Buttercup {a finished quilt!!}

I don't know if you've ever heard of Laura Heine of Fiberworks Quilt Shop, but she has created some AMAZING collage quilts and patterns.  When her pattern Abilene came out a year or so ago, I fell instantly in love!  I've always loved cows and her quilt was just too cool!  So, I finally decided to step out of my comfort zone and make one for myself. Meet Buttercup :)  This is her before quilting.

I pulled all of the fabrics to make Buttercup from my scrap bins.  I have never done a quilt like this before, but it is basically fused applique.  A lot of Laura's other patterns are floral collages that create awesome creatures.  I have little to no florals in my stash and this painterly collage worked perfectly with my style.  I did adjust her pattern a bit by making it about 20" shorter to fit the location I was wanting to hang it.  It's more like a Buttercup "headshot"...HA!

Laura recommends quilting closely to help catch all of the small pieces of applique.  I chose to do some super tiny crosshatch quilting with Aurifil 50 wt. tread in my favorite light gray 2600.  Below is a shot that that really shows the quilting texture.

For the backing, I found this cute aqua colored chicken wire fabric in my stash that is from the an old Moda line called "Oink a Doodle Moo".  Perfect!

Originally I had planned to hang Buttercup on a large blank wall in our laundry room.  I'm so much in love with her that I had to hang her above the fireplace (at least for now).

How do you think she looks in her new home?

Amanda