Little Zebra

I made this piece about 14 years ago. The leftovers from the ends of strip sets from "Strips That Sizzle" were laying on my cutting table. Also a piece of the jungle fabric with the half zebra along the selvage was there. I started sewing the little end pieces together and all of a sudden I thought why not have that half zebra sewn between 2 of the strips. Then I started looking for border fabrics that the zebra could be sewn across.This piece is 11 3/4" x 12 3/4" so it was an easy size to handle for intricate machine quilting. I always take it to my machine quilting classes to show the students. The first thing they say is how hard it must have been to quilt something that small. Only after they have tried quilting a large piece do they appreciate how easy it is to do a small piece.
I love the way the zebra seems to be "coming out of the woodwork" as the old saying says. The pieced section is quilted like a jungle with big leaves. Now I know I am taking artistic liberty here because I don't believe zebras live near the jungle. I did tiny little meandering in the red area, now known as stippling, however that word was never used back in the early 1990's, it was always called meandering.
A close up of the jungle quilting, and the funny part of photography, it looks like hand stitching but I have always machine quilted (since 1957). You should be able to click on the pictures for a closer view.