On Monday it was my birthday, I had a lovely day pleasing myself, I spent the morning in my favourite place, my sewing room, working on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt. In the afternoon I went with Helen and the dogs to walk around a local reservoir. They’re both getting on a bit so we did have to have a few rests as we went round.
With a couple of days to spare I’ve managed to finish this months stitching on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt; Sarah Fielke, the designer, will be publishing the next border instructions tomorrow.
This month has all been hand-sewing, the inner quarter of the sunflowers were stitched a couple of months back as part of the previous border, this time we had to cut two sets of quarter circles for each quarter, as well as the petals. I had to change my plans with fabrics a bit as I hadn’t taken into account the size difference in the petal strips. I could only get three out of a 10″ square from the layer cake, rather than the four I had planned, and I only had three suitable fabrics, luckily I found another one in my stash. I think it worked out for the best anyway as I used one fabric for all the petals on one flower, which gives it a bit of continuity.
Before I could stitch the border to the quilt I had to trim away the excess fabric from behind the applique, I think this was the scariest bit so far with so many photos on facebook of people accidently cutting the quilt! Sarah strongly recommends this to stop the quilt getting too bulky. With three layers at the corner of each sunflower, more with each seam and doubled when two are stitched together, I can totally see where she is coming from…but I did have to concentrate to make sure I was cutting the right bit!
The corner squares and the sides all fitted together pretty well, some flowers are better than others, but I’m happy that it isn’t too noticeable. The leaves were the last to be stitched on as they spread across the seams.
The quilt is about 50″ square now, I have to stand on a stool to photograph it!!
The next border is a narrow pieced one, looks rather complicated but I’m sure Sarah’s instructions will make it manageable, I think there’s going to be a lot of cutting out though!
thecraftycreek 
It looks great Margaret, I bet you are glad to have a short break from all the appliqué and do a bit of piece work!
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Thanks Kathy, I must admit it will be nice to have a bit of a break from hand-stitching!
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Looks fantastic it is so pretty
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Thank you
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Happy Belated Birthday! Adorable dogs and quite lovely quilt! The colors are beautiful and I am impressed with the complexity of the quilt 🙂
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Thank you, I’m certainly learning a lot doing this quilt-a-long!
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Yes, trimming away the excess can be extremely nerve-wracking, so well done on getting that out of the way. It’s looking wonderful, and I think it’d be a great candidate for hand quilting if you’re not tired of hand stitching already!
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Thanks Kate, I think my mind is getting set on hand quilting…might live to regret it 🙂
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I don’t think so! It will finish your lovely quilt beautifully 🙂
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Happy belated Birthday!
This is really looking lovely – I adore all those muted colours. Cutting those backs away is scary indeed – I’m not doing it on my current project but that’s only because it’s a wall hanging and so it probably won’t matter if it’s thicker in places.
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Thank you, this is the first time I’ve cut away, I probably wouldn’t if I was going to machine quilt it, but at the moment I’m tempted to hand quilt it, so I don’t want it too bulky!
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Happy birthday! It sounds like the perfect way to spend the day. Your quilt looks lovely. I don’t know how anyone has the patience for this sort of work! I’m still fighting with mitred corners on a blanket I’m backing!
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Thanks Catherine, I think doing it as a BOM helps, it breaks it up into doable chunks!
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This quilt is AMAZING! I love the little houses, the big sunflowers! How nice to have found your blog to follow. Happy weekend!
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I LOVE it!! Your colors are so soft and calm. It is so fun to see how a different color scheme really gives a whole different feel to the same quilt. I’m jealous that yours is so far along. I finished my leaves though…. yea!!
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Thanks Tracy, I love seeing all the different colour schemes on fb, some of them are so inspiring! I’ve managed to keep up with the BOM this time…so far!
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Once a month is very doable ❤️I’m playing catch up but hope to be there soon:)
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It sounds like a wonderful way to spend your birthday! Your quilt is looking stunning!
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! It will finale your lovely comforter beautifully 🙂
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