In the 5 minute drive to Keith's  office today we were discussion my early starts… I surprised myself by realizing, just how much I love getting up at 4.00 am.

I love the time of day, I love the ambiance of pre dawn, it's as if I'm blanketed in a cocoon of creativity and I gradually see the day begin.

Preparation yesterday allowed me to seamlessly construct 4 horses and riders today, it's taken 7 hours. Now at 11.30 am I can do other things…

The fusible web applique is prepared for each horse and placed into their own plastic bag.

Never the less, I still forget some things… I missed a leg today.!!!!

The boxes of fabrics are bought out and I'm ready to go. I have to match the colors on my sample to the applique, cut and iron the applique onto the fabric.

From this angle it doesn't look much work…but trust me it is…

So now the guys are down on the fabric… I love doing it, but I dislike doing the hooves… and there are 100's, no thousands in this quilt.

The applique will be illustrated to give it a dimensional effect, but I will do that when it's appliqued and quilted because I get the thread to match better… previously I illustrated twice, once when I laid it down then after I appliqued and quilted…

In this piece I had to illustrate the shields this morning.