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!

getting those flimsy's quilted..............................

You all know the saying: 'It's not a quilt until it's quilted'. This is exactly what Denise thought about this pretty little quilt that had been resting un quilted for over five years.

Measuring only 35" x 41" it will make a sweet wall hanging. Denise fancied the soft less formal look of the whimsical background filler.

From there the feathered border was a natural choice. I had hubby video me yesterday doing this same feathery vine on another customers quilt, I posted the video on my Facebook page and Instagram. Then a picket fence filler to make the little on point squares pop.

Apart from the stitching in the ditch all the quilting was preformed free hand on my Gammill Classic long arm quilting machine.
I did chalk the spine of the feather simply as a guide. Thank you Denise.............
Next is the quilt Sue made for her daughter who still lives back in Sue's home town of Texas.

Sue asked for a geometric quilting design as her daughter likes the more modern look. Sue is hoping this will look nice draped over the back of her daughters white leather sofa, I think it will, how about you, what do you think?

The quilting design is called: 'Square Spirals'. Check out the back................................

Last weekend I had some lovely relaxing time starting a new project..........ahhh, don't you love that feeling? The sun was streaming into my little sewing nook, I had some nice music playing and I just had a fabulous time!

After sewing, pressing and trimming I ended up with 71 blocks, although now that I read the pattern............. I was suppose to have 14 half blocks! LOL..........Leeanne read the pattern!
There was the bin half full of trimmings...........

If you are interested I got this pattern as a free download from Craftsy I first saw the quilt made on The Midnight Quilt Show hosted by the hilarious Angela Walters! Oh do I look forward to her video's! Whilst creating I had a helper.

I am linking up with Linda and Julie for "Sew - Stitch - Snap - Share". Click your way over to the lovely blogs for a look around, drop a sweet comment or two, go on make someone's day!

Raining rain and quilts!

Hello Happy quilting friends, the rain has set in again here in Whangarei Northland so what better time to invite you along to a look at Gail and Nicki's baby quilts as well as a baby quilt I am making. First is Nicki's creation for her two grandchildren.



Made from a cute little farm range of fabrics, simple triangles using a 60degree ruler, sashings and borders. The pattern is called Zebra Crossing, but Nicki was attracted to the cute farm animal fabrics. Nicki chose the E2E quilting pattern "Whoote-Woo".



Look at the sweet backing fabric too, suits a girl or boy, just as well because Nicki has one of each!




Thank you Nicki, I'm sure your grand-babies will enjoy snuggling and rolling around under and on this cute quilt. The next quilt was made by Gail as a gift for her friends great grandchild, soon to be born, isn't Gail one fabulous friend!



Made up from simple solid squares Gail asked for E2E quilting, she was happy for me to choose, "Gummy Bears" seemed like to good choice.



Gail chose a nice cream on cream backing fabric along with Matilda's Own polyester batting.



Thank you Gail. As you know this blog is a place where I share the huge variety of quilts given to me  by my customers, from time to time I do share a few projects that I am working on personally.
"Woodland Critters" is one such quilt. When I found out I was going to be a 'granny' again later in the year of course I wanted to make the baby a quilt. I found this cutey-pie quilt on the Shiny Happy World website.



I have finished all the applique and machine blanket stitch I just need to come up with three little critters for the smaller plain squares, then I can start piecing the blocks together and make a decision if the quilt needs borders or not.
Linking up with Julie and Linda for 'Sew-Stitch-Snap-Share', it's well worth a few clicks to enjoy some lovely posts of all sorts of fabric and quilty goodness!

Bears, bags and a bird..............

It's one of those posts with a sprinkling of tasty treats (no licking the screens ladies!)
First up is the business side of quilting, Sue's sweet quilt stitched together for her soon to be born great grandson.

Theodore or Dexter is soon to welcome the world in America. Sue is originally from America now living in Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand, meaning 'Land of the long White Cloud' - although given our current weather this could be temporarily named 'Land of the Grey, sometimes black Cloud') Sue still has family in America and loves to make quilts for them all.

Sue was very keen to have bears or teddy bear quilting, but I didn't have any such pattern in my possession, so it was time for the credit card to come out. I bought six new patterns, when I have to buy from America I may as well make it worth my while, right?

Sue likes Matilda's Own polyester batting, she knows quality when she sees it. Take a look at the snappy backing.............................

 Today I worked on two quilts, all basted for Norma who wants to quilt these two quilts herself. Did you know I offer this service? No more sore knees, sore backs or worse still you remain on floor unable to stand up! I baste the three layers of your quilt together with a 4" -ish grid, you quilt, by machine or hand quilting, then remove the basting stitches. Norma also likes Matilda's own Polyester batting.

Some of you may have seen a new SAL or share all.......Sew-Stitch-Snap-Share I have surprised myself with two items (finished too). First is a bag I made for my youngest granddaughter, who turned five on Monday. Made from my scraps, then filled up with books and clothes.

Next a cushion made for a friend who had a 'notable' birthday who is a nature lover, when I heard of her birthday I knew I just had to try out my newly purchased Fantail pattern from Juliet

I LOVED making this bird! It makes me feel like I have found my piecing MOJO in those little pieces of fabric.