Quaker Animals

Last year, I started on a long term project, stitching the Workbasket Quaker Animals series with the ultimate intention of stitching them into a quilt along with the complimentary charts of the Quaker trees found on their website. My intent is to use the Quaker house as my center block and the four trees that I stitched to represent the four seasons at the four corners of the central square. the next band/border would be domesticated animals, then woodland animals as a final band/border. I would use riband or log cabin strips/panels to tie the whole thing together in the green palette I use in my bedroom. I have stitched all my animals on a cream linen [28ct] using a variety of overdyed flosses as seemed appropriate.

So far I have stitched the house, three of the trees [shades representing the seasons], the cat [marmalade], the mouse [blue grey], the swan [black] and the frog [green]. I have started on the rabbit [chestnut brown]. Yet to be stitched are the tortoise, the peacock, the rooster, the pig, the cow, and the sheep. I have all of these charts and plan to stitch them over the summer. That's for the quilt. I have also stitched a number of smaller quaker pieces that I will use for throw pillows or pillow shams: the hedgehog, a flower and the reindeer. I have been watching the new charts as they become available: I am not sure I like the polar bear but if I stitch it in a dark brown ... voila, it fits in with the woodland animals band. The penguin, on the other hand, doesn't seem to work except as a winter seasonal throw pillow. I am not sure, all things considered, that I will invest in the polar bear/penguin chart. I am waiting to see if Workbasket will include a dog, a horse, a goose, a duck and a goat to round out the domesticated animals theme and a squirrel, a chipmunk, a deer. a fox, a wolf, a coyote and an owl to round out the woodland theme. I am thinking of dropping them a line asking them to consider charting such animals. Nothing ventured, nothing gained ... or so the adage goes. I do have a queen size bed to cover, after all.

In any case, here is my Quaker galley to date:

The central house:

The autumn tree

The winter tree:

This will be the summer tree ... I still need to stitch a spring tree.

Next, the domestic animals I have done:

The cat:

And, though the mouse is not, strictly speaking a "domestic" animal, since it all too frequently is found in our homes, I will include it in this band.

Everytime I look at this mouse, I think of Reepicheep from the Narnia Tales! I guess it is the arrogantly heroic pose.

And, now for some woodland animals


The swanThe frog



And, the smaller pieces I will use as pillows or pillow shams:
The flower

The reindeer


The hedgehog

Last night, I started on one more of the woodland animals, the rabbit:

And, while not a Quaker animal, this is a Workbasket design: the rabbit pincushion from the Rabbit Rondel leaflet [see previous post] ... I made a bit more progress on it before the stitching over one started to blind me again.