Wednesday, February 24, 2016

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!




12 comments:

  1. you must be thrilled with your quilt the mind boggles at all those squares but what an amazing quilt they have turned into. You mention essential quilt in the ditch should that always been done on a quilt prior to fancy quilting? Loving the assorted fabrics in the birthday quilt and of course the wedding one is super too. Certainly you are fit to have tackled that hike up the mountain certainly a beauiful view from the top.

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  2. Gorgeous quilts as always Leeanne, your purple one is looking rather fabulous too. Especially with the Supervisor lounging around on it :-) Hello to Simon from Blackie & Pippy x x Fabulous views from the top of the climb.

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  3. awesome quilting LeeAnne! Great hike too!! Wow! Good job!

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  4. awesome quilting LeeAnne! Great hike too!! Wow! Good job!

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  5. Great quilts Leeanne. Simon is such a character. Has the chook gone home yet?.

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  6. The scrappy quilt is very cool, no wonder Simon likes it. That was some walk you went on, rather you than me. Do you have those walking poles, I think they would come in handy on some walks. Even tho it was a dull day the photos are still brilliant. Yeah yeah yeah, summer is hanging in there, but for how long.

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  7. Beautiful wedding ring quilt..and kiwi/aussie quilt, love your scrappy quilt, your idea for quilting sounds wonderful!! That is some walk you have been on!!! Amazing view from the top!!

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  8. That is a lot of pieces in your quilt, and you have such a pretty model! Good for you; hiking is one of my favorite things!

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  9. Excellent quilting choices to accent the modern wedding ring.
    Clever 2-sided quilt. What a fun gift for someone far from home.
    I think I'd have to audition it for sure, but I'm wondering if the narrow light border would stand out too much among all of the scraps. Would it look good to just put the wide purple border on?
    Looks like quite the adventure to achieve that view! Beautiful!!

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  10. Beautiful quilting on beautiful quilts Leeanne. Simon obviously loved the work on your gorgeous quilt too lol! Well done on that difficult stroll....stunning reward at the top xx

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  11. Beautiful quilts !
    Cats are the same all over the world, my cats always want to lie down on my quilts too 😊

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  12. I'm sure Simon is just measuring... just like how the "foot" measurement originally came from some standard foot (well, at least I think it did) - there is now an official cat measurement for quilters! Just ask Simon, he'll explain! PS did I say that I particularly liked that wedding ring quilt? Looks amazing and absolutely perfect quilting.

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