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We showed you Wendy Grande's quilt, Americana Baltimore, on Wednesday. (Click here to see it.) Today we start showing the individual blocks. They are amazing and Wendy tells about her approach and work on the blocks. Ruching, ribbons, and ultrasuede...here are her stories for three of the blocks, more will follow.

I spent ages looking at pictures, drawings and carvings of eagles and couldn’t find the right one for my quilt.  Warren watched my frustration grow and said he might have something I could use.  He brought me his fathers USN Retired pin and there was the perfect American eagle, complete with the star banner and stem of roses!  It was just right for this quilt especially given the inspiration of the Clipper Ship!

I started with the top outline of the wings of the Eagle and then, working from the bottom up, stitched the feathers directly on the fabric adding each feather and layering the remaining colors and feathers using the back stitch.  When the wings were in place I added in the ruched roses, ultrasuede stems and batik fabric leaves.  The Eagles head, back and tail feathers were stitched into place and an ultrasuede eye and beak were added using a pigma pen to add definition.  The banner was drawn and shaded with brown pigma pens on a separate piece of muslin.  The blue and red shading was added using oil pastels.  The completed banner was then needle turn appliqued with a thin piece of batting behind it.

Design by EllySienkiewicz - Dove and Anchor

The details in this block are wonderful!  The wreath stem is bias cut silk ribbon from Hanah, folded and appliqued.  The buds are made from ombre ribbon – the calyx is appliqued in place, open at the top and then the bud is added and the calyx is closed up.  The leaves are needle turn appliqued, with a slight bit of batting underneath the batik fabric.  The ribbon is a vintage ombre ribbon tied in a bow and stitched down, then the bits of wheat were added.  The Anchor is cut from ultrasuede and the chain is also ultrasuede.  I drew the chain links on the back of the ultrasuede and using micro serrated small scissors, carefully cut out the chain in one piece.  The Dove is in three pieces of wired ribbon that were stitched together and needle turned appliqued over a thin batting.  The Dove's eye is cut from a piece of gray ultrasuede with the center inked in with a pigma pen.

Elly Sienkiewicz pattern.  The center branch is made with hand-dyed bias silk and the leaves are fabric with center lines drawn with a pigma pen.  The cherries are fussy cut from hand-dyed fabric and the stems are thin cuts of ultrasuede couched down with silk thread.