Spring Bunny hops home. . .

Spring Bunny is finished and on its way to my sister's.  It feels good to meet a deadline. LOL

My quilting was done by free-motion quilting with feed dogs down, and a darning foot attached.  My preferred needle size is a 75/11 Quilting needle.  This needle limits the fabric fraying.  The quilting was begun by stitching in the ditch around the inner borders of each of the panels.

I then outlined each individual piece of applique that had a raw edge.  I matched the thread color to each section I quilted.

The only exception to outlining each raw edge was for the word "Spring."  Because the piece is quite skinny, I choose to stitch in the middle of each letter.  This limited the possibility of fraying and kept the amount of thread from overwhelming the fabric.

I then cross-hatched the lower greens on the bunny panels.

The border was stitched with a vine of leaves all the way around.  I machine-stitched the binding to the front, pulled it to the back and machine-stitched it from the front.

This was the first time I used tabs for the sleeve.  To make the tabs I cut a 3 1/2" x WOF strip and sewed it right sides together with a 1/4" seam.  The seam was pressed open and the sleeve pulled to the right side.  It was then pressed flat with the seam centered to the back.  The strip was then cut into 5" sections.  I folded the sections in half and basted the raw edges to the top of the back of the quilt before the binding was sewn on.  I then sewed the binding on as stated above.  I like the look of the tabs and will definitely use them again.


I would love to hear your opinions of "Spring Bunny" as I am considering publishing it as a pattern.  Thanks for your input.

Spring Bunny comes together. . .

Remember the greeting card I pulled my colors from?  Well, I also liked some of the design elements as well and used them for inspiration for the assembly of Spring Bunny.

I liked the two-layer greens at the bottom of the greeting card and incorporated it into my panels.

I next added a 3/4" light pink border which finishes at 1/4".  This is a kind of signature to my original applique patterns.

A 1 1/2" sashing stripped is sewn to the joining side of the panel as was done to the other two panels.

The three panels are now joined and it is time for borders.

Wha la!  It has all come together.  

Now look at both the quilt and the greeting card.  There are elements of my inspiration apparent in the quilt.  However, I did not use many of the original fabrics selected for this piece as the quilt let me know what I needed as the designing process occurred.  I like this card well enough I may use it again for inspiration.

Quilting is next.  I will free-motion stitch the applique and quilt at the same time.

Spring Bunny is on the move. . .

Here is the first rendition of Spring Bunny's first panel.  Once together the scale of the flowers to the bunny were too large.  So I adjusted.

Adjusting the pattern piece sizes was easy because I drew this in Illustrator.  This is the first pattern I have done where all of the pattern pieces were drawn or pulled from Illustrator.

The flower size was reduced, as were the grass blades.  Notice that I created the words in the mirror image so as to trace onto fusible web.  I was now able to make all three panels.

I really like the font I selected for the word "Spring."  The panels will now be enhanced with a few borders and some sashing.  It's been a while since I designed a quilt.  Creating this quilt helps me realize how much I enjoy it but how consuming it becomes.  I have a hard time stopping to do the things I "should" do.

Creating pattern for Spring Bunny. . .

My sister's birthday is coming soon and I decided I would like to make her a quilt with a spring theme.  I drew this bunny a few months ago in Adobe Illustrator, my new best tool for creating patterns, and decided to base my pattern on it.

Now that I had the pattern subject, I drew a rough (very rough LOL) picture for my applique.  I decided on three panels, one with my original bunny, one with a standing bunny, and one with words.

Next, I took my original bunny drawing and used it to develop the standing bunny in Illustrator needed for one of my quilt panels.

Here are the bunnies for my panels.  The sitting bunny stands 6" tall and the standing bunny is 8" tall.  This is what I will build the rest of the pattern around and use determine the size of the quilt.

I bought this greeting card because the colors excited me for use in a quilt.  I decided to use this color palette for this new quilt.

Here are the fabric selections.  I have also added a brown (not shown) for the bunnies.  My next step is to draw the flowers and create the pattern pieces.  I think I am going to add some embroidery for some of the flower details.  I'm not sure how I am going to make the panel with the words on it but I have something in mind.  Keep watching to see where I go with it.

Quilted Symphony revision. . .

My borders were on and I was getting ready to put on the binding.  But as I was looking at it I felt that something wasn't quite right.  As busy as this quilt is I felt that a limited amount of quilting was enough.  Upon study of the finished product, however, I realized I was wrong!

As pictured here, the pieced segments on each side of my center segment were outline quilted.  I determined that more quilting was needed in these segments to pull them to the background and give a little more detail for the eye to see.  I also realized that the original stitching tension was poor which is always an issue for me!  So I picked it out and quilted some more. . .

. . .to get these results.  The pieced segments are individually outlined which took them to the back and gave the eye something more to look at (not that I really needed more LOL).  Now I could put the binding on.

And here's the finished product!  I am very satisfied with it.  I know that the majority of observers would not notice what I did.  But in the end, as the creator, I am the one that has to be happy with it.  What was going to take me one hour to finish took me four.  But I will never be afraid to take the time to make my creation the best it can be, nor should you.

Quilted Symphony workshop continues. . .

Our monthly workshop was held this week.  For me, classes are an opportunity to be a study of color and techniques as each individual puts their own spin on the project which are then shared with the class.  Here are the working visions of our workshop participants.

These colors are right up my alley!

Beading embellishment added.  Great idea!

Captivating neutrals!

Who would have thought to use Daiwabos? 

I will be excited to see the finished projects and hope to be able to share them.  Keep taking classes and expanding your quilting horizons.

Quilted Symphony gets quilted and borders. . .

The quilt center is pieced together and it's time to add borders and quilt it.  For this piece I wanted to add a flange between the quilt center and border.  I decided to quilt the center and then add the borders so that I would not have to fight with the flange while quilting.  I layered the quilt center giving an extra 5" all the way around for the batting and backing.  That would allow me to determine the outer border's size later.

The quilt center was basted to the batting and backing.  I then quilted by outlining the segments' shapes.  As there was a lot going on with the fabric choices, I kept the quilting simple and limited.

Once quilted, I selected a red batik for the flange.  The flange is a 1" strip folded in half and pressed wrong sides together.  I measured the sides, cut the flange to fit, and basted it to the sides 1/8 from the center's edge.

The top and bottom were then measured and the flange added as above.

Due to the busyness of my quilt, I felt that the outer border needed to be made from more than a simple single fabric.  My choice was to strip-piece fabrics that I would then cut on the diagonal to create a diamond-pieced border.

I began by stripping five 4 1/4" fabrics.  I pressed the seams open.

I then cut the strips at 3 1/4" on a 60 degree angle, centered the cut strip on the sides of the quilt center and sewed it to the quilt sewing through the three layers.  This seam now also becomes a quilted line as well.

I then centered the cut strips to the top and bottom and sewed them.

The border was then quilted.  I now squared and trimmed the excess of the layers.

The binding needs to be added, but wait there's more to the story.  Keep checking in.

Quilted Symphony coming together. . .

It's time to put all of our pieces together.  Begin by pinning section 1 to the stabilizer base.  Press the side of section 2 under, hiding the stay-stitches, that will be sewn to section 1.  Pin.

Stitch together with stitch you've decided on.  I tried three stitch types before I decided which I liked best:

The first stitch tried was the blind hem stitch.  It is found on my Janome in Mode 3, #33.  My settings were 1.5, 1.5.  Felt so-so about it.

I next tried a zigzag stitch, usually a favorite of mine.  That was found in Mode 1, #8 on my machine.  My settings were 1.0, 1.5.  Not too crazy about it.

To my surprise, my favorite stitch turned out to be the applique (or buttonhole) stitch, Mode 2, #38 on my machine, settings 1.5, 3.0.  For thread I used smoke monofiliment thread in the top and purple Bottom Line in the bobbin.  My needle choice was a 75/11 Quilting needle.  This is my preferred needle for quilting, especially batiks.

I continued stitching, pressing, pinning, stitching each section in numerical order.  I did find that all of my seams went from the center out in both directions.

Whala, it's all together.  More to come as it's time to quilt and put on borders.