Bunny Hill Designs and Japanese woven quilts

Hello there! Now that the postie has arrived in Christchurch at Maree's house with her two quilts I can have a show and tell!
Facebook followers will have seen the sneak peeks of both these beautiful quilts.Without further or do.....................

"Merry Merry Snowmen" by Bunny Hill. Needleturn applique, piecing and a small amount of stitchery (with eyes & other embellishments to follow) makes for a fabulous fun quilt for Christmas!

Maree had her usual request: " I trust you and love your quilting style so go for it!" Well if that's not permission to play I don't know what is! So after the hard yards of stitching in ALL the ditches and around the applique shapes, it was time to play.

You may see the faint pencil lines, these are where Maree with do some added stitchery. I did use the line of the 'slope' to divide the two areas into 'a snow slope' and a background sky.

                                  Awesome fun, going down a snow slope in a teacup!

Maree chose Warm & Natural cotton batting and I used the following threads: "so fine" by Superior Threads, YLI, perma-core and my nice fine thread for ditch stitching.

The swag border helps create a theatrical framing for a fabulous quilt.
Even Maree's choice of backing has a sense of fun about it...................................

The next quilt Maree had me custom quilt was "Taupe Flower Garden" that Maree bought some years back as a Block of the Month from Patchwork Passion. Robyn the owner of Patchwork Passion tells me this is no longer available as a BOM, but they have similar patterns available.

Once again Maree gave me free range, however I was aware that this was to be a bed quilt.

I was keen to keep this quilt looking classic, so cross-hatching the background of the flower blocks seemed like a good choice, but I wanted a japanese type feel, I think the the twin lines creates this vibe.
I added light detailing to the applique.

Maree chose Matilda's Own wool batting for extra warm and loft, I used the same thread brands as Merry Merry Snowmen except different colours.

For the pieced blocks I kept things simple, there is of course ditch stitching, it really does help your piecing shine.

The scrappy pieced blocks I did stipple, not exciting I know, but it really seemed like the right 'fit' for this quilt.

Sashings and corner stones.........................................

The borders are my FAVOURITE! When I saw these borders on Kathy's blog some months back I filed the idea away, all the while quietly waiting for the right quilt.

I will be honest and say I did have a booboo and had to do some unpicking, it was a combination of things, first time trying this design, so it's not built up in my muscle memory like many designs and I had applique on the borders to maneuver around. It was all worth it as this design frames this quilt perfectly! Thank you Kathy.

Thank you so much Maree for producing well made quilts and for letting me have creative freedom!

Big Bold in Black and White

Hello and welcome, thank you for taking the time to stop by to see what quilts I have been working on. Mary has been busy sewing up a storm in readiness for her grandson's 21st birthday.

A fabulous collection of black and white fabrics set out in strips and circles. Mary gave me free range to custom quilt this big quilt.

Ditch stitching the sashings and around each circle takes time on a big quilt (and small quilts too :-) but it is so worth it. Mary's grandson's quilt measures 84" x 92". Black backing and black batting.

After the necessary ditch stitching it was onto the fun stuff! Like swirls on the appliqued circles, double straight lines set on the diagonal, horizontal 'organic' echoing of the strip sets, some half circles in the background of the black strips. The black thread I used was a YLI thread called ' Darkula'.

 Mary had used white thread for the embroidery , this set me up for quilting some random circles and half circles on the border filled with a swirl, as well as 'hap hazard' twin echo lines, creating, I hope a modern feel to the quilt. I triple stitched the outer part of the white circles to really make them POP!

This was another difficult quilt to photograph, the light has to be just right for the quilting to show.
Thank you Mary, I know you love how it turned out, lets hope your grandson does too.

Looking through some photo's the other day I found this cute one of Simon and his sister when they were babies.

custom and all over quilting, plus a couple of wins for me!

Happy Friendly Friday! Hello to all from near and far!
The first quilt I have to share with you is one my customer asked for an all over quilting design.

Slip on your sun glasses for this cheerful zippy quilt! Liz made this whack and stack quilt using batik fat quarters.

I quilted a swirl leaf for the all over quilting using a lovely YLI variegated thread in rich purples and wine reds, difficult to see I know, but trust me, it is very appealing.

Liz has donated this quilt to be raffled at her grandchildren's gala. I am sure someone will be delighted to win this lovely cheery quilt. The quilt measures 60" x 67" batting : Matilda's Own wool/poly.
For the back lovers............................

Next is another cheery quilt of a different kind. Made at one of The Country Yard's  classes called "Loose Change".

Lois is fondly know as 'The Cat Lady' simply because she cannot resist cat fabrics, so much like I cannot resist one hundred dollar bills.....................but it seems my stash is rather tiny, in fact my hundred dollar bill stash does not exist!! You win the biggest stash competition Lois!
I think Lois may have put a dent in her cat fabric stash with this quilt.

When Lois Let me Quilt  for her we went for cross hatching, as I did for my shop sample, see here. The border was given a custom quilting treatment of 'cat' words such as : "curiosity killed the cat" ~ "cat got your tongue" ~ meow ~ pussy cat ~purr like a cat..........and so on and so forth!

The quilt measures 72" square and 50%wool50%cotton batting, signature thread for the cross hatching and madeira poly neon for the border..
Lois made a fabulous backing fabric pieced with some more of those cat fabrics!

a snapshot of the back

Thank you Lois and Liz for your continued supply of quilts.

Now to share a couple of wins I have had recently. The first is from Julie over at JulieKQuilts. I thoroughly enjoy Julie's blog, she makes the loveliest scrappy quilts and her needle turn applique is stunning. As a busy nurse she sure gets many quilts started AND finished! Usually her lovely dog Rosie is on hand to give her approval of any quilts laying on the floor.

Looks like a fun quilt, I have seen a few of these quilts popping up out there in bloggy land. Thank you so much Julie.

Next is actually two wins. Primitive Gathering Magazine and one of the sisters Jeni were having separate giveaways.............................you know you leave a comment thinking someone will win this lovely prize but not me. Well I won, such a nice feeling.

On Jeni's blog we were asked to name her online sew along. I said I liked the name "A Life of Plenty". Then on the Primitive Gatherings blog I answered one of their survey's. So they bundled up my prizes and sent them all the way down to little New Zealand to me! Thank you so much ladies!. Jeni I think I have all the material's to start your sew along!

Christmas is coming along nicely so if you are wanting me to quilt for you before Christmas you still have time to send your tops to me. See "Let me Quilt for You" for tips and ideas.

Well another week on the wind down, I hope you are all planning a happy weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

need some colour in you life?

Well you've come to the right place today! I have two customer quilts to share with you that are vibrant.
The first was made by Jacki for her daughters 21st present. Apparently she loves VW combi vans.

Groovie aye!
 Jacki did machine applique for the vans, I love that she has two different styles/models. Jacki supplied the polar fleece backing, we also put cotton batting into the equation.



polar fleece backing

I used Madeira poly neon's & Gunold threads, a bit of curved cross hatching, some feathers, peebles & even some rope on the sashings. For the border I wanted to create a prairie point look.

Next is a cute baby quilt that was whipped up by one of our Country Yard friends using a lovely farmyard range of fabrics by Heather DuPont called : "Home to Roost".

Simple snowball blocks & little pinwheel blocks that have been framed. For the snowball blocks I did a large swirl using YLI 'wonder invisible thread' ( I used that for the ditch stitching too, I normally use 'sewart invisible thread, but it is no longer available :-( .
Large swirls, or any large design is tricky to quilt free motion on a DSM, you do have limited hand space, so if you click on these photo's you will my whoopsies!
For the framing on the pinwheel blocks I have a very hi tech name for that design : loopy things!
I also did loopy things on a larger scale using variegated thread on the borders.

Here is a view of the back when I had it draped over the couch.

Wishing you all a Happy Easter, with friends & family & the odd bit of chocolate munching!
I always enjoy your comments & visits!