Throughout my life, I have spend time traipsing through the woods, admiring the beauty of nature. Recently, my son and I discovered a lovely, nearby trail called Cathedral. On the trail, tall trees arched over the mulch and moss covered trail. It was in the middle of a small hill and a brook babbled at the bottom of the hill. There was just enough of a break in the trees to let the light stream onto the trail and dapple the foliage growing along the trail. This picture doesn’t do it justice, but it reminded me of La Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona. The church was designed by Antoni Gaudi, who was inspired by nature in all his architecture.
This trail is located in a nature preserve near our house. We often observe deer, fox, coyote, and bear from the preserve. The deer roam freely in our neighborhood and occasionally munch on my flower garden. Our big dog, Fergus (in the picture) is oblivious to the deer. The fox are more furtive. We only see them for a moment as they are dashing from one side of the road to another. Coyotes seen and not heard at night. They get louder when they have had a good night’s hunt. The bears are much more interesting. They typically wait until dark and we watch video footage that the neighbors post on Facebook. We have seen a bear steal dog food from a neighbor’s porch or investigate the trash cans with her cubs. Fergus has a keen nose for the bear and can sense when she is nearby. He leads us away from the bear while hiking, which is a good safety precaution!
Shortly after we discovered this trail, I was provided with Hoffman’s Fawn and Fauna fabric collection (see page 88 of the catalog). It prompted me to pull elements from our Cathedral hikes into a quilt design – Flora and Fauna. It is not set on point, but appears to be. Radiating points in the Jungle Star block are much like the sunlight shining through the forest canopy. The dark lines are like the mulch and mud strewn paths that we followed. The curved pieces in the Jungle Flower block are like the foliage we see in the trees, bushes and low growing plants.
The Jungle Star block is foundation pieced to ensure crisp points. The Jungle Flower block comes with both curved piecing and fusible applique instructions so that you can use the method you are most comfortable sewing. The Flora and Fauna pattern is currently available in our shop for retail or wholesale. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
Happy Quilting!
Laureen