A Finish (almost) and a Start

I have finished the hand quilting on the charity quilt.  I stretched it out on my bed for this picture, and realized just how large it is.  It easily covers my full-sized bed, and would probably work just as well on a queen.  It is not yet bound, and I've been mulling over whether I want to do it or not.  I'm leaning towards not.  I don't know if my guild has somebody in charge of the charity quilts yet.  I don't mind hand sewing bindings, but I really don't enjoy making the binding or putting it on by machine.  Also, to be totally honest, I'm being selfish and want to work on more of my own stuff.

Speaking of which, this is my new project.  The guild's challenge this year is "Something Fowl".  I had an idea to do a wall hanging for my living room using some of the birds we see frequenting the feeder, but the instructions explicitly exclude song birds.  I pondered doing some shore bird, or owl, then thought of the Polish Coat of Arms and decided I could do that in a Hawaiian applique style.  This is the picture I'm starting with:

And this is what I've got so far.  There will be 3 shades of grey for the details and 2 shades of gold.  Some of the interior details will be done with grey quilting.  I have all the colors with the exception of the middle shade of grey.  I have some fabrics that are OK, but too close in color to the darkest grey. I haven't decided whether I need to go shopping, or try to lighten the fabric I have with bleach.

Some of the details will be small and I'm nervous about that, but I'm taking it one step at a time and doing the outline of the figure first.  I think it will look amazing if I can get it all right.