Some time ago, my dear quilting friend Alena asked me to make a bag for her. She herself is a very creative person, a very experienced quilter with a great sense of colour. She sews beautiful big quilts and quilts them on her Bernina quilting machine. On the other hand, she doesn´t feel much for small projects like zipper pockets or bags, therefore she never has sewn a bag for herself. As well as being delighted and almost proud of being asked to sew a bag for her, I was also a bit anxious. Would I find the right colours, the right pattern for her? After long thinking, finding ideas, and rejecting them again, I finally found an idea that I liked. Like many times before I was inspired by the bird pictures of Christine Robinson. Three of them were finally chosen to be transformed into appliqué. I´m still suffering from the pain of joints on my hands, therefore I decided to combine machine quilting (background), machine-sewn raw edge appliqué (plants), and hand-sewn needle turn appliqué and embroidery (birds and embellishment of plants).
