The Thimbleweeds Quilt Guild had a challenge to produce raffle-quality quilts for community service fundraisers. Each participant was allowed to choose a panel to incorporate. I picked the cute owl panel in the center right of the quilt. I wanted to create a sampler using an assortment of owl patterns. These included Otis the Owl by Joanna at Shape Moth on the top left (The pattern is missing a portion of the branch on the bottom of piece K.), "Hooters" by Eileen Sullivan in the bottom right, "Remember Whooo Loves You" by the Acorn Quilt and Gift Company in the top right, a paper-pieced owl by Kristy at Quiet Play in the center of the branch (Remember to set your print size to 100%.), and an owl I sketched based on the cover of Dare to Be Square by Boo Davis in the center left position.
I used Magic Binding on this quilt. Unfortunately, some unintended magic happened, as it made the legs of the little guy in the bottom right disappear. Since I was looking at the top when I brought the binding from the back to the front for securing by machine, I didn't notice that my thread did not stay in the ditch on the back side and often rode up onto the binding. I do like the speed of the process and the accent flange it creates on the front of the quilt.
For the free-motion quilting, I used a wood grain design I learned from Angela Walter's Machine Quilting Negative Space class on Craftsy. It's a very quick and forgiving design.
I added a continuous branch, as I thought it was odd-looking to have chunks of branches floating in mid-air. I also made the Acorn Quilt and Gift Company owl's wings 3-D so they can flap instead of being stitched doen flush with the quilt surface.
For the free-motion quilting, I used a wood grain design I learned from Angela Walter's Machine Quilting Negative Space class on Craftsy. It's a very quick and forgiving design.
I'm linking up with the parties on my linky page.
