Molas -Applique from the Kuna women, San Blas Islands, Panama

When I lived in New York City in the late 1970's (summer jobs near Wall Street) my sister Janine had some Molas nicely framed in her Washington Heights apartment- I always admired the way they looked. Over the years, I have made some Molas (not easy) and also bought a few as and when I saw them.

Here is a small "molita" - applique with embroidery, colourful and made for the tourist trade. Two hummingbirds with hibiscus flowers.

Here is a mola of two birds (ducks??) Above you can see the Panamanian Flag plus 3rd November - their Independence Day from Columbia. The outlining is reminiscent of Welsh quilts!! The applique is colourful...

Here are two (??) deer or antelope munching on a plant or flower..

Not sure what these two creatures are ...are they real or imaginary???

One animal attacking a bird?

Here is my favourite - pink with horses and fish - again I cannot decide whether they are horses or perhaps seahorses - but very vigorous and full of colour.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Some photos to show you progress on the new applique top so far, plus others of the yellow top for comparison's sake. I'll let you decide which is the good, and which is the ugly...

Leaning towards starting again and replacing the applique fabric on the yellow top, not sure its worth continuing....and find a more interesting colour too......

Echo quilting

As I expect you know, applique quilts are a problem to quilt - the applique is so lively that the quilting has to take a back seat, so to speak, and it is either grid quilting or echo quilting.

I have done echo quilting on several applique quilts and the choice is to mark in some way or to "eyeball" it (estimate by eye) . My first Hawaiian quilt was eyeballed at about 3/8th inch -because I thought that was the more traditional method for Hawaiian quilts - but it looked at bit haphazard to me. So I went back to marking, using a method I used earlier in a Princess Feather quilt (see photo). I quilt in a large frame so easy to do.....

The method is to use a small ruler and use straight pins to mark a line at the chosen distance - in the photo of the red and white quilt, it is 1/2 inch. Use as many as needed, I usually insert a pin every inch or so. You'll have to look carefully at the photo to see the heads of the pins showing where to quilt next. This does not take long to do, is accurate and of course leaves no markings and looks very fresh. Just aim for the pins and remove as they get in the way. Of course, do not use old or rusted pins. Do a small area at a time or you'll get bored....