Owl in Freemotion

My "Blissfully Bookish" quilt, 2015

Recently, while working on the Moonglow quilt for my father's birthday, I found I needed a break from the intricately pieced compass blocks. I was also feeling creatively stifled, because all the fabrics had been preselected and included in the kit. They were all stunning, but there were no decisions for me to make beyond "do this now" or "do this later" and where to put the scraps. Truth be told, I was itching to put them in another quilt.

Different lighting shows more of the quilting on "Blissfully Bookish"

Fortunately, All People Quilt had just sent out an email featuring cute (and easy) animal quilts, and an adorable owl quilt based on a design called "Wise Guy" by Holly Hickman (download pattern here) caught my eye. The project involved very simple piecing, and had a great color scheme in browns, beiges, and green-blues.

I dipped into some of the teal scraps from Moonglow and assembled a collection of batiks, prints, and solids in reddish- and blue-browns. Luxurious silks by Pindler and Pindler added stunning texture to the plumage around the owl's face. For the background, I paired a variety of neutral decorator fabrics in linen and cotton with scraps of Michael Miller's Urbanista 20/20. The whimsical eyeglasses made my owl appropriately bookish. Marimekko's romantic print Hurmio (1999; "Hurmio" is the Finnish word for "Bliss") by Fujiwo Ishimoto in cotton sateen framed the eyes and provided a single flower in gold for the owl's soft belly. Maija and Kristina Isola's Nostosilta (a 1967 design reprinted and recolored in 2009, "Nostosilta" means "drawbridge" in Finnish; my blissful owl enjoys watching boats) makes for a vibrant border in blues and greens.

Detail of "Hurmio" print and free-form echo quilting on my blissful owl's belly

The smaller size of this quilt inspired me to experiment with new (to me) freemotion designs. I started with designs from Deborah Poole's You Can Quilt It! Stunning Free Motion Designs Made Easy. I used her Jelly-icious design around the eyes (detail below) and experimented with a variety of feather techniques, including the hooked feathers pictured below.

Detail of quilting around the owl's eyes, inspired by designs in Deborah Poole's You Can Quilt It!

More feathers and a leaf crown for my owl

Detail of quilting adapted from Deborah Poole's Four Square design 

Peacock Shell filler

Lots of different feathers

For the background, I wanted an organic quilting motif. LuAnn Kessi's "Organic Background Filler" was perfect, and was so fun to quilt.

Detail of background quilting, based on design by LuAnn Kessi

 My blissfully bookish owl was a great break from an intense project. When quilting becomes stressful I need to step back, take the pressure off, and remind myself to have fun.