I finally finished all the hand stitching on my Mardi Gras birds applique project. Mardi Gras has come and gone, but I still finished in time for Spring!
Whenever I think of birds and Spring, I am reminded of a ditty I learned in childhood:
Spring is sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where dem boidies is?
Dem little boids is on da wing...
Ain't dat absoid? Da wings is on da boid!
I haven't done much hand quilting lately, so this project was a good exercise. I didn't do anything fancy, just cross-hatch and outline quilting. In the border, I just followed the design lines of the border fabric. As I was stitching the border, it occurred to me I use this lazy pattern of border quilting on a regular basis, so I plan to use a fancy border stencil or pattern on my next hand quilting project!
Here's my "lazy" border quilting from the back.
I just need to add some picture hanging strips to the back. I learned this technique for hanging small quilts years ago from somewhere in blogland, but I couldn't tell you where. The Command Picture Hanging Strips are a little like Velcro - you can feel when the two strips have made solid contact because they click together. One set of strips is stitched to the quilt and one set applied to the wall. The strips on the wall can theoretically be removed - your mileage may vary.
