Thank You Aeroflot

Last Friday morning we were at Krakow airport waiting for the plane home when I spotted this exceptionally pretty aeroplane.

These flowers and leaves must be based on Russian folk art - there is a beautiful flow to them, making them perfect inspiration for free motion quilting.  Today I looked at this picture for a while, and then did a bit of free motion practice.  I know there is no point in trying to do pencil sketches or plotting any guidelines on the fabric - I just can't work like that.  I just have to put the quilt sandwich in the machine and see what I can do.  This is what I ended up with :-

...  a fat quarter sized panel with three plants, a leafy vine in the middle and stems with berries on either side.

Here is one of the leaves, loosely based on the big gold leaves on the plane,

.. and here are the berries, which are not quite so noticeable on the tailfin.

As a rule I don't find aeroplanes particularly fascinating, but I loved this one!

Update - Read more about this gorgeous plane on the  Allplane blog.  Aeroflot held a competition for designs for the special 90th anniversary livery.  Allplane has a link to Aeroflot's site, where you can see the designs that were submitted.  They certainly picked the right winner.  Also there is a link to Wikipedia, showing Khokhloma, the folk art on which the design is based.
If Aeroflot produced this marvellous livery for the 90th anniversary, what will they do in ten years' time?

Welcome to Denise Heydon, the latest follower - thank you for joining!

This post is being linked to Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday so you can see what other people have been up to this week...
and also to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday,
and to Nina-Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art... Whatever for Off the Wall Friday.