Project Quilting 16.1: Mythical Creatures

 Good morning, my friends. Once again, I’m writing fast. Poor Sadie has to go to the vet this morning. There’s been no bloodshed so far, but one can never rule that out when Sadie is being transported somewhere against her very strong will. Honestly, for her size, she packs a punch. But, let’s not focus on that right now. I’m afraid she’ll be reading over my shoulder, and realize what’s in her future.

So it took me two days to finish my piece for the “Mythical Creatures” prompt. After thinking over several ideas, I decided to go with my final inspiration. I was reminded of this sign I saw on the main drag through the little mountain town of Idyllwild, California.

Doing some sleuthing online, I was able to come up with a design I thought I could hand stitch. All of Monday was spent stitching this piece I’m calling (not surprisingly) “Bigfoot Crossing.” In my initial wanderings, I was thinking of the mythical “Yeti,” and it just kind of morphed into Sasquatch and Bigfoot thing. Here’s how my piece looked when I finished the stitching near bedtime Monday evening.

The outer areas and areas that required more shading, I used three strands of black floss. The inner shaded areas are stitched with two strands. Then I used three strands and a stem stitch to stitch the words. When I showed it to Sadie yesterday afternoon, she wasn’t sure what to think.

I hope you’re not talking about me having big feet. My feet are purrfectly purrportioned to the rest of my body…in other words, purrtite, like me.

After I reassured her, she consented to helping me finish. I first needed to add two borders. Sadie helped me trim everything to the right size.

This is the fabric I selected for the back. It’s been in my stash a long time. It seemed as good as anything.

I quilted it pretty simply. There are big footprints in the four corners. It needed more than that, and so I quilted a line around the figure of Bigfoot. And then I stitched a line on either side of the black border. 

That seemed like plenty from a functional standpoint. I really didn’t want to add a lot of quilting. It’s supposed to look like a yield sign, right? I thought too much quilting would be distracting.

It was my first time trying a “faced” binding. It seemed as if this quilt needed it. Using the excellent tutorial right here, I was able to get it done. It was easier than expected. And here’s my finished quilt. It ends up at 16 x 16 inches.

Here’s how it looks from the back. That yellow solid strip is the faced binding.

Okay, so that was a quick finish. Two days from inception to completion. I’ll be linking up at the finish party at Persimon Dreams this morning.

Hopefully, we’ll be home again before lunch time, and I can get back to finishing the Bear Necessities baby quilt. It’s still sitting right where I left it needle down.

In other baby quilt news, my friend Sue texted me this picture of her grandson with the baby quilt I made for him. What a cutie.

Live long and prosper, young man.

Okay. I must prepare to face the Cat of Darkness and her deadly murder mittens. Wish us luck. If this is my last post, you’ll know it was death by exsanguination…and I’m not talking about Sadie.