A panel quilt and a log cabin quilt.

Hello and welcome, today I share two quilts that I quilted for The Country Yard , both were launched yesterday at the shops New Years Launch, an annual event show casing what's new on offer at the shop.

First up is a quilt made from a panel by Kathy Schmitz called "Olde Towne" and the  coordinating fabric range "Sturbridge". I loaded the quilt top, cushion and cushion backing together on backing fabric and batting.

The quilt top and cushion back was quilted with an all over design called "Slick" and the cushion front had some custom quilting. I used Glide thread the colour Mocha.

See how that thread blends nicely without taking over from the quilt. The cushion was made from the three left over panels from the quilt.

Kerryn (owner of The Country Yard) had me make the cushion up and machine bind the cushion and quilt.

                       If you are interested this quilt is available as a kit from the shop.
Next is a lovely log cabin quilt. Who loves log cabin quilts? I am yet to make myself one, how about you, do you love them, have you made yourself one?

Before quilting.

Once the three 'ingredients' were loaded I began with feathering the creamy areas.............................

I used Gunold thread in a very soft variegation of creams and beige's. These wreaths of feathers help define the cream areas as well as showing off the on point setting.

             We couldn't have those borders feeling left out on all the featheriness could we!

After the feathering was finished I moved onto stitching in those ditches. Then the treatment of the dark 'logs' began.

The centre piece I quilted a creek key using Glide thread "Warm Grey 11'. The other dark logs I quilted straight lines that radiated out, again helping to keep that on point look crisp and clear.

The red sashing was happy with a nice little swirl design. This quilt is being offered as a class at The Country Yard, see their website for more details.

quilting finished!

Now I'm off to try one (or maybe two ;-) orange & blueberry muffins I just pulled from the oven!

Quilts as gifts, scrappiness and Simon!

Ok my last post I said summer was nearly gone..........I was so wrong! You summer lovers out there will be basking in all that sun.
 The first quilt I am sharing with you today is Helen's wedding present to her daughter, a Double Wedding Ring quilt. This is a spin on this traditional pattern.............simply by colour choice.

This photo is a bit on the dark side, too early in the morning but you get the idea, the close ups are better. Large at 84" x 96" and rather a heavy quilt. The next photo found the sun!

Helen wanted simple quilting which suits the modern feel to this dynamic bold quilt. Once the essential stitching in the ditch was completed I did some echo quilting, a cross hatch through the middle of each 'ring' and piano keys on the border.

These grey 'cornerstones' are shown here with just the ditch stitching...................

Now shown here with an echo line of stitching in the cornerstone, much better I think.

And because it was early morning when I took this photo Simon had not yet taken up his snoozing spot for the day, so he was on call for his opinion.

Next is Christine's quilt also to be gifted to her daughter, but not a wedding present, a birthday present this time.

Christine's daughter now lives in America but was born in New Zealand and also lived in Australia for some years, so Christine got creative with some Kiwiana and Australian panels.

 It's a two sided quilt, one side for the New Zealanders and the other for the Australians. Quilted together using an all over quilting design (edge to edge) called "Groundcover" and Glide thread called "Bark".............which suited BOTH sides!

Thank you so much ladies for letting me loose on your precious gifts! Facebook followers will have seen the Kaffe Fassett quilt I am working on, well I have actually finished it, here's a peek.

From time to time I have been happily piecing some more Scrappy Cross Roads blocks, now that it's together waiting for possible borders (not sure yet??) I took it outside to photograph it and of course Simon, the ever helpful supervisor was on duty to assist!

After about seven photo's I managed to get one without him on the quilt! It took moving the quilt to achieve this. :-)

This quilt has fourteen thousand and forty 2" squares! I am thinking a narrow light border then a plain purple border? You can deposit your 2 cents worth if you fancy!

On Sunday I went tramping  pulling myself up a mountain.  Mt Tutamoe Reportedly the second highest peak in Northland. See that cone shaped thing at the top of the photo? That's it.

The track was not really a track, more suitable for goats than humans! I wouldn't recommend it for anyone wheelchair bound that's for sure!

That's a 'track' :-)

Reasonably muddy and therefore slippery, I had quite a conversation in my head with myself as I was hoping the tree roots I was grabbing onto to haul myself up this 'track' would hold my weight! I said " I have to come back down here"..........but I did do it. The views at the top were spectacular. Views towards Kaikohe, Dargaville, Kai Iwi lakes, Baylys Beach and Whangarei heads, sadly the cloudy day wasn't the ultimate of conditions for photos'.

Views back towards Whangarei

Thanks for hanging in there with this lengthy post, I hope you enjoyed it!

place mats, weddings and gifts.

Another week has nearly gone, in fact February is nearly gone! Summer is nearly gone, but the pile of quilts has not gone! I warmly invite you to enjoy the following............................

Firstly are Jill's eight place mats. Jill request custom quilting, cotton batting and Insul-Bright batting.
Done! I loaded all eight place mats together as Jill had given me a nice big piece of backing fabric.
Then I set to work quilting all the 'organic' cross-hatching, echo waves and the ditch stitching before changing threads.

                          Here is a view of the back, you can see the quilting very clearly.

           Next up is Marcelle's special quilt just for her Wedding day. Scrappy and very happy!

I enjoyed using my 'doodling' in the cream background, feathering, looping, hooping and echoing.

Marcelle chose Matilda's Own 'Oh Sew Soft' Polyester batting. I didn't get a photo of the back, but it was a fun pieced backing.

        Straight line quilting on the pieced heart using Superior's Fantastico "Playhouse" thread.

                         A lovely keepsake for what will be a special memorable day.

I had to make a gift for a friend that was part of a group where we do 'secret Santa'. Because of the busy time leading up to Christmas, then after Christmas is the holiday time catch up with family etc we left our gift swap until just recently. Here is the gift I made....................................

A block holder using Michelle Ridgeways alphabet stitchery. Always a handy thing to have when you make quilts.
The gift I received.....................wow!

                                                       A lovely keepsake lined basket.

"Autumn Vases"

Hello again, some of you will have seen the sneak peeks of a lovely autumny, cinnamon sprinklings, falling leaves, put your cosy socks on type of quilt on my Facebook page, well I can now share the whole quilt with you.
             Welcome................... "Autumn Vases" one of the Northern Shop Hop quilts.

          Do you think of Autumn when you look at this pretty quilt?
Made by Kerryn, owner of The Country Yard  for the shops contribution to this years Northern Shop Hop.

  Four 'Autumn' stitched displays framed with some scrummy fabrics and clever block placement.
       I enjoyed some playtime in the cream logs, curve cross-hatching and blunt ended feathers.

Quilts that have secondary designs are always pleasing to my eye, that coupled with some fancy quilting your eyes are never bored!

For more details about The Northern Shop Hop and how you can join in with a car load of friends hopping around various shops see the blog *here*.