Although it's hard to tell at this distance, this is the quilt face for my latest quilting project - a Chinese folk art for my friend and former lab assistant Auggie Cheung.

It's not my first quilt, but the first one we've taken pictures of.

I have always done patchwork or pieced quilts until I started making quilts for my grandkids.  For Koral and Ivy I did French Canadian and German folk art drawings in fabric markers.  Then I quilted snowflakes on Koral's and flowers on Ivy's.

That was a learning experience!  

I've decided I need to choose - artwork and tied quilts or hand-stitched quilts.

Right now I'm exploring the possibilities in these cultural heritage quilts.

Auggie's gets sent off to Cali before she goes back to China this summer for a mission for her Chinese Baptist church.

Now my next project is Liane's quilt including Mexican and French Canadian folk art.

It isn't perfection by any means...but when I talked to Auggie just a few minutes ago, she said she was mostly excited to see it because I made it for her (it only took 2 1/2 years!).  

So the value is in the effort I think.

I really do think it's beautiful if not perfect!

If you're wondering, I free-hand it, using folk art images I pull off the internet and interpreting them.  Mistakes happen along the way - especially because I don't measure or plan anything in advance.  It's an evolving work.

It's worth mentioning that I found myself more willing and available to work on the quilt lately since I have a back injury that has kept me down for awhile and made it impossible to get outside for any real landscaping/gardening.