Applique on the long arm

My sister wanted 17" quilts for the center of the table.  I did them non traditionally.  

Because I wanted a finished quilt of 17"  I started with a 19 inch painted sky.  I made my quilt sandwich with only the backing, batting and sky fabric.

I quilted that, no trees yet just the sky.  Then I fused on the  trunks of the trees.  But on the Summer and Fall quilts, I put some of the leaves on that would be under the trunk and branches.   Then I quilted my trunk down and quilted in the branches right over any leaves that had been put down.

I fused on more leaves on Summer and Fall and then quilted down all of the leaves.  The Spring buds are doodle quilting to represent the buds just starting to open.  

When doing the Fall quilt, I decided to fussy cut one leaf and add the single leaf to Winter.

Now they will be bound with a charcoal grey.

Butterfly quilt, a new way to applique

Miss Abagail loves purple and butterflies.  The quilt was quilted first without the butterflies appliqued on to it.  That kept the feathers pattern going under the feathers instead of along side of them.  It also made it easier to quilt.   After the intertwining feathers were quilted, the butterflies were fused onto the top.  The bottom one hangs over the edge of the binding and is backed with regular fabric.  The bottom half is not stitched down.  The other butterflies go from big to small as they go to the top of the quilt.  The top butterflies are cut out of a fabric print.  Quilting was also used to decorate the butterfly wings.

The small purple border was taken from the backing fabric.  After the quilt was squared up, the backing fabric cut off was used for the binding.