Got my mojo back!

I'm feeling much better about the quilting now that I've moved on to the border. This quilt is far from perfect but it will be used, well used and it won't be going in any quilt shows so I can live with the problems! I went back to the four diamonds in the corners; I wrote yesterday that they would get a little more quilting to make one of the frames pop and I've done just that. I stippled the area between the two frames and it makes the inner frame stand out. I am much happier with these blocks now.

So it is on to the borders. I've stitched in the ditch using the straight lines in the fabric as my guide. I sometimes find that the outside edge of the quilt can be a little tricky to quilt because the layers shift. What I do to combat this is baste the outside edge of the quilt somewhere between 1/4" and 1/8" away from the edge. I've got about 2" of quilting to go on the outside edge of the border so this is the perfect time to baste. I use an inexpensive serger thread and a large needle to baste through all layers. I do not trim the extra fabric or batting because it gives me something to hold on to when I quilt the border.

I've been dithering about how to quit the border. I love the fabric and didn't want the quilting to compete with it so I decided to just use the print as my quilting plan. I stitched in the ditch on either side of the brown bands with dots and then quilted around the ribbons and leaves. The background will just be back and forth quilting to flatten it and make the ribbons and leaves stand out.

 

 

 

Here you can see the difference. On the left it is quilted and the right is unquilted.

 



I like the look of this and it is surprisingly fast and easy but I'm going to have to fill LOTS of bobbins because it will require a great deal of thread.

I received my newsletter from Cotton Mill Threadworks and Anita mentioned a Canadian quilter, Judi Madsen and her blog.  Judi's work very much reminds me of Angela Walters. Both use long arm machines whereas I use a domestic machine. I greatly admire their work and there are lots of quilting inspiration on their blogs. There are also lots of great tutorials and information.

I was out in the garden this morning and there isn't much new in bloom. It gets that way at this time of the year. However, much to my surprise you'll never guess who was up in the juniper tree!  Just take a look!

What the neck are rabbits doing up a tree? Only way to find out is ask and what they said is "Look down there - that's why we're up a tree!"

And what do I see Teetoo, the dreaded Grey Panther from two doors down had treed the rabbits. Scat cat!

And scat he did! We've been catching glimpses of these rabbits in the garden so I asked them their names are and if they would pose for some pictures for my blog. Given that I had saved them from a terrible fate they were more than happy to oblige!

Meet Bunny Rabbit and Jack Rabbit

We sat on the patio and had a little chat. I told them they both have very cute toes and they were very pleased that I noticed. Apparently rabbits are quite vain about their toes!

 

 

I think they are much less nervous now and that in future I'll be seeing more of them! 

 

There'll be no post tomorrow. I want to quilt and work on the hexagon instructions so I can share them with you. Tune in the next day for more fun and an interesting solution to a problem!

 

Until I post again, happy sewing!