Now all the Jubilee celebrations are over there’s time to start stitching again. We had a fantastic village party here on Monday, which was great, because on Tuesday the heavens opened and it hasn’t really stopped raining since – typical English summer weather!
Rosie isn’t bothered though because she’s off on holiday next week – which is why she’s working so hard on her recipes for her new feature coming in the July issue of the Bustle & Sew Magazine. She’s off to Turkey where the sunshine is guaranteed – in fact for me if anything it’s a little too hot at present – the forecast is 36 oC next week! (97 oF). We spent many happy family holidays in Turkey when she was younger – visiting Kalkan many times .. it’s a beautiful place and everyone was so friendly and welcoming.
One of the joys of holidaying there was being able to sit outside at one of the many pavement cafes enjoying a cool drink watching the sunset and moonrise. This picture was taken probably about 10 years ago and shows a beautiful full moon over Kalkan Harbour. It gave me the inspiration to re-interpret my Moon Bunny design. Previously you’ve seen him as an embroidered bunny..
Some time ago I added some beautiful Westfalenstoffe fabric from last year’s Kitzbuhel collection to my stash….
Beautiful soft blues and yellows – perfect for a cot quilt featuring my Moon Bunny as an applique block ….
In felt so he won’t fray, attached with Bondaweb and machine appliqued with a feather stitch and gold metallic thread (I hate using metallic thread, but sometimes there’s no alternative!). Look how good I am getting at making my seams line up. I can only see one wonky one in this photo, which means my accuracy is definitely improving. Here’s a close-up of the bunny …
I embroidered his features with stranded cotton floss. The stitching around his star is a little puckered, but I think it will be OK after I’ve washed the quilt as I’m using a cotton batting with 3% shrinkage.
If you’d like the little bunny pattern then please click here for the line drawing. If the quilt works out OK, then I’ll upload the full pattern when it’s finished.
I know that quite a few people who visit my blog are much more expert quilters than I am – and I wondered if anyone had any suggestions for quilting this project. I’m now a very confident free-motion stippler, and would like to try something new – ideas welcome please!
Your Moon Bunny appliqué is indeed a perfect compliment to the beautiful Westfalenstoffe fabric! I’m not very confident as a free-motion quilter and not certain that I could do this myself, but I loved the scattered bunnies throughout the ‘Calendar Bunnies Quilt’ and thought a few moons and stars (as well as a bunny or two) randomly placed might be nice along with whatever else you should decide to do. Such a lovely quilt!
X Linda
Helen,
What a sweet quilt! I absolutely love it and the fabrics you used are perfect!
I am fairly experienced when it comes to the piecing part of quilting but not so much so when it comes to the actual quilting part. I do however think that if you could do a star pattern of some kind it would be very cute. I just Googled “continuous quilting patterns” and was able to find several examples of star themed line patterns. I think maybe it would be best if you were to stick with your stippling in the bunny block. I can’t wait to see what you decide to do and am looking forward to seeing the finished quilt!
What a lovely bunny quilt! I like both versions – appliqued and stitched 🙂
Hugs,
Tatyana
so, so sweet!!
looking foward to see the final project!
I’ve been discovering quilting art so any little bit of knowledge is welcome!!
I would visit Leah Day’s quilting project – if you hven’t yet looked through all her patterns. I think you will find some inspiration there – and of course as you know, you get video clips to show how it is done.
I have made the moon bunny cot quilt for my grandson and another for a friend’s baby. It is beautiful. Found the pattern on the Fave quilts website but don’t seem to be able to locate it there now and my friend wants to make it. Could you help me?
Oh how lovely! Here is the link for the pattern http://bustleandsew.com/freepatterns/MoonBunnyQuiltPattern.pdf although it’s very old now. I hope she enjoys making it xx