Applique....Progress & Ideas

I love this lizard.  This is the most amazing batik that I bought for the sole purpose of making this critter.  Pay no attention to the pencil lines on the background.  I  use the back-basting needle turn technique, and one day when I was in a hurry, I drew the design on the wrong side of the fabric.  He will someday show up on the same quilt as the frog.  My original plans of having 2 squares and a rectangle as a quilt center, were thrown off by the scale of this guy.    Even though he's proportionately twice as long as the frog, he's skinnier so the scale all seems a little off to me.  I need to find more Mayan style reptiles to finish this off.

Remember how I admitted to my latest Dover Clipart purchase?    I bought it to find critters to go with the frog and lizard.  But of course....I found new things to distract me.

For example...how cute is this bird?
I mean...I'm not ornithologist...and yet I'm feeling some love for this bird.
(This is how the Santo Domingo Bird Quilt came about too...)

So my newest blog friend Ethne and I have been plotting a quilt challenge.  We're still working out the details, but it will involve applique and possibly some indigenous or traditional designs that have a "Modern" feel.    I'm digging this Mexican bird.

Or a whole cloth applique like this?

OK...how amazing is this?

Or something simple like this?


Let me know if you are interested in an applique challenge where the basic goal is some type of traditional or indigenous pattern that has a very modern feel.  Start goal is Dec/Jan.  Estimated size = yard/meter square.