Buffalo!

Here's an original piece of work - and a labor of love through the chilly months of February, March and April. Inspired by astounding quilt artist Georgan Ellerbruch, I decided to give it a go and make my own "Attic Window" buffalo wall quilt. Georgan made one using buffalo print fabric with a light background - mine uses stormy gray background (like the approaching of a thunderstorm). She appliqued buffalo and varigated backgrounds to make it unique - then hand quilted it all. Result: breath-taking! So, under her tutelage, she give me a crash course in how to create the look of "attic windows."

First, start with a fabric that you want to feature - then cut it all to pieces. Here are my bufflos pre-cutting (5/8 of a yard). I spent hours looking at this fabric thinking, "Where should I cut? Oh, I just don't know..." until one night, at midnight, I hacked it all up willy nilly. Late-night quilting sessions can be productive!

Then you need a light and dark contrast color to "frame" the window (above: dark brown and gold-ish). In this case, the buffalo print fabric is my window. The light and dark work together to give the image depth. I was trying to make it look like the buffalo were stampeding in through the window. Taking a tip from Georgan, I cut out three separate buffalo scences and sewed them on top of the "window" to get that feel.

Here's a tip - don't eye-ball mitering corners. Use a ruler (with a 60 degree or 30 degree or 45 degree angle). I wish I had a little more "experience" in mitering before I made these, but hey - I learned from it. My hubby helped me chose the best "widths" to get the right feel for the depth.

Once I got all the windows together (I wanted a balance of 6), I took the advisement to add more fabric like a frame. And I love Basic Grey fabric to begin with (and yes, they do scrapbooking papers as well), which is what I chose to border this projet. To me it looks like men's neckties, or a shirt one of our grad students (Kyle) wears occasionally.

Then you quilt! And quilt some more! Don't forget to pick out a fantastic backing for it - this here is what the gals and I call "Buffalo Hide." For quilting I used a combination of free-motion quilting (swirls, rope, edging around buffaloes).

But what really set this quilt apart was going the "extra step" and hand quilting (called utility stitching) brands into various sections.  Above the swirls (on the blue) is the brand "Cross Quarter Circle" - or if you're not from the West (or used to reading brands) you can call it like it do: Cross on the hill!

There are a total of eight brands stitched into the quilt - some which have significant personal meaning. Such as the MK brand - that's for good friends Marian and Melvin Kallas - they fixed me my very first "buffalo steak" for supper one night. :)

So, here it is. The beautiful buffalo quilt - which I call "Tatonka." I gave it to my husband, and he proudly displays it in his office. He's sort of a traveling man - hence the globe, safari hat, all setting on a hide he collected in South Africa. And I just can't help but admire the beautiful filing cabinet he made.