It's a Finish! Izzy's Menagerie

 Izzy's Menagerie

60 x 72

It's a finish! 

There's very few quilts I've made more than once but I never get tired of making Happy Block quilts. 

These blocks have 4 inch centers and 1 3/4 inch sides which makes a 6 inch finished block. 

 Some of the blocks were swapped as well as the centers with the I Spy Quilt Swap Yahoo Group I joined 14 years ago when the first grandchild was born  Some of the centers came from a few other swaps elsewhere and a few centers were won.   All of the centers are members of the animal kingdom - birds, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, mammals and reptiles.  

I've made several quilts to give to the grandkids when they graduate high school. 

 I made this one for Isabelle (aka Izzy or Dizzy Izzy)  because she loves all creatures great and small and for as long as I can remember she has always said she wanted to be a veterinarian.   I guess that has changed.    She recently was accepted into an Accelerated Associate Degree program  which means when she graduates high school she will not only receive a high school diploma but she will also receive an Associate of Arts degree.  When I congratulated her and mentioned that it was a wonderful opportunity for a future veterinarian I was informed that she now wants to be a psychotherapist.   Ok.  But she still loves all creatures great and small. 

 I free motion quilted it on my Brother DSM with some rough lemon peels in variegated rainbow thread on top and gray in the bobbin.  I haven't washed it yet so it's not all soft and crinkly. I have an old wringer/washer and no place for larger quilts to dry flat so I wait until I have several and take them to the laundromat for washing and drying.  When it crinkles it will hide most of my quilting imperfections. (I hope). 

 And it's a Murphy's Law of Quilting that whenever your hand shakes while quilting it will happen with dark thread on a light background or vice versa.  Oh for the love of crinkles! 

 Happy Block quilts usually make a big dent in my solids, tone on tones,polka dots and blenders. 

 The backing was pieced...

...with several different gray odds and ends. 

This was my goal #3 (previously called Animal Farm)

for

Q1 Finish-Along

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag