It's in the Mail, Partner, Wordless Wednesday

Crowing

Mr. Mailman stuffed a package in my mailbox on Friday.

 Can you read the postage stamp (and the cost)?.....

Australia!?

Wowsers! Who is sending me something from Down Under?

My little grand daughters and I sat down in the red chairs on the front lawn and tore open the  package printed with scenes from the town of Adelaide, Australia. 

I'm sure they wondered what all the fuss was about. 

Me? I squealed with delight at what I found inside...............

This incredible creation, called Crowing, is what my partner made for me in the

Doll Quilt Swap. It is a blind swap, so I had no idea who had drawn my name.

Emma How, who blogs at Sampaguita Quilts, and has been published in many magazine articles, is the genius behind my gorgeous quilt.

Emma designed Crowing just for me, she says, using a bit of everything-from techniques to the colors, shapes and patterns in my Flickr favorites.

 Oh, how I love it!

Her attention to detail is incredible...

from the black piping added to the perfect striped binding

to the tiny quilting filling the three largest circles.

 The circles are attached with hand applique and then quilted before adding the trapunto and the beautiful McTavish background quilting. 

Emma also designed the black crows that perch on 3 of the circles. 

They are attached with  perfect, tiny, machine button-hole stitches. 

I have the doll quilt laying out on my dining table so that I can admire it and fondle it every time I walk by. I'm not kidding when I say it is jaw-dropping to look at.

 If you are interested in reading what Emma wrote about Crowing before she shipped it to me, click here. I am so in awe of her talent. It is hard to believe that

she worried the colors might not be to my liking and I am selfishly relieved that she didn't decide to keep it for herself!

I may possibly have the most beautiful quilt made for the Doll Quilt Swap 10.

One thing for sure, this piece of art is never going to cover a doll bed!

I am still thinking about where to hang it.

Meanwhile, I just keep petting it....

wearing a white glove, of course!

A House for the Birds

Over the weekend, I decided to build a house! Not just any house, mind you, but a pink one with an aqua roof and a purple porch! 

I haven't decided on a color for the front door yet, but for now I'm just using a green paper one. The red-winged black bird stopped by for a visit yesterday.

 I think she's calling the realtor today.  She seems to want to stay!

Thanks to everyone who gave me an opinion on adding birds to the center or not. The tally was pretty close, really. The thing that threw me over to the "yes, birds" camp was the fact that my "partner", who will actually be getting the finished quilt, (but, hopefully, hasn't guessed that yet) left her opinion on the Doll Quilt flickr site when I posed the same question.

I was very excited to find out that she voted to have birds in the middle of the flower, sooooo...

that's what I did.

My gut told me that the whole thing was pretty busy with 3 birds flying around on those dots. (Many of you thought so too!) The eyes really needed a place to land, as well, so hopefully adding a solid colored house with only one bird is the best of

 both worlds!

I appliqued them down yesterday while watching my team lose a

 BIG basketball game.

(There may or may not be tear stains on the quilt top.)