Butterflies and Feathers Cushion

This was a gift I made for a friend over Christmas.
I fussy cut the butterflies from some gorgeous fabric and machine appliqued them to the background.
I did the same with the leaves.
The flowers are 3D made from Suffolk puffs and were sewn on by hand at the end.

 Basted and ready for the free motion quilting which I did on my Janome 1600P on the table top.
I used one layer of Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 wadding.

 I used a polycore cotton thread made for machine quilting by Empress Mills, a family run UK manufacturers.

 I was really pleased with how the quilting turned out on this.

 I finished it off with a ruffle in a slightly darker shade of blue.

A little pearl bead finished off the center of the flowers.

 Cushion measures 13" x 18" excluding the ruffle.

A little sad to see this one go - turned out so nice.  I must be on a roll !
Thanks for visiting today.
Rhianon.

Snow Dyed Quilt - Part 1

Last week, after a heavy snowfall I tried snow dyeing some fabrics for the first time.

This is how they turned out.  Walking past them, I thought all the colours looked good together and I couldn't resist doing something with them.  Hadn't planned to start a new quilt, didn't have time to start a new quilt but sometimes you just have to go with the flow!

My original plan was to do pinwheels in the center but I didn't like how they looked so opted for a more random look.

Here I'm making the outer border and trying out the butterfly templates I made.

This was my final placement of the butterflies.

Now for the really fun bit - the quilting!!

FMQ'd on my domestic machine, I worked this loopy clamshell pattern in the center.

It is nearly finished now, just sewing the binding on.  I'll be back to show you the end result soon. 

Oh and its snowing today and I just happened to order new dyes yesterday.

I feel another 'accidental' quilt coming on already!

Enjoy your day :)

Rhianon.