A fox family

Yesterday I had a big chunk of time to do some serious quilting.  On what?  Ah... that is the question.  I don't feel confident enough to put my McKenna Ryan's Christmas quilt under the needle.  I needed a practice piece.

You may remember last Saturday I showed a close-up of the cute little fox in the McKenna quilt kit.  Hmmm.  I have the patterns...  I DID make that little fox, but McKenna's kits are all pre-cut.  (Thank goodness!)  All those tiny little pieces are laser cut and just a snip is needed to remove the piece from the bit of fabric.  And McKenna's pre-cut pieces all have fused backing, another life-saver.

But there I sat, looking at the McKenna pattern...

"Now... If I just trace the tiny pattern onto fusible paper... (remembering to flip the pattern over... whoops forgot that the first time and had some backwards pieces).  And if I fuse the patterns to different scraps of fabric...  And if I use tiny embroidery scissors to cut out the pieces...  I SHOULD be able to put together another fox.  Yeah!  I did it!"

I tried another fox.

 "Oh good!  I can make foxes now if I have McKenna's patterns."

I continued on with the tree pattern.  Though wiggly they weren't too hard and by the end I was cutting trees without even using a pattern.  (Just wiggle the scissors a bit...)

Great.  Two foxes and some trees on a couple "hills".  Can I do more?

Umm... I'm no McKenna but I designed two more baby foxes.  That is what they are trying to be.  Maybe they look like wolves.  I could have taken more time for fabric choice.  Oh well...  I am trying to make a practice piece for QUILTING. 

I fused my fox family down and was ready to put the whole thing under the needle.  Instead of basting I used spray bond, just great for a small piece like this.

I used Madeira Monofiliment 60# thread for the top.  (I could only get it in one color.)  Mrs. Furui and I tried to buy some recommended Sulky Monofiliment thread but having it sent from wherever was $24 shipping.  I don't think so.  We are experimenting with the Madeira thread instead.  It seems to work fine.

It took a bit of tension adjustment to keep the white bobbin thread from pulling to the top so a couple of my dark trees have white dots along the sewing line.  I think I've got that problem figured out.

I was pretty cautious as I started quilting the fox so I barely moved along at all.  As I gained confidence my stitches became a bit more even.  The eyes that I had worried about weren't that hard after all.  That monofiliment thread just takes you anywhere so I just stitched up the noses.

My sky could have been a bit more artistic but I'm ready to start quilting the REAL McKenna kit now!  Wish me luck!