Moms' been dying more fabric and I thought it might be fun instead of trying to puzzle a bunch of fabric together to make a quilt, I'd just take ONE and make a very mini quilt. It's a good chance to concentrate on lots of small, tight free-motion machine quilting. Plus I needed something to do on the plane and binding one of these itty-bitty things was just the ticket. They range in size from 13" x 15" for the large appliquéd giraffe in the sun, to 5¾" x 7½" for the four long neck birds. The giraffe was the most complicated of the lot. I machine appliquéd the giraffe onto some wild fabric and put on a border. Mostly I just went around and around in a meander stitch as tight and as small as I could, leaving the animal alone. You'll notice that Mom's fabric is of the one-of-a-kind variety. There are also blobs and color changes and that's just part of their charm. I used nylon thread top and bobbin for these long neck birds. I got a little crazy with the pig, using variegated thread. I tried to find binding fabric that went with it somehow. I cut 1¼" bias strips and sewed them on ¼" from the edge of the quilt on top. I hand appliquéd the binding down on the back by folding the raw edge (which doesn't ravel because it was cut on the bias) down to meet the raw edge of the quilt. I grabbed the fold and brought that down just past the line of stitching that secures the binding to the quilt giving me something to aim for. The "Two Birds" design is one of my favorites that she does. They're just so goofy. I got a little more creative with the quilting. A little frightening at first, but after about 10 minutes it felt more normal. Of course I was done by then, but… My daughter Jennie did the quilting on Mom's cat fabric. I think she did a great job especially since she's never machine quilted before! All three of us worked on this one. Mom did the fabric, Jennie quilted the background, and I quilted the metallic innards.