Winter Fun!

This adorable applique piece is the class example for a series on embroidery in the hoop that is currently being taught at Rumpled Quiltskins in Okotoks, AB. Here's the class description: Appliqué in the hoop is quick and allows so much texture and life to your embroidery. As "snow" is our national climate, we celebrate our 150th birthday with a salute to someone we know better than our founding fathers - the Snowman!

I had so much fun quilting this piece. It was like an ongoing game of "I-Spy". Each time I advanced to the next row of blocks, I got to play peek-a-boo with some more snowmen! It was such a hoot the whole time!

The blocks called for a lot of outlining, with few opportunities for embellishment. I wanted to quilt around all the major applique elements, so that they really popped and had a lot of definition.

The border gave me some room to have fun. I cut out a cardboard snowflake template, traced around it with water-soluble pen, and used contrasting thread to quilt the snowflake shapes. I regret that it doesn't show up better - I wish I would have used TWO threads in my needle. Although, maybe it's for the best. There's already a lot going on in this quilt, no need to confuse things. Decisions, decisions. Sigh....

I filled around the snowflakes with some wild "McTavishing" - which I think evoked winter wind and flurries. 

My quilting is all free-motion, hand-guided on a longarm quilting machine.