Animal Applique Quilt

I was asked to do some custom quilting on this beautiful appliqued quilt for a friend who had made it for a new grandbaby.

It took me about four hours, two bobbins, and approx 55,000 stitches to complete on my Bernina Q20 longarm. I free-motion quilted a stipple in the white background of each animal with a white Wonderfil Master Q thread, leaving the applique animals as they were.

In the busy, daisy sashing and the gingham border I used a ruler and ruler foot to do simple straight line grids.

Little Blue Christmas

 

This is my art quilt entry for the 2023 Bernina NZ Colour Challenge, currently touring Bernina stores around NZ. Quilts had to be 12" square.

The challenge was 'Favourite Colour' and mine has always been blue.  I looked in my stash and found a small set of fat quarters with this blue and white Christmas theme.

I took elements of the different fat quarters to create a collage scene of houses and trees; then I machine appliqued and hand-stitched over top, with some metallic threads and beads for added sparkle.

The photos are not the best as I took them indoors at night; I only finished this a couple of days before entries were due to be handed in, so had no time to take nice photos outside in the daylight.

Sharing with quilting friends and fan(atics) on Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky, with Michelle's (Bolt to Beauty) Beauties Pageant and with Wendy's Peacock Party - hello everyone!

Christmas Stocking for Florence

In January I took some time to update my 'maker's journal' with craft projects and cross-referencing with photos and blog posts - and I have a few projects from the past year or two that haven't been shared, so will get them here on record! 

This is the Christmas stocking that I made in late 2022 as a gift for my cousin's newest daughter, Florence.  Her big sister, Lucia, has an angel-theme stocking.

I used the same stocking template that I have used for all the felt stockings that I have made for other children, and a gingerbread man motif that I have also used before.

These buttons have been in my stash, waiting for the right project...

It is all hand-stitched; slow stitching is always so satisfying.

Re-Assemble Challenge for NZQS19

Earlier this year I joined in with the Re-Assemble Challenge for this year's NZ Quilt Symposium.

Each entrant was sent a photo of one portion of an art work and our challenge was to represent our portion in any 'quilty' way we wished as long as we matched the (roughly) A4 size and our edge lines matched. 

Here is the original photo I received:

And here are the two side-by-side; I am really pleased with how it turned out:

Each portion will then be joined together to recreate the original artwork in quilt form.

I chose to do an applique/thread painting method, with some painted areas in the green background.

I actually used bubble wrap to apply the green paint (which was a mix of light/med/dark greens, on a forest green marble fabric), quilted with an all over mini stipple.

The thread painting gives some texture and tone to the greys of the roof and poles.

I am really looking forward to seeing what the whole picture looks like! 

(I will add the finished result once I have been to Auckland in October).

Lucia's Christmas Stocking

It was my pleasure to design and make this felt Christmas stocking for my cousin's new 

baby, Lucia, for whom this is her first Christmas. This was my 42nd quilt/craft project for the year!

I used a print and some felt to applique this angel onto the front.

As with previous stockings I have made, I hand-stitched Lucia's name at the top.
I love the little star button detail.

And I found these cool star and heart buttons at Spotlight.

Joining up to share with Kelly's Needle and Thread Thursday linky party - 

Happy New Year quilters and crafters!! 

Hint of Spring

I created this little piece of quilt-art to get an idea out of my head 

regarding making some Spring blossoms.

It only measures about 9" x 10". I used some hand-dyed fabrics from Mallee Textiles as well as organza and satin ribbons, a pale pink solid, and some pink tulle.

These two photos taken at night, inside - so aren't wonderful, sorry.

The blossoms are four layers of fabric/ribbon/tulle in various combinations.  

The 'twig' is a brown organza ribbon that I have re-purposed from a gift box.

Quilt Delivery Weekend

This weekend I took the opportunity to head up to Central Otago to deliver some very important recent projects...we nearly lost "Fizzy for Lizzy" into Lake Dunstan at Cromwell (it was more than a trifle windy up at the look-out, thank goodness Kieran had hold of at least one corner of it like I told him to when he made like a Hobbit and hid behind the rock for the photo!)

Great to be able to spend a long-overdue evening with my lifelong friend Ali and to be able to wish Fairy Princess Elizabeth a happy 5th birthday...

 

Then on Sunday, Kieran and I enjoyed a drive over to the Ida Valley in the Maniototo district, to deliver two more birthday presents...

"String of Pearls Remixed" for my cousin Kaylee...

The land here is quite a bit drier than here in Southland! Everywhere I passed, farm paddocks were being irrigated, while back here in Southland we've had an overload of rain!

And "Birds on High" for her daughter Claudia, just turned four...(I had to include the blue sky as proof that the sun does still shine somewhere in NZ!)

Birds on High - for Claudia

A wall-hanging, 20"square, and one of my Littlest Thistle Finish Along 4th Quarter challenge projects:  made from various pink and green-toned fabrics bought on sale from Kitz'n'Thingz or Spotlight...with my cousin's little girl about to turn 4, I wanted to do something with applique and saw a similar design (as a pillow I think) on Pinterest...the birds are ironed on and then I stitched in black around them to give it a 'sketched' look...

I used a 16.5' square for the background, and each border has 16-22 strips of 1.5" x 4".
The birds range between 8-12 cm in height. 

I used an embroidery stitch on my machine to add a little detail to the border, which is quilted with various widths of straight lines, while the centre background is filled with swirls...

Here is 4 year old Claudia, my cousin's youngest child (and sister to three older brothers), with her wall-hanging...she's a real character! I really enjoyed my weekend in Central Otago to deliver this gift and another quilt gift for another gorgeous girl...

Linking up with: Amanda Jean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) Finish It Up Friday;
Shannon's Modern Tradition Quilts KISMIF party      and      Lorna's Sew Fresh Quilts Let's Bee Social

Our four-six weeks of Spring rain has battered the garden somewhat (I considered building an ark about two weeks ago as we'd had so much rain), and the paddocks everywhere are totally soaked, but the flowers are still blooming...rose 'Alison', such a gorgeous deep pink...

 With a close-up of 'Iceberg'...