WOW 3rd Feb

Hi Everyone, where did January go!!!
Haven't blogged for a couple of weeks, it has been so humid that it feels like being back in the islands and all I have wanted to do is blob out and stay cool.
Have managed to do some painting on the house exterior in the mornings before it gets too sticky which has meant not feeling like sewing afterwards.
The Gecko has been stitched to my background fabric but I still have his feet to add before finishing,
The real one  has had his extra clear coats and is now decorating our deck.

We think he looks great.

After a text from a very good friend in Auckland my Gecko has become another UFO at present.
She asked if I was still quilting, if so would I like to make her a Frog throw rug.
Replied sounds like fun, tell me more, size, ideas, colours etc.
Approx 1.8 x 1.3 not kiddy cartoons but realistic and adult plus can frogs be risque?
All my ideas changed from this is going to be simple to something much more complex..
This friend has collected frogs for years so sent me lots of photo's but the one that sent me in hopefully the right direction was photo of a recovered antique chair.

Isn't this just fabulous.

My mind went immediately to Jillian Sawyer, a brilliant Australian glass artist.

 When I first started quilting. I turned some designs from her Sea Fairies glass art book into

 wall hangings.

"My Companion"

"My Protector"

" Dusk and Dawn - Until Tomorrow"

This photo is from the Dargaville Quilt show approx 2008

These hang in our hallway and when I think these were only my second attempt at machine  applique they still astound me as to what I created.

Jillian Sawyer has published many art glass design books and they convert easily to applique if you add in your unders and overs when tracing and cutting. I knew she had published a book called 

Frog Song and this is now my name for the throw rug. I purchased the book online and last week it arrived and totally lived up to my expectations.

The wonderful metallic finished background fabric I found as soon as I walked in the door at Country Dawn. Not what I went looking for but the perfect tones to go with her chair plus a marbled Jinny Beyer fabric for the base of my applique and some wonderful designs from the Frog Song book.

While waiting for the book to arrive  I played with scale drawings of how the throw might look.

My friend is not traditional so I think I have my work cut out for me to make this magical for her and not just be blocks on a background.

Having made some Jinny Beyer designs recently I went back to 60 degree angles and came up with this layout.

An outer border then four vertical panels with eight inset blocks which overlap to create sort of a diamond, plus a cental panel, I think I have plenty of room to play here.

Decided to make the central panel first.

Frog Chain
Lots of very small fiddly bits in this to stitch.
I decided to use a dark green thread for my stitching so that all the joints show up similar to the original art glass images.

Block background looks more grey than beige in this photo but definately the right choice to let the frogs be the hero's against the leaves.
Finished size of this block will be 16" by 9"
Today I am starting block 2 the first of my 60 degree angle blocks and the hero will be
"Dangler"

This photo shows how clear the pattern is and how easily they adapt from glass art to applique.

Now to link with Esther's Work on Wednesday blog then set to work.

Cheers Jenny