Peacock Pavilion

The next quilt in my “Travel Log Quilt Series” is one of my favorites and there are several reasons for that….. firstly, it came from a trip to India which is one of our FAVORITE places to visit. Secondly, it is a peacock and I have a major crush on peacocks, and thirdly, it was the first time I had made a collage style quilt.

Story First

In 2008 Michael and I first visited India. We were only there for 10 days but quickly came to love the people that we met and the places that we visited!! We spent most of the time in the city of Bangalore, but for 3 days Michael and I were escorted to the state of Tamil Nadu, visiting the Mudumalai National Park. As we were traveling back to Bangalore, our host suggested that we stop at the Mysore Palace and, as usual, we were game for anything!!

The palace was gorgeous…..

….and we were so excited about seeing inside, but there was a problem…… a BIG problem for me…..

And they were serious about no photos….they wouldn’t even let us take cameras inside the palace. We had to check them at the door!!

The palace itself is gorgeous, as you can see from these photos that I found online…..

….but the most beautiful part was a great hall that had the most amazing stained glass dome with PEACOCKS!! I stood looking at the amazing windows and couldn’t stop thinking about the quilt that I wanted to make. I even ventured the thought that I would surreptitiously take a photo with my phone but the sight of a guard holding a machine gun quickly quelled that idea!

Instead I made a quick sketch….

…. and figured that I could find photos online when I got home. I WAS WRONG!!!

I searched and searched and the best photo that I could find was this one…..

Between it and my “drawing”, I was able to come up with the basic design….

Time for the quilt….

Now I had to figure out what fabrics to use and, at that time, I didn’t have a bunch of solids in my stash. I was super excited to visit my local quilt shop and find these gradation fabrics from Caryl Bryer Fallert…..

….and even better to find out that they were on SALE!!!!

I made an idea board with photos of peacocks…..

….and started playing!!

Unfortunately, I don’t have step by step photos of the process but I did have a wonderful time placing the fabrics and then machine stitching over them with beautiful threads. After I had finished with the design I then added the bias tape “leading”.

The final step was to add lots of quilting and the back really shows the designs…..

I used a monofilament thread in the bobbin and was pleased with the result…..

I love the final quilt…..

….and it is an incredible reminder of a fun trip!!