Custom quilting for Lesley

Hello June! Winter is finally arriving to the 'winterless' north of Northland! A chilly start this morning but a lovely sunny day. I know some of my overseas followers are starting summer.
Today I can share with you the quilt Lesley has made for her sister.
Lesley asked for custom quilting, cotton batting and a nice mustard backing fabric. Included were two cushion tops to be quilted the same as the quilt to make a nice set. This system works well as I just loaded the cushion tops on to the same batting and backing, saving time and money.

Here you can see I chose the wrong time of the day for outdoor photo's! This is my best spot for getting the whole quilt in the frame of the photo.

I enjoyed working out a design for these large nine patch blocks. using my Proecho (Lisa Calle) curved rulers I divided up the area and added some curved cross-hatching.

Swirl/feather design for the red sashing and a loose flowing feather for the border. I have used Glide threads. The mustard sashings were quilted with a simple diamond design, I will admit I would have loved to fill in each side with a heavy filler to make more of a 'diamond', sometimes I just have to pull the handbrake on!

When I gave Lesley some options for the stitchery blocks she chose cross-hatching over the stitchery but not over the applique. I decided straight line cross-hatching would look pleasing to the eye rather diagonal cross-hatching that I often quilt. Do you see Lesley has coloured in some of her stitchery?

Lesley came up with the design of this quilt, clever women! I'm sure Vi - Lesley's sister will be over the moon at such a lovely and thoughtful gift.

There are the two cushions, ready to be trimmed and made into cushions ready to adorn Vi's bed!
I received this email from Lesley which was very humbling to me: Thank you!

Hi Leeanne,

I received my quilt early this morning and I just cried when I saw it. It is so beautiful, love all what you have done. The backing is stunning. I am sure Vi is going to love it. I am going to Perth in October so will take it with me.

thank you so much. Until next time

Cheers Lesley

Over the last month or so I have been working on a new exciting project for myself . In the evenings and weekends when the mood strikes it's nice to have something to potter with in my sewing nook. Last year when I quilted Juliet's Running Zebra quilt (see here) it was love at first sight for me! I promptly purchased Juliet's pattern. Cute to read in the pattern Juliet gives credit to her quilter.......me!

I then set about trying to source the same fabrics Juliet had used..........not so easy! Here in New Zealand we are months behind the eight ball and so often don't even get half of the yummy fabrics on offer from the American designers. I did manage to get one small bundle of fat quarters but that was not going to be enough, so I 'bit the bullet' and purchased from America, I do like to support local, but I had my heart set on this fabric........and when it arrived I wasn't disappointed.

Please don't sit at your computer waiting to see the finished quilt............it may take awhile!
Linking up with Linda and Julie for 'Sew-Stitch-Snap-Share" Thanks creative ladies!
A little more self indulgence sharing, my over night tramping trip on the weekend to Cape Brett..............here a few photo's. Have I said I live in paradise?

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and thank you to those who leave lovely comments!

"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*.

feathers live here...................

             Hi there! This is the place to be today if you love feathers, I have them in abundance!

This beauty is a class sample for The Country Yard called 'Star Mastery'. Featuring several different stars. The class is focused on making the stars, the layout is simply an idea, but a lovely idea!

For something a little different I quilted straight lines on the central star blocks treating them separate from the outer stars, there by giving the illusion that the outer stars were 'floating' out to the border.

I enjoyed this concept and I am sure I can used this idea again. Now did I say something about feathers???

I used my curved rulers from Lisa Calle for the arcs,  I then echoed which gave me a nice pocket to place some pebbles in, I used a soft smokey/blue grey poly neon thread by Madeira, this created a soft contrast. Because I went down the road of wanting the feathers to look like they were floating, I had to quilt feathers right up to the striped sashings.

For a touch of continuity from the inner stars to the outer stars I quilted pebbles on the blocks with the primitive muslin background fabrics.

The next quilt features more feathers. Made by Gaynor at a class last year at The Country Yard.

I have quilted several of these lacey antique heirlooms. They can be tricky due to all the open crocheted doilies, you have to be careful to not get your hopping foot caught.

                     The sashings got a treatment of 'curling ribbon', the borders...........guess???

                    Thank you so much ladies for letting me loose on your beautiful quilts!

I am looking forward to a small break in quilting while I have my granddaughter to stay, here's hoping she will be keen to spend time with granny in her sewing space!

                            I still have three more quilts to share with you, so watch this space!