Thanksgiving 2012

First of all, I can not believe how quickly Thanksgiving has approached us! Just a few days away now!

I have the perfect Thanksgiving wall hanging to show you!

I have so many Christmas and Halloween themed wall hangings and realized I needed something strictly fall or just for Thanksgiving! I came across the idea for this design from a Youtube video by the Missouri Star Quilt Company, however their design is slightly different.

As some of you may have already noticed, I made his feathers using a "dresden plate" design. To make cutting the blades of your dresden plates easier, I highly recommend this ruler:

Here is a picture of a traditional dresden plate quilt block, in case anyone has not seen one before:

For the feathers of my turkey, I used the 7" length to create my blades. (This ruler comes with instructions on how to use it) I used 15 blades of scraps of deep reds, golds and oranges. You can choose whatever colours you would like, you could even choose to make them all the same colour, possibilities here are endless!

You can cut your background piece whatever size you would like, depending on how much space you want to be left around the edges of your turkey's feathers. I believe I cut mine approximately 15x18

Once your feathers are joined together (using the same dresden plate applique technique) you hand stitch them onto your background material. For the body of the turkey, I used a circle (just like the middle of a traditional dresden plate block, I used a bowl as a template) For his head/neck I drew an hour-glass shape (your drawings don't have to be too accurate, just have some fun with it!) Again, for the feet I drew them, free-hand on a piece of paper and when I had a template I was happy with, I then cut them out of fabric. (Dad's are also very good at assisting with sketching turkey feet....hehe thank you Daddy!) 

I machine appliqued the body, head and feet, I only hand appliqued the feathers. 

I then added his Thanksgiving tie by using one of my leftover dresden plate blades, folding the raw edges in and hand stitching it on. 

Next I added an inner border (cut 1") and an outer border (cut 2")

I quilted it on the machine and bound the edges by hand, and also added a sleeve on the back in order to hang it. I also did a decorative stitch, to enhance the look of the red outer border, using a light beige thread.

For the eyes, I hot-glued some googly-eyes that I found at the dollar store, to give him a more comical and animated look (I was originally planning on hand embroidering the eyes, but I liked the idea of the googly-eyes better). 

Here is a close-up photo so you can see the detailing a bit better!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!