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!