It was going to be a great day!!   Our new counter tops were being installed by a company that required  someone over the age of 18 be home…for the whole day!!  An entire day devoted to applique!    I thought it would be a good opportunity to work on block 5 of Sue Garman’s “Friends of Baltimore”.  I had already stitched a few of the grapes in place and I was looking forward to sewing on the bird’s tail feathers.  Well!  Little did I know that before all the tail feathers could be stitched in place, the grapevine needed to be stitched down.  And before the grapevine could be stitched down, the stems and leaves needed to be stitched in place!  A lot of stitching needed to be done before I could get to the tail feathers!

Here are a few pictures of the very slow (but extremely rewarding) progress I made today!!  I know it doesn’t look like I accomplished much….but really I did!!

I stitched a few skinny stems down so I could add some leaves.

Then I started to add the tail feathers, one by one.

Before I could add the under-body of the bird, I needed to add some brown grapevines.

Then I could finally stitch  the bird’s  under-body and the very last tail feather!!

I am still working away on my Feathered Star.  I must confess, these blocks didn’t excite me too much when I made them 3 years ago….which is why they probably ended up somewhere in my closet.  Now that I have sewn the blocks together and added a sashing, I am delighted!   I thought I would add some appliqued flowers in the white spaces.  I am not sure about that now.  I think it looks fine without it.  What this quilt really needs is an appliqued border.  It’s a toss-up  between formal swags cut from the feature fabric or a nice curvey vine with some flowers.  (I am waiting for the quilt to tell me what it needs!!)