Charley Harper Inspired Cardinal Mini Quilt

I think I threw this image out as a teaser sometime back. I actually made it last year, but never showed it off! I was waiting until I had the pattern to go with it. But I never made a pattern. And honestly, I doubt I’ll ever get to it! I just made this one up as I went along and I don’t have it and I haven’t taken the time to recreate it yet!

I made this for a swap that our Seattle Modern Quilt Guild did last year! We did a secret mini swap! And I knew my partner loved Charley Harper, so I decided to take a piece of his awesome art and make it into a quilt!

Since it was a secret swap I had to be careful of the pictures I posted! I just loved this one! I started making it with 2×2 squares and was getting HUGE! So I switched gears and ended up with this guy!

image via Charley Harper Art Studio

If you don’t know Charley Harper, you should check him out! I love the art! I’ve actually wanted to make quilts out of his designs for quite some time. I just noticed a beagle that might have to be a quilt sometime soon…. Quite a bit of the art has been turned into mosaics, which then just calls out to be made into a quilt!

I decided to do the matchstick, skinny, stitching for the background. And faned out the tail. I didn’t want to applique the little eyes and knees so I used buttons!

And I used a super skinny ribbon for the legs. I could have done super skinny patchwork, but since I had the ribbon, I thought it might be easier! And it was!

I also always love checkin’ out the back of quilts and seeing how the stitching makes the patterns of the front.

Do you have a favorite piece of art that you want to make into a quilt?