November 14, 2014

Portraits of Nature - Hoffman Challenge Quilt 2013

Guess what finally made its way back home?  Yes!  My Hoffman Challenge Quilt from 2013. It had quite a bit of traveling to do, but has made it back home safe and I couldn't be happier. I have had a special place reserved for it's anticipated homecoming on one of my walls and it is now hanging there.  As I noted in an earlier post, I didn't really get to take any good pictures before it left for the competition so I have gone ahead and taken some photos which I will post here for your enjoyment.  If you are interested in reading up on the previous posts, they were from May 5, June 29 and Aug 3 2013. 

I would like to once again thank Mia for all of her beautiful digitizing.  Without her and her designs, this quilt would have never been completed.  I had known that I wanted to make it look like a wall of pictures hanging, but didn't know how to get some of the frames to look right.  Mia went about designing and digitizing some special frames for the pieces which I think turned out perfect.  All of the embroidery designs but one, are actually original designs digitized by Mia. 

I also actually sat down and free motioned all of the quilting something I don't normally do since I depend a lot on the embroidery machine's capability of doing that perfect.  It turned out pretty good I think, especially since most of it was done in metallic thread.  I hope you enjoy the pictures!

First up the whole quilt.


Next starting from the upper left hand corner, the bug panel, the small butterflies, and the large butterflies.



Then the bird stack, the bees, and the bird with a key.
 
 
Last the peacock feather (the one design that was not Mia's), the small dragonfly, and the large dragonfly panel.
 


I hope you enjoyed the show!  If you would like to see any more of Mia's designs, she does have a blog, The Accidental Embroider, which she gives a free embroidery design of her choice away each month. Her blog address is listed on the right side of my blog under 'Blogs I follow'.