Calla Lily Quilt #10

Here's what I made my Mom for Christmas.  I tried to incorporate the colors of her house (purple/salmon/beige) plus her favorite color (blue) as well as her favorite thing (flowers) all into one blanket.  It measures out at 41 x 61. 

The calla lilies and vase are made mostly of various batik fabrics.  I appliqued using Wonder Under fusible webbing and a blanket stitch.  I used matching thread colors so the item would pop and not the stitching. 

The 'outside' of the flowers are a Kona solid that matched.  I had a scrap green batik that made perfect stems; it came in a bag of random fabrics a friend gave me.  Hard to see in the picture but it has a terrific blend of colors.  I don't have a lot of it left so I'm saving it in case I want to make more stems or leaves.  I'll have to keep my eyes open for another green similar to it.  The vase is a perfect purple batik and I used a solid purple Kona to simulate the 'inside' of the vase on that top edge.  I quilted a line across that bottom part of the vase to simulate a base to finish it off.

I was browsing clip art images of flowers to get ideas and came across this image.  It was so perfect, I sized it and printed it then used that as my applique pattern.

I didn't follow a pattern; this is an original design.  I was inspired by a pattern I saw in a batik quilting book that was a wall hanging with big leaves over 2 panels.  The top design took on a few changes as I went along, and at one point I had the whole top put together then posted a picture on my favorite forum Quilting Board for advice on how to quilt it.  One of the members suggested I add a thinner black strip at the top and gave me a visual.  I agreed that it did look better so I took the top apart and added it. 

This was my first time doing echoing, crosshatching and adding a specific free motion design. Because of this I used thread that matched the color of the fabric, so if I goofed it wouldn't show as much. In the panel next to the vase I did free motion calla lilies and leaves. I don't think I'll do this much quilting on a project this size with my machine again. It was very frustrating with a 4.5" throat. 

 I made a throw pillow out of the same fabrics with a smaller version of the calla lily to go with the blanket.  Since we were driving to Arizona for Christmas I could add this to her gift.  I finished the pillow leaving a hole in the bottom end, wrapped it, and packed a needle and matching thread.  The day after Christmas we bought the stuffing and finished it up completing the set.