Ellie's Pegasus

Ellie loves horses. So even though the theme of the Childrens Quilt competition was Time and Space, we were going to have to work a horse into it somehow. Ellie got the idea from the Greek myths of a Pegasus pulling the sun across the heavens. It was perfect.

Making Ellie a part of the planning process helped to keep her interest throughout the project. Ellie started a planning book. She kept sketches of the horse, the layout of the quilt and ideas about threads and embellishments.

We wanted to use fun fabric so Ellie went online to choose. Lots of online shops offer a design window so it was posssible to try out the fabric before we bought it. We also got exciting thread. It glows in the dark! Ellie used it for the machine quilting that radiated out from the sun and also for the hand quilting and embellishment.

Ellie sketched a small version of the horse. We enlarged it on a photocopier and used it for a pattern to cut out the image from white felt. Felt was ideal because we could leave the edges raw. Ellie was able to hand sew it to the top. Ellie used special fabric paint to draw the feathers on the wings. The slices of the sun were put together using bond-a web and later machine appliqued. I helped with the ironing and machining. All the hand work was completed by Ellie.

Embellishing was a big part of the quilt. Ellie used beads and sequins to make the stars twinkle. We also used a special heat gun that would instantly attach gems and glow in the dark dots to the top. This was fun and quick. The end result was fantastic. To see a better view of Ellie's Pegasus quilt, click on the image at the top of this post. I think you'll be able to see a larger image. You should be able to zoom in and see lots of detail.