I was out for a walk a few weeks ago and wandered into a Pier 1 store. I love looking at all the home accessories and picking out all the things I would buy if I was furnishing my house from scratch ... it's kind of a game I play. I also watch for things that catch my eye that would make an interesting quilt or part of a quilt and take a picture of them with my phone. Later I go home and see if I can draft up something cool with it.
This time I saw a pillow with a peacock on it. I've been wanting to make a quilt in blues, greens, turquoise, and this one fit the bill perfectly. It's not exactly like the pillow of course, I changed it enough to make it mine and added the chinese character.
The peacock is well known as a symbol of pride and beauty, so I've done it here with the chinese character for "beautiful". The quilt is 24 x 18½" and is named "Hou Leng" which means "very pretty" in Cantonese. It's all hand appliqued and hand quilted with variegated blue thread.