From the Vault - Safari Quilt

Welcome to another installment of From the Vault.  In this series,  I pull out an old quilt from one of my plastic tubs in the basement.  Some of these quilts are no longer my style or color palette.  Some I still like quite a bit, but they've been edged out on the main floor by others I like better.

 This quilt is 39 inches tall and 45 inches wide.  I made it in 2004 and loved it enough back then to keep it hanging at work and at home for many years. 

 

This is the center block in the middle panel.  I machine appliqued it on top of the safari batik.  The beads on the navy border alternate between small oval wood ones and turquoise ceramic spheres.  I free motioned around all the animals, then outlined some of them with hand stitching.  Visible in this photo is the giraffe in the upper left corner - couched chenille yarn; the tiger below it and the gorilla in the upper right - copper metallic thread worked in a stem stitch.

   

Upper left block.  The triangle stone beads looked like arrow heads to me, so I made arrows with them.  The center button reminded me of a papoose.  I named this block Pocahontas.

Center left block.  Red metallic ribbon is hand couched.  Big red things are buttons, as are the shiny red orbs in the center.  I had a woman's name for this block, but I forgot it.  Something to do with red.

 

Lower left block.  Variegated yarn, knotted on the quilt back at the beginning and end of each of the Greek keys, couched on the front.  The green buttons are fraternal twins to the red ones in the block above.  I wanted to name this block after a real Greek woman, but lacking in ancient history, I didn't know any.  I asked my friend Carla and she gave me a name, but I can't remember it now.

Upper right block.  Shiva mirrors in the corner go with the Indian-looking inner border.  That fabric isn't batik, it's some kind of shiny material.  The circles in the outer border are two strands of something (I don't know what in the world it is!).  One strand is purple, the other is pink - they look like stretchy ponytail grabbies, but they're not stretchy and they're not little circles.  I used beads to couch the area where the strands crisscrossed.  It was really hard getting that "something", which is 1/16" in diameter, knotted on the back and pulled through to the front.  This block is named Indira Ghandi.

Middle right block.  I bought a book of embroidery stitches when I was working on this quilt, along with crazy quilt books.  I never made any crazy quilts but I did have fun trying out different types of stitches.  In the lower left is an apple charm.  I call this block Maid Marian.

Lower right block.  Variegated embroidery thread was used on the outer triangles and zig zags, variegated yarn was couched just inside it.  See that button in the center with the thread tassel?  Do you recognize it from my Sun book?  I named this block Joni Mitchell.

I don't put this much work into my quilts any longer.  I'm getting older and don't like the thought of spending months and months on one quilt.  But I'm glad that I made some detailed ones in the past.