A work in progress...

The next scholarship quilt is well on the way to getting finished. I have the main body of the top finished and am now deciding on the borders. I am glad that I spent several nights working out the pattern on paper first. I made a colored pattern of each section. One of the tail, center body and wings (Even though they were going to have to be sewn separately. They were the same, but in opposite directions.) I had to chart which rows were exactly alike and which were alike except for a few minor changes. Then it was off to strip piecing and using a whole lot of spray starch! (The starch prevented all of the bias edges of the diamonds from stretching!) The two sides of the head had to be done separately. And each of them had a half diamond that had to be sewn in the right direction.....did one of those wrong and had to do it over!

Now that the hard part is over, it is on to getting the borders on and quilting. I have already decided that I want the center to 'float' away from the borders and will put a strip of the white background material all the way around the center. I still have to decide how to do the borders. I am leaning towards the row of diamonds and a white strip, then a blue the same size and a larger red. But I will have to think on it for the day.

I also have to work out the quilting patterns. I want to use earth, wind/air, fire, and rain/water in some kind of representative pattern. These can either go into the setting triangle on the top, bottom, and sides or in the larger squares at the corners. I am going to use an eagle feather in which ever part is left.

For the backing of the entire project.....I am thinking white. I do not want any color to show through to the front but I would love to find some kind of light print. First, I will have to look at what I can find in the area (usually there is not much to choose from here) and then on the internet for a quick search. There are a lot more decisions that have to be made before this project reaches the end.....

and can be auctioned off for a lot of scholarship money!