African Animals applique by Leigh

Oh my.  Leigh has done it again.  All these amazing animals are hand appliqued, and embroidered.  I can't imagine the time that it must take to complete even one block, let alone all the ones in here.

I think that this elephant is my favorite block.  Here, she looks so kind and gentle, but I bet in the wilds she'd trample you in a moment.  The lines down from her eyes and outlining her trunk just bring her to life.

 Each on of those spots on the giraffe is individually applied.  By hand.

 These masks are so wonderful!  I didn't want to disturb their beauty, so only outlined them.  Except the one above where I outlined the "feathers" on the outside as well.

 Amazing bead-work added to the masks to bring them to life as well.

 Again, each stripe and dot is hand appliqued to the background white, and then to the black base fabric.  Wow.

 I think this rhinoceros is wonderful  I love the cutout work for his armor.  Leigh says that rhino skin is actually quite soft, not hard to the touch as you would expect.

 Some "bamboo" in the sashing between blocks.

 One of two 9 patch blocks.   There is so much going on in the fabric, that I didn't want to distract from them, and simply stitched them in the ditch.

More beadwork on the mask

 The lion block wins as my favorite.  His mane is all dimensional, so the individual pieces are attached at the top, but the bottoms are loose.

 Love the cutout gazelle and elephant.

 The spots on the crocodile.  Amazing!

Detail shot of the ruler work in the setting triangles.  I kept hearing a voice in my head saying "Less is more", so I limited my quilting.  Just a tight backgrond fill behind all the appliques, and lots of SID.