Just Duckie

I decided to make a crib quilt that was simply 9 baby duck blocks. Naturally the ducklings needed to be yellow. Plenty of that around. The webbed feet and duck bills needed to be yellow-er. (?) Decided orange would be good. Chose the orange here that is exploding fireworks on orange and used the lines of the print to make the wee webbed-toes have a bit of motion. Really good. Didn't want the ducks on just plain old blue so picked out a yummy floaty watercolor that is a soft but bright opal. That wasn't enough so I decided to put a base at the feet of the ducks of grass or water. Chose grass, found a good one. Didn't want the grass to be a straight horizon line so made all nine a sort of wavy hill-looking line. The ducks needed eyes. Made 9 round black eyes by using a dime for a template. That went well. Naturally, the eyes needed a highlight so they looked like baby ducks instead of those scary eyes on Jaws. Then, the eyes needed eyelashes to give some personality. I cut out just one eyelash and tried it up, down, over and back to see what made the ducks look sweet. Finally decided. A neighbor came through. She said one of the ducks had to be an ugly duckling which would be white with black bill and feet. I tried to ignore the suggestion but you know how it is. Didn't want my ducks to become too flat - they needed a soft, fluffy look. Cut an extra batting to pad under the ducks. Tried Carol Ahles' method of invisible appliqué. Didn't like the overcast stitch, too many straight stitches between them and the V so I tried others until I located one that goes l, 2, 3 straight and one swing. Ahhh. Better Wanted just a little quilting on the fluffy duck bodies so I chalked in a wing outline and stitched around it. Just right. Somebody stop me? Polly