I adore red and green applique quilts, and have dozens of them drawn in my ideas book. I can't work on them in the summer months because I do all the applique by hand and it's just too hot and sticky.

Despite it's appearance this is really quite a simple design, and it grew very slowly. I didn't base this on any particular antique quilt, so I just let it dictate each stage as we came to it. I enjoyed doing the swag border, and the little stars; I was originally just going to have another bud there until this idea occurred to me.

I think that's why I prefer to design my own quilts, I'm always surprised by what turns up. I'd hate to be bound to a rigid plan, even though it might be helpful when I get stuck and don't know where to go next.

The quilting was done on my Janome 4000, which has a throatspace of 6". Even though it's not a big quilt it was still annoying not having more room to manouvre. Some of the designs are Keryn's but the feathered scallops in the border were designed just to fit the applique, which was fun. Much easier to just design something new rather than try to fit an existing pattern to it.

I have a number of other applique tops waiting for quilting once it gets cooler; I now have a Janome 6500 so I won't have to struggle quite so hard. I did a quilt for a customer on it that was 108" square , never again. I think it should be illegal to make quilts that big.

On a completely different note, this is my son's dog Jessie.She's a minature fox terrier and a dog of very little brain, unfortuneately. Normally she's a whirlwind of activity, but Matt took this picture of her recently and doesn't she look the most downtrodden, poor little waif?When we saw Ice Age, we all agreed instantly that the funny little creature with the acorn- Scrat- must have been based on Jessie, from the buggy eyes to the quivering nose and the incessant activity, the resemblance is amazing.

I rest my case....