Marching Into Spring

It makes me so happy to create something beautiful! 

I finished up one of the Shamrock Wallhangings I started. (Haven't managed to take a good picture of it and it already went to school.)  The second one I decided not to finish because the contrast between the green solid fabric was not enough with the pieced background.  I was just going to throw it out, but I did not.

I wanted to make a wallhanging celebrating the coming of spring (which some days feels like it won't be coming at all.) I needed some fabric that would suggest blue skies and I picked up some today at the little fabric store on my way home from work. (The selection is limited, but I was lucky today to find what I needed.)

I cut the yard of background fabric into fat quarters and decided that would be a good dimension for my completed wall hanging.  Then I got the idea that I could use part of the discarded green wallhanging for the ground.  I got out my rotary cutter and hacked away.  I ended up with 2 good sized pieces that can be used for grass at the bottom of the scene I was to create.  These pieces were already quilted because I went ahead and did all the work on that wallhanging except for the binding.

Then I decided that I could further use the leftover pieces of the discarded project and freehand cut out leaves for the flowers I planned to make.

The rest of the fabric for the flowers came straight from my scrap bag.  The pink and cream print was a scrap that was already fused to some fleece and was left over from my cousin's laptop case.  I cut all the parts of the flowers freehand--no patterns or freezer paper this time!

The fact that some of these pieces already contain batting gives those areas of the wallhanging a more defined texture. In the picture above you can see I added some loopy red petals around the edge of this flower using some free motion quilting.

Some of the quilting is done with only the batting and the front, but without the backing. That is to hide some of the stitches and to make a cleaner, neater backing. Once I got the applique part done, I could go ahead and assemble my quilty sandwich.

I used free motion quilting to echo the shapes of the flowers and to create a shape in the top left corner that suggests a cloud or the orb of the sun. The quilting thread is the same color as the background fabric to provide only a subtle contrast.

This is backed and bound with a leaf print and I even included folded triangle corners on the back for hanging. 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! 

Here's hoping Spring finds its way to you soon!