Animal Quilts - series four

Time to share another two of Juliet's quilts from her book. Here's the Polar Bear hanging waiting to be posted back to Juliet in Christchurch.

Next are the Rhino's..........................................................

These guys ooze personality! Every time I quilt for Juliet her creations have me smiling, I love her choice of fabrics they add another dimension of interest.

       Sometimes it's all about creating texture to let the piecing and fabric come to the forefront.

          I have been enjoying my copy of this fabulous book, pondering which quilt to make first?

 In the mean time while I ponder, the book has given me the push I needed to finish my Running Zebra quilt (also a design by Juliet). Here's the Zebra finished, only borders to go then the quilting.

Me 'wrangling' the two halves together!

The last couple of days I spent on Ururpukapuka Island. Starting at Rawhiti kayaking over to the island. Setting up camp, but hiking to the highest peak of the island to sleep out under the stars.....that was spectacular! The next day we kayaked around the circumference of the island, exploring caves, watching wild life and picnic lunching on the beach. The last night wasn't that great to sleep out under the stars so in our tents we went. Then kayaked back over to Rawhiti to the vehicles.

                                Another confirmation how lucky I am to live in paradise!

Houses.......................

After a short holiday while my granddaughter stayed it's time to get back to work, I will start with this blog post about Lois' quilt. Made of many sweet little houses and framed off with a little picket fence, this is hand-pieced quilt. Lois asked me to custom quilt this little treasure for and I was delighted to do so.

Lois used Yoko Saito's book: 'Quilts from Traditional Blocks' and used all the lovely woven muted fabrics that Yoko Saito is known for. The quilting needed to be subtle and not over powering. Everything is stitched in the ditch, some soft stipple in the background of the houses, cross-hatching on the sashing between the houses the straight echo lines on the framing sashing. Lois and I had many email discussions about the quilting for the border, Lois didn't want anything to compete with the picket fence and nothing 'frilly'. So we ,high fived, on organic wavy horizon lines.

Did you notice the house on the bottom right hand corner is facing the opposite direction to all the other houses? Lois tells me she copied that idea from Yoko! I like the odd fence post that is off skew! Lois gave me a lovely piece of linen for the backing and chose wool/poly as her batting choice.

What a pleasure to have had the opportunity to quilt this little sweet quilt, thank you Lois!
My granddaughter is now back home, we had a fabulous time together, sewing, baking, colouring, playing board games, visiting a petting zoo and she even came tramping with me!

Those are some of her Plasticine creations! And the crazy Lego castle that was made over several days.

 Our last day together had us off out tramping. After a short boat ride from Paihia we headed over to Urupukapuka island. Such a beautiful place and we had the island ourselves (27 in our group).

The island is a bird sanctuary that is pest free, so we saw and heard many birds. This area of the island was heavily populated with shags nesting in the trees, it was a sight to see (and smell!).

We also saw many saddle back birds which are such beautiful birds of black and a deep burnt orange.

This image is from Google as I couldn't get a decent photo of these magnificent birds.

making friends on the boat trip!

Margo's Pine Bark Quilt

Hello quilt lovers July is here and so is the wet winter weather. Margo's quilt brings in some sunshine.

Margo made this delightful quilt as a gift for her brother and sister - in - law using Japanese themed fabrics. Margo asked for an all over quilting design and chose "Turkish Tiles" as you will see this design looks very much like a Ginko leaf.

Margo chose Glide thread in the colour 'Light Olive' which picked up the same colour in one of the fabrics and the sashing fabric. Margo supplied her own batting which I think was cotton.

Margo also made two matching cushions, so I loaded them both onto the same batting and backing along with the quilt. Thank you Margo, I hope your loved ones enjoy this fabulous quilt.

Over a series of s-e-v-e-r-a-l months I stitched this cushion for my special friend. A Crab Apple Hill design..................

 Knowing my friend loves Tilda fabrics I thought it would be nice to finish the cushion off using two of these prints.

Today I went tramping, a mix of farmland, forestry roads, thunder and lightening, rusty old relics and mud!

"Chopsticks"......................................

Hello and welcome on this winter Wednesday. The wind is howling throwing fallen leaves into mini tornado's! Enough of the weather, time to share Chopstick's a Jaybird Quilts design.
Kerryn, owner of The Country Yard asked me to custom quilt her sample, yippie this quilt is super nice! Here is the 'before-quilting' photo......................

Kerryn supplied the cotton/poly batting. The quilt measures 62" x 83" and is made using Moda fabric by Sweetwater called "Sunday Supper".

Using Glide thread in the colours 'Linen' and 'Ocean' I set to work play!! Using a straight edge ruler and one of my ProEcho rulers and free hand quilting.

Kerryn requested the "Full Quiltmekiwi Binding Service", which is to attach pre-made binding (or I can make it) to the back and bring forward to the front of the quilt top stitching in place, or attach the binding to the front the quilt and hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt. In this case Kerryn wanted the binding completely attached by machine.

The whole quilt, quilted and binding attached ready to hang in the shop along with fabrics, patterns and kits.

                 Last week I celebrated another birthday and I was treated to some lovely presents!

Thank you my friends and loved ones. Last weekends tramping was a treat also, after a short drive to Sandy Bay we had a lovely walk through farm land, forest, beaches and Whananaki where we stopped at the local country school to share in a Mid winter Christmas lunch.

           Every single time I am out exploring I feel so lucky to be apart of all the beauty.

The last couple of weeks has been very slow progress on my Running Zebra quilt, but I do have a neck and mane!

Linking up with the lovely Linda and Julie for "Sew-Stitch-Snap-Share". Thanks ladies, you are keeping me somewhat motivated!

Thank you for stopping by, happy creating and take time to enjoy the paradise you live in!

Custom Quilting Pat's Moroccan Lanterns

Hello again! Followers on Facebook and Instagram have enjoyed snippets of Pat's super yummy 'Moroccan Lantern' quilt. A design exclusive to The Apple Basket .

Measuring 80" x  92" Pat chose wool/polyester batting and a lovely deep charcoal/black backing fabric, hoping to keep this quilt fresh and appealing enough for Pat's 12yr old grandson. I used Glide and Superior's Fantastico threads.

Keeping in mind this quilt was going to be for a young man we banned any 'frilly-dilly' quilting pushing it's way onto this quilt! Swirls and straight lines seemed a good masculine choice.

After a break over coffee I finally came up with the design for the 'lanterns'. A series of angled double lines to create a diamond effect much like a lantern.

Thank so much Pat, here's hoping your grandson will love the quilt, if not I know there will be some takers...........me included!

While walking on Sunday back from Cape Brett I spotted these Fungi on a tree, I thought they were really pretty. Thanks for stopping by.