Sue's Charming Sampler..................

Howdie friends! It's full steam ahead in my studio, some lovely quilts coming through the door, many come locally from here in Whangarei, some from the South island, Auckland and even Australia! Sue and I have been following each others blog for some time now, so when Sue emailed me all the way from Australia and asked if I would quilt her charm sampler I was ever so so happy to say yes!

Cheerful batiks set off by a solid black background. Sue gave me free range only to say she didn't want dense quilting. I was keen to use a contrast thread in the black areas. Plenty of ditch stitching to crisp up Sue's  near perfect piecing.

Because this was a sampler quilt I treated each block separately but quilted similar designs in each block to give a nice cohesion throughout the quilt. You will notice pebbling, sun-like designs and straight lines.

I found it very tricky to get good photo's, this is a common problem for me when photographing black quilts.

There was so much more quilting I was itching to do, a bit more here and some more there! I had to be well behaved and put the handbrake on from time to time!

Sue chose a wool/poly batting which helps show up the textures. I used a Gunold variegated thread.

Thanks so much Sue, here's hoping you love it! I invite you to pop over to Sue's blog *here* she has nearly daily postings that are always interesting and inspiring.

On a personal note my two youngest children have had birthdays this month, my youngest turning 17 & my eldest boy turning 19. This year has had me really pondering where the years go and why must they go by at high speed?

My Camo Boys!