"Let's Go Fly a Kite"

This was the theme of this year's quilt guild challenge.  It was announced last November and as soon as I heard the theme I had a vision of what I wanted to do.  The only rule was that the perimeter could not be over 100".  I finished mine in December but judging wasn't going to be until our March meeting.
Our meetings are held the second Saturday of the month and guess what?  The Coronavirus closed everything down the day before our meeting!  Fast forward four months and last weekend we were finally able to have our meeting outside sitting 6' apart from one another.

I WON FIRST PLACE!!

I wanted to walk you through my process.  First I cut a piece of muslin the size I wanted the quilt to be, remembering not to go over 100" diameter.  This ended up being 15" X  35"  Then I laid my fabric options out along side of it:

The little girls head is a wooden ball wrapped in brown fabric then attached to a pipe cleaner armature.  I then wrapped the pipe cleaners with brown embroider floss.  Her yellow eyelet dress was made from a thrift store find.

I free-form drew the cloud on a white sparkly piece of fabric then appliqued that over the little girls head.  I made a slit in the back of the fabric and stuffed the cloud with cotton balls.  This hole would be covered when I added the batting and backing.

Next I sketched the big tree that the cloud was trying to blow the kite into, cut it out of realistic looking bark and appliqued that onto the quilt too.

Next were the leaves.  I quilted a few green pieces of fabric, cut them into leaf shapes, zigzagged around them then sprayed them with fabric stiffener and let them dry folded in half.

I added a three-dimensional swing because what is a huge tree without a swing.

After I quilted the entire work, I cut a diamond shape for the kite.  I love making these cut outs, it has become my "signature."  I then bound the perimeter to give it a finished look.

I had learned this technique about a year ago but didn't know where to use it until now, THE KITE!

What you do is you lay fabric scraps, ribbon, etc. in between two sheets of water-soluble fusible web. Quilt the entire piece then wash away the webbing.  I did this then cut out a diamond shape for the kite and added the border.  I attached it to the quilt with clear thread.

And there it is, my finished quilt:

I love a good challenge, I can't wait till next year!!