the making of "who's there"

When I started the Scraps to Treasure challenge, I had a few sketches made out.  I thought about me looking over my shoulder at various squares in my life.  That's squares as in quilt blocks, not people.  I'd have some broken dishes, bear paw prints, and who knows what else.  Then I thought about making a fence, and how fences make better neighbors.  That didn't quite gel.

Then I saw the Spring 2011 Quilts and More magazine with Mr. Owl on the cover.  I used the owl portion of the pattern, but the rest of what I came up with was mine.  I knew I needed a background for him to sit on, and I wanted it to be on point.  We weren't allowed to use the 6" blocks without them being cut in some manner, so I did half square triangles.  I then appliqued him onto a branch on the background, and added a border using one of my focus fabrics.  (We each had sent in 6" squares from two fabrics, enough for all the people involved in the challenge.  Of the two fabrics we sent in, we were allowed to add extra fabric to work with and I think it was 1/2 yard. That's  what I'm calling my focus fabric.)

Once he was stitched on, I worked with my layout, and wanted to incorporate other animals into it.  On the first round of rows around him, there's a raccoon, some geese flying in the sky, ducks on a pond, deer, and some bugs.  To bring a little more nature into it, I also put in some floral elements, leaves, and trees.

Then I played with some arrangements of getting it squared up as the center panel, taking pictures to see what I liked.

Ultimately I chose a single strip for the corners in the center of cream fabrics.  Those single strips, one in each corner, had butterflies, a bluebird, wheat, and a flower of some kind.

With those in place, I added a border at the top and bottom with my second focus fabric.

My next thoughts were that it needed more length, to be a rectangle rather than a square.  I had other fabrics that had to be incorporated into the quilt (we're required to use at least 2" or 2.5" of each of the squares we were given), so I gave thought to a dresden plate, possibly one at the top and one at the bottom.  Again I played with the layout.

Eh, that wasn't doing it for me.

Then I thought, how about cutting the dresdens in half?  I had two, that would give me four, and they could go in the corners.   That's what I did, and here's the final result.

The idea of these Scraps to Treasure quilts is that they are to be donated to a charity.  As some of the others have done who have grown attached to their quilts, I will either be making another quilt for charity or making a monetary contribution.  As for Who's There, this will be going to Elise.  She was my original inspiration for the owl since she has her friend Owlie who goes everywhere with her.

So that's it.  I see another scrappy quilt in my future, it's been fun.