Mini Quilt Finish

My second entry into Bloggers Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side is this quilt for the Doll/Mini category.

It measures 22" square and is a variant on Lynnette Anderson's design "A Dog's Life".  This is 2 of the 4 blocks re-arranged a bit.  I'm calling it Four Seasons in One Day because that's the weather we are having at the moment! There is a gale warning in effect and I've been waiting all morning for the rain to stop to get some daylight photos.

 I had made the dog with the flowers as a stand alone some months ago.  It had been on my to finish list for Finish-A-Long 2013 but I never quite got to it and then Kirsty at Schnitzel & Boo announced a mini quilt swap and I knew this was the perfect opportunity to finish up Bella (that's what I've been calling the dog!)

I had the idea of doing a house with a tree for a cushion with the dog in front but this would have been too big so I dropped the house and kept the tree.  The fabric is Forever Spring by Nancy Halvorsen.  It has a bit of a spring feeling alright with the blue and summer with the flowers.  I suppose it being Autumn I added leaves in gold and brown and some falling leaves to balance it all out.  The binding is Bonnie & Camille's Vintage Modern for Moda.

I used fusible paper to applique the shapes and hand stitched all but the leaves with a blanket stitch. The leaves are straight stitched on the machine to give that raw edge look which I think works for autumn leaves.  

It took a while to do the tree.  I watched 2 vintage Doctor Who feature length episodes while sewing this down.  Watch are having Doctor Who specials every weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary this year, perfect TV for hand stitching!  

The mail date for the swap is in November but once I got going on this project I just had to finish!  I really like this and I hope my swap partner will too.  Fingers crossed she is a doggy person!

I'm still trying to get to grips with Free Motion Quilting so I tried wiggling and freehand for the tree. It's not perfect but I feel like I am getting better at it.  So I get to enjoy Bella in her autumn woodland setting for a week or two and then she is off on a trip across the Atlantic!

Linking up to Schnitzel & Boo and Bloggers Quilt Festival Mini Quilts!