Working on my 'Summer' Wall Hanging

A long time ago, I attempted to make the Flowering Urn Quilt by Rosemary Makhan.  Unfortunately, I did not have the skills and I gave up.  It isn't like me to give up on a quilt, but at the time, it was easier to put it in the bottom of a storage box and forget it.

I want to have a different wall hanging for each season of the year - to hang in my sitting room.  I have a Spring and a Christmas wall hanging, so summer and autumn to go. 

I love the Flowering Urn pattern, but don't have room on my wall for the whole quilt, so will just add two borders to the centre block and it should fit just great.

I decided I would hand applique the quilt.  Sometimes it is nice to be able to sit and be sociable while sewing.  Although I have done some hand applique over the past two years, I had never appliqued onto a piece 30 inches square before.  I didn't realise it would be tricky to sew on such a large piece of fabric.  I think in future, I will think twice about undertaking appliquing such a large block.

I wanted the colours to remind me of summer.  I also have a considerable stash of batik fabric, so thought I'd use some bright batiks.  I also decided to use a white background fabric (instead of my usual first choice of cream) to give the batiks a bit more pop.

There is still quite a lot of embellishing to do on the block.  I haven't decided whether to machine or hand embroider the leaves and bird wings.  I still need to embroider the bird legs.  I used a white sequin topped with a small black seed bead for each eye and a double strand of embroidery floss for the tendrils.

The next border is pieced, and then the outer border is appliqued with more birds, pomegranates, leaves and roses. 

I also need to get around to quilting my Sutton Grange quilt.  I've made a start on it, but there is still plenty to do!

Happy quilting, all!