I am very happy to say that the “Friends of  Baltimore” applique quilt

is all finished.  And it is on its way home to South Carolina. When

it arrives, I will breathe a sigh of relief; I am sure that Darlene will too.

This is what it looked like on the floor of my studio. I have

included lots of photos for you to enjoy.

The braided handle looks like it is 3D. The two

layers of batting(wool on top and 80/20 Hobbs underneath) really

makes all the applique puff up, almost like a trapunto effect.

I really like the borders in each block. And did I mention that

the applique is phenomenal. I couldn’t even find the threads

that Darlene used to applique the  pieces onto the quilt top.

Do you see the masking tape in the upper right hand corner?

I put this on so Darlene can see where there is an area that

needs a little repair.

It is funny how each quilt takes on a life of its own. On this

particular quilt, all the background fills wanted to be

in miniature.

Feathers and  swirls are the background fills here. I saw this

sample on one of Sharon Schamber’s quilt, so I had to try it.

The border area. I decided to use 5 background fills that I

had used on 4 of the 16 blocks. These consisted of swirls,

pumpkin seeds, McTavishing, a circular design, and

some gridwork. Whenever I get bored with one, I switched

over to another fill. Yes, I am a little OCD.

One of the 6 different vases in the border area. I love feathers

so I had to put some of them onto the quilt top. It seemed like

they wanted to be miniature too.

In this block, I used an oval design that is echoed several times. It

does look stunning with the very posh bird.

The fruit in this basket is quite stunning. The pineapple

needed a little extra stitching but all the other fruit was

stitched around. I used a monofilament thread to stitch

around all the fruit. It saves alot of time not having to

switch out thread color constantly and the monofilament

thread seems to camouflauge itself with quilt blocks.

In this block, I used 2 different background fills. It does add

interest to the block.

Onto the back of the quilt. This looks so cool. It reminds

me of a wholecloth quilt.

You can actually guess what block is which when you look at

the backing. I packed the quilt in such a particular way so that

Darlene can see the back of the quilt first when she opens the box.

Hopefully, it will give her goosebumps.

Here is the posh bird but now he is colorless.

One of the baskets and the feathers that support it.

You can see the sashing received straight lines. It add more

texture to the quilt.

Another vase; this one is holding a book in it.

More shots of the background.

Love, love, love the texture of the backing.

The mighty eagles finally found his feathers. My son

actually drew in the lines for me. He is quite artistic

and helps me out whenever I need it.

The border area once more. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

I feel  like I am coming back down to earth today. Working on a

quilt like this kind of pumps you up for the duration of the

quilting. One’s mind almost becomes obsessed  with the

quilt; how much is done and what is left to be done.

It is all good and fun though.

Have a great week.