Wednesday, January 12, 2011

King of the Castle

We live at the bottom of a very large hill called Castle Hill. For five years I have watched Insane Persons as they walk/cycle/run UP the very steep road that winds its way to the top of the hill. "They are nuts", I have muttered to myself countless times. Well, a few weeks ago I joined them and, after several warm-up attempts, I walked to the top of Castle Hill with my friend, Sarah. A few hundred metres before the top we were passed by a car driven by two other friends.It was dark by the time we reached the top and Kellie and Raoul were sitting on a railing waiting for us. We sat next to them and chatted for a while. Suddenly, in the dark, I felt something hit my hip. As I twisted around to see who had whacked me, The Thing landed heavily on my bare back (clad lightly in a singlet!). I yelped and brushed it away and then, as it fell, I saw it was a Green Tree frog. These fat little fellows are both charming and very beautiful.
The following day I was telling another friend about my encounter and she said, "I didn't know Castle Hill was guarded by attack frogs!"

Here he is; the King of the Castle (Hill), the Attack Frog.

king of the castle1

Machine appliqued and quilted. Extensively over-painted commercial fabrics. This one was fun!

13 comments:

Gerrie said...

It looks like fun!! I love it. The plant life you created is fabulous. I hope you are out of the way of the flood waters - I guess you could escape to the top of Castle hill!!

Diane Perin said...

Oh! Kirsten! This is so fun and instantly appealing! He has so much personality! I love it.

Kristin L said...

The colors, which are so serious in most of our other work, are cheery and whimsical in your piece. It definitely looks like you had a good time with this one, and what a funny story to go with it.

Deborah Boschert said...

Wonderful! I really love all the different leaf shapes you've created and all the lovely shades of green you incorporated. The white details really add a lot of zing! Is that paint?

Nikki said...

Now this is what I think of when I think of the color palette! Fun, rich and full of life. When I think of emerald, I think of the Crayola color "Jungle Green" and this is jungle green!

His bright eyes and wonderful smile don't exactly say attack frog to me, but I can see a touch of devilish fun somewhere in there.

Karen said...

This is very clever Kirsten, and all those shades of Emerald - who knew! I am amazed all this was commercial fabric. Like Gerrie, I'm glad you are ok up there, my son is in Brisbane and stuck.

Angela said...

He's adorable

Terri Stegmiller said...

This is such a fun story and your resulting quilt is just too cute!!! I love how you created everything basically in greens and yet the details are so evident.

Brenda Gael Smith said...

What a fun interpretation of the regal associations of purple.

(I thought about doing some kind of crown jewels in rubies, emeralds and ameythst but didn't want to duplicate my Pink Colourplay piece - Argyle Diamonds.)

Terry Grant said...

That is such a smug, satisfied-looking frog! Like everyone else has noted, the greens are incredible and the foliage has such charm. And your frog is divine. I have the little green tree frogs in my yard and I love them! (Though it might freak me out to have one hop onto my back in the dark) Totally delightful piece!

Norma Schlager said...

Love the story, love the quilt!

Françoise said...

Wonderful quilt Kirsty! (And usually, I don't like green too much...)
This frog is so cute, and I loved looking at all the details on the large size picture.

dutchcomfort said...

Lovely story, adorable quilt! It shows you had a lot of fun making it!