Feelin' Aussie

I follow Jenny's Elefantz blog. She often has charming pictures of her house located in her part of the world, Queensland, Australia. Her photos are beautiful and inspirational, and she's an exceptionally nice person too! Her blog, and those of several other dear Australian quilting friends perpetually keep me in mind of Australia and how I'd like to be one of them!

So one recent morning, seeking a kinship with Aussies, I ate breakfast outdoors on our back deck. The Aussie way is to have a cuppa (or tea) and mango (no fresh here, so frozen had to do) topped with yoghurt (have to spell it the Australian way). As I ate, I leafed through an issue of the Australian publication, Homespun, that I brought back from my May trip to Australia.

I even wore the slippers I made following an Aussie pattern found in the same issue of Homespun.

Turning to the magazine's page with the "Life is a Celebration" block designed by Kellie Wulfsohn, Don't Look Now, of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I admired it for the umpteenth time, re-reading how Kellie appliques and quilts in one step.

Since first reading the article, my interest has been piqued by this method of raw edge machine applique and quilting. Yes, I'd previously heard of raw edged applique. What I hadn't heard about was fusing the applique pieces to a background, making a quilt sandwich, and then applique-ing and free-motion quilting in the same step! Is this a new concept? Or have I just had my head in the sand? (No need to answer, please!)

That morning I determined to drop everything I should be doing and begin this project. To make a quilt larger than the 13" X 17" block indicated in the instructions, I started by enlarging the pattern templates by 25 percent and taping sections together.
I traced and numbered onto paper-backed fusible web all 41 leaves, and then selected five different green-ish prints on which to press them.
I selected a very pale green tone-on-tone fabric for the background, pressing to fuse the tree trunk, bird, and leaves onto it. Then, to make the finished piece even larger, and give it some oomph, I added a pieced border. I pin-basted a quilt sandwich - I used Dream Poly batting - and headed to my new-to-me, used Pfaff Grand Quilter to try simultaneous applique/quilting. Would that be appli-quilting?
Using thread to match, I straight stitched around each leaf edge two to three times. I also stitched around the bird. And last, using brown thread, I straight stitched the tree trunk, adding straight lines of stitching for limbs and branches. Oh, and to make the bird's legs too.

Switching to light green thread, I spent about six hours free-motion quilting.

I'm not unhappy with the results, but I'm not entirely pleased either.

If I could, I'd would take one of Kellie's classes to learn the proper way to make the perfectly round quilting spirals that look so beautiful on her creations. But, I have to settle for what I was able to do after looking at close-ups of the photos on Kellie's blog, and trying to figure it out for myself. There are a few hiccups.

It's a bit off the mark, but I'm satisfied with my first attempt. And I will try again.

I don't have a name for this 22" X 28" piece, and no particular place to hang it, but I enjoyed making it. And anyway, for a little bit there, couldn't you almost see my Aussie-ness?

Cheers!