My starting center block was a needle-turned applique bird (New Zealand black robin) that I found in an old New Zealand Quilter magazine (I will properly give credit when I am back home and can check the magazine date and the designer). I modified it slightly because the original pattern specified fused raw-edge applique. My needle-turn skills mean that some tight corners needed to be smoothed out slightly.
The background was made up of bands of color with curved seams made to represent an abstract landscape. I included some of the background fabric and another fabric for anyone to use along the way.
The finished quilt included borders added by Sophie (3 sides: the sun, the words, and the small squares, I think) and by Julie W (2 sides: vine and black/brown strips). The quilting was done by Gwen. I can't wait to see it in person.
I also added the first border to Sophie's center block. She included with her center star block some additional fabrics including one with large polka dots. It was screaming to be cut into giant dot appliques. I chose to stick them on using a running stitch for something different.
And the second border to Melinda's center. My border included the skinny green, red, and black/white checks as well as the words. A kakariki is a green parakeet that we have in New Zealand; it is also the word for green in the Maori language. I had never done words before but I really enjoyed doing them...I feel a project coming on. Interesting how I added words to another quilt and someone else added words to my quilt and both referred to birds, hmmm.
For the final round I had to sandwich and quilt Andra's quilt. The first border was paper pieced and very intricate, so I did some stitch-in-the-ditch in that section. I also did some stippling in the blue triangles in the center and hand stitched around the birds and foliage. The outer border has a diamond pattern.
