The Great Outdoors: Mountain Wildlife and Fish Quilts

Summer is the perfect time for hiking, backpacking, and camping in the great outdoors. If you're out and about in the mountains of North America, you might see some of these magnificent creatures !

Autumn Lady, 32 x 25.5, design by Carl Brenders,  pattern by Bigfork Bay Cotton Company

Autumn Lady is based on a painting by famed naturalist Carl Brenders, which shows a little doe almost hidden among the gold, orange, and brown leaves, as the season changes from summer to fall. This pattern contains complete instructions, and full size layout guide, and pattern pieces which are already reversed for quick applique.  You can purchase just the wall hanging pattern by itself, or just the fabric kit by itself, or the pattern and the fabric kit together.  With its elegant earth tones,  Autumn Lady is a formal, sophisticated  pattern which we think would look good in any room in the home.

About Trout,  30 x 50, by Angie Steveson at Lunchbox Quilts

Here's a wonderful embroidery machine project which can decorate your wall or be made larger to cover your bed. Brightly colored, cheerful  trout are embellished with intricate details.  The pattern comes with its own CD which contains five trout appliques separated into five parts and five fly designs for the border ( see close-up below). Directions for a 30 x 50 wall hanging or a 57 x 76 quilt are also included.

These delicately embroidered flies resemble the carefully hand-made artificial flies that fly fishers use when casting their lines across a lake or river to catch fish.  They decorate the outer border of this quilt.

Out to Lunch, 25 x20, by McKenna Ryan at Pine Needle Designs

A family of lively bears frolic in a lovely meadow, in search of berries and other goodies to eat.  You can purchase this pattern separately or as part of a fabric kit at  Keepsake Quilting. The kit comes with precut fusible-backed applique shapes, as well as directions and batik fabric for the top and binding. We especially like the beautiful white wildflowers, known as "cottongrass", which gracefully decorate the right hand border.

Raven Salmon, 38 x 30, by Lisa Moore at  Abby's Reflections
 

Abby's Reflections  is a pretty shop in the picturesque town of Sitka, Alaska, the great northern state where fish and wildlife abound. Pattern designer Lisa Moore worked with the talented wood carver Tommy Joseph from the Native American Tlingit tribe to create this intriguing applique pattern, done with iron-on fusible web. (Check out what appears to be a face nestled between the two fish).    You can purchase the pattern by itself, or you can purchase the entire quilt kit with the fabric included. 

True Nature, 66.5 x 82.5, by McKenna Ryan at Pine Needle Designs

Look at all the animals in this glorious applique landscape block quilt !  There's bears, moose, fish, bighorn sheep,  mountain goats, and a soaring eagle. You can buy each of these six blocks separately, or you can purchase the entire set as a package.  McKenna Ryan created this quilt using the "Natural Instinct" line from Hoffman Fabrics. She notes,  "[They were]... designed especially to capture the wonder of those intricate textures, grand landscapes and the wildlife that inhabits them. Each block seemed to journey further into the back country, going beyond boundaries and untouched by the influence of [humans]. Near the end, as I was hand stitching the binding... I realized the true nature of art is the journey we take creating it."