts, you can make it a machine applique quilt in cotton or wool fabric. I made a terrific discovery when I quilted the Woolly Fish with WOOL batting.   I quilted it on the sewing machine because wool is too thick to hand quilt.  I only quilted on the background in spiral shapes (to indicate water and movement).  What I learned was how lofty wool batting is.  Where I didn't quilt, the appliques popped out creating a very nifty bas-relief effect.