Charmingly Mini Quilt Received

Okay, I'll catch you up on my insane last couple of weeks later, but I wanted to share the miniature quilt I received from Cindy Rangel (momcindy) for the June/July swap in the Charmingly Mini Quilt group.  For the swap we each had to send 30 charm squares and one fat quarter to our swap partner and they would make us a quilt.  I sent 32 bright, crazy Kaffe Fassett squares and two fat quarters (one dark blackish and one white-ish tone on tone, I wasn't sure which would work better, so sent both).  Cindy, being the artist that she is, took it and ran with it.  She stalked and snooped and discovered what she could about me, including that I absolutely adore my border collie Stars.  Cindy then used one of the photos of Stars to recreate him in an applique design!  She also read about how he loves to run through my flowers (blows the petals right off!) and sample berries and veggies from the garden.  So, she brilliantly created a dream garden for Stars--with him in it!  Check it out:

Doesn't that just blow you away?!  I love that she has his smile in there, it is so Stars.  I love how she used the Kaffe to make the flowers.  (There is quite a few fabrics that are from her stash, so generous to add what was needed to make it so perfect.)  Also, she didn't fight the Kaffe, which can be a little much sometimes, but went with it and gave the quilt a kind of modern art/Picasso feel--love it.

You can see the beading on the tips of the flower petals here and the lovely applique work that Cindy did.  Also, the "Paradise Found" tag in the corner with the dog bone--too cute!  I love the pieced binding.

There's a row of briolite beads along the bottom pieced section which really adds movement to the piece--something that is quite fitting for an image with a border collie in it.

Cindy even took the time to add piecing to the back so that it would be pretty too!  Here you can see the pieced binding better too--it really adds to the overall look of this quilt.

One last look at this beautiful quilt.  I really, really LOVE it!  Cindy made a work of art that I will be keeping forever.  Thanks, Cindy!  (Oh, and in case you were wondering, Stars loves it too!)