Sunday, November 22, 2015

Circles, pebbles & gingerbread kisses!


                  The long awaited sharing of the stunning black clamshell beauty is over!


True to form I have shared sneak peeks over at Facebook, sometimes it takes several days or a week or so to show you all of the quilt, this is due to the quilt being returned to it's maker.
This large (85" x 85") stunning quilt was made by Marilyn. Marilyn sure makes some lovely class samples! Marilyn's brief to me was to stitch in the ditches around the clam shells, but no quilting ON the clam shells. Then for the border Marilyn wanted circles and pebbles using a variegated thread. Sadly the photo's don't show up the fabulous thread, but I did take a photo of the spool of thread! From there you will have to trust me that the thread is lovely, it works so well with all the colours in the clam shells.



I worked at getting a variety of circular designs, each slightly different. When you are quilting on a domestic machine ( I used my Bernina 440 for over 6yrs before purchasing my long arm machine) you could easily see what you had already quilted. On a long arm machine you need to roll the quilt back and forth, even then you can only see approximately 26 inches of the quilt at one time, so I took plenty of photo's as my guide.



         Some circle designs took on a life of their own! Like this one, a bit like a face I thought?




In the background of the circles I quilted what felt like to me was 'movement'. Simple back and forth meandering, it feels like slow moving water, or moon light.



Marilyn's Clam shells have an explosion of  fascinating designs, piecing and embroideries..............................




Marilyn decided on a black batting which was a wise choice as we can run the risk that when the quilt front and backing are black, white batting's can 'beard' through. Marilyn pieced a pretty backing from a William Morris fabric framed with a beige then black solid fabrics.



If you would like to take classes with Marilyn please contact her through her website *here*.



By the way, Simon was on hand when the photographing took place.......................................


Next to share with you is Kerryn's delightful 'Christmas Inspirational Stitchery Quilt'. Made using Michelle Ridgway's Gingerbread stitchery booklet, Anni Down's " Under the Mistletoe" fabric,   Cottage Garden and Aurifil threads.


The Country Yard has put together inspirational packs which include fabrics, thread and Michelle's booklet to get you spirited along on the Christmas journey!


Kerryn adores her stitcheries to have cross hatching, to secure, to add extra texture all without taking away from her lovely stitching. For these times I always use a very fine thread.



My collection of Glide threads are growing, I have many threads I love and use often, they work well through my machine, life is too short to be fussing with 'headache' threads!


The sun going down photo, see the textures...................a pretty ribbon border on pretty fabrics!


Thank you for stopping by, enjoy the week to come.

15 comments:

  1. Gosh Marilyn does some stunning quilts that look like they are lots of work Leeanne. I love how you have quilted the pebbles & circles on it. I love Kerryns quilt too - have seen the pattern on Michelles blog & loved it. Must admit I quite like the cross hatching through the stitcheries. Hello to Simon :-)

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  2. Wow, no words to say how Marilyn's quilt looks, or your pebbles and circles. This is probably, definitely the most amazing quilt I have seen. Kerryn's stitcheries are delicate, and beautiful, and cross hatching a perfect finish.

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  3. 2 beauties here, very impressed with the clam shells and your quilted circles look so good, in fact you could make a whole cloth quilt just covered in those circl they are so eye catching. The quilt with the embroidery is so appealing, I have done 2 now but not quilted the embroidered pats as did not know what to do now I know crosshatching works so well When I manage machine quilting I will have a go

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  4. Marilyns quilt is beautiful and your quilting adds to its beauty. Soooo chuffed to see my little gingies in a pretty quilt...made my day xx

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  5. Marilyns quilt is amazing...love the batik fabrics and your qulting is...well I don't know what to say...words are not adequate!! Love the stitchery quilt too, Michelle's stitcheries are so lovely!! Simon is a fantastic model too!!

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  6. I love what you did with the circles....
    Hugz

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  7. Wonderful quilting on the clam shell quilt which is absolutely stunning. Love the thread you used.

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  8. It does look like you had a fab time with your circles - Marilyn's quilt is beautiful and your circles are so cool! Great to see the gingies, too, what a fun quilt!

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  9. OMG Marilyn's clamshell quilt is just amazing-as you said. What a fun class that would be to do. I am speechless here as I admire your quilting of all the circles. You must've been seeing pebbles in your sleep. Love, Love, Love it.

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  10. I could hardly believe that this was such a large quilt - it is absolutely stunning!! Your quilting in the border is amazing and I love the thread you've used. I am extremely drawn to the multi threads and this one is a beauty!! The Christmas stitchery by Kerryn is delightful, what a treasure to have for Christmas.

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  11. WOW, that first quilt is amazing, and your circles are the BEST! You are so clever, no really you are! Of course Simon was there to help in the way he knows best, doing diddle squat, but that's why I love him.

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  12. Marilyn's quilt is outstanding. I am impressed that she knew just how she wanted it quilted--and she was right! Those circles with pebbles are such a creative touch, and the variety you came up with gives the whole thing an added dimension. That thread does seem to be a perfect match. I am in awe of this piece!
    Cute, cute stitched quilt. That last photo with all the texture is very effective! : )

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  13. Of course, I love all your work but those firs circles... jaw-droppingly incredible! AH-mazing!

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  14. Wow - love that clamshell quilt, and your quilted circles!! Approximately how big were the clamshells?

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  15. Once again, amazing,amazing, it is always a delight to look at your blog, your talent is limitless, I am so proud of what you have achieved over the years, your quilting is starting to really blow me away. Well done. The clam shell wow wow, Kerryn stitcheries, well she had the right idea looks amazing. X

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