Kathy, from Living In A Rapid City has just decided to start a hand quilt-a-long, a celebration of any kind of hand quilting, it sounds like just what I need to keep me going with my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt. I’ve got a bit behind on my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, this is a quilt-a-long organised by Sarah Fielke, she has designed a beautiful medallion quilt with a mixture of traditional piecing, applique and foundation paper piecing. Septembers border was an elongated hexagon which looks a bit like a twisted rope if done in alternating colours. This is the quilt so far;
I procrastinated all September about which fabrics to use! The issue is not the main hexagons (I haven’t even started on that planning yet!!) it’s the tiny triangles in the corners. What I would like to do is to use the same fabric as the main border either side of it, so passion flower grey on one side and field of purple flowers on the other side, I’m hoping then that you will just see the twisted rope, rather than a straight sided border.
My problem is that I need 76 triangles from each fabric, so I needed to make sure I would have enough fabric left for the actual border.Now that I know what I need for the wide rabbit border I can start to work out the hexagonal one…
In the meantime I’ve started to stitch the rabbit border. This border is all hand appliqued, the background I chose is like a gorgeous purple field of flowers, it’s from the ‘In the Potting Shed’ range which was the starting point for my fabric choices. The quilt is getting quite wide now so it required two widths of fabric to get the length. The centre seam is covered by the stem of the tulip. I decided to have a darker purple tulip with soft gold edges and olive green leaves, all from the same fabric range. The rabbit fabric is gorgeous, it’s one by Lewis and Irene, I think it’s called Spring Hare, I used the pink version in my splendid sampler, so when I saw they did a silver grey one I knew it would be perfect for my rabbits.
Last weekend I went down to Birmingham, it was the Sew Brum sewers get-together and I could meet up with Helen as she is in uni there, a bit of fabric shopping together. I traveled down on the train which is about a 2.5 hour journey so obviously I needed some sewing to keep me occupied. I decided my rabbits would be perfect.
I spent a couple of hours the day before choosing my fabrics and cutting out the shapes. Once I was happy with the positioning I could secure them with tiny blobs of fabric glue.
I booked an early train to Birmingham which seemed a good idea at the time until I realised I would have to leave home about 6.15 in the morning!! So by 7am I was on the train just starting my sewing!
I started with the tulips, Sarah has worked out this quilt-a-long very well, in the early months we learnt a new tchnique each month, inside corners, outside corners, curves, so now we’re having to put it all together!
The actual rabbits went together pretty easily, my mainproblem was working out where the seam allowance would be for fabrics going underneath, one leg had to be re-stuck down as once the seam was taken in on the body, the leg wasn’t attached!! The ears were also a bit tricky as the pieces are so close together that the seam allowances were overlapping so I had to be careful that the actual stitching line wouldn’t overlap.
I stitched all the way down to Birmingham, all the way back and another evening when I got back, I’ve just finished one side with one more to go. I’m really pleased with this one, I love the shape of the running rabbit.
I’m probably a couple of months behind on this quilt but I’m not stressing over it, I’m trying to concentrate on making things for a local Christmas fair at the moment, hoping to catch up with this quilt over Christmas.
Kathy from Sewing etc is organising this quilt-a-long;
‘This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another. If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.’
Bella, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb and Kathy
Linking too with Kathy’s Quilts for her weekly celebration of hand-sewing.
thecraftycreek 
I’ve been blown away by the quilt project from the start and will follow your progress with great interest!
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Love the racing bunnies! Such a fun idea, to make the rabbits out of rabbit fabric 🙂 I can’t decide which of the two Down the Rabbit Hole quilts I’m following is my favourite – Tracy’s is gorgeous too!
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I love Tracy’s too, they all look so different in different colour schemes!
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The mark of a good design, I feel!
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Beautiful! Those bunnies are wonderful. This going to be a delight to watch !
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Love the rabbit fabric! This is a great project for pushing your boundaries and learning new techniques. The colours and fabrics you are using are just beautiful. Have fun stitching today!
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Thanks Gail, I’ve learned so much doing this quilt-a-long, Sarah Fielke is a great teacher and designer 🙂
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I love your quilt, the fabrics you’ve chosen are fabulous!
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I was tempted when this project came out. Too many other things going on but I really love what you are doing with it….such soft, pretty colors and fabrics ! 🙂
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Thanks Deb, there are just so many things to tempt us! I’m determined next year not to do a quilt-a-long , just so I can catch up with other projects!
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Love your fabric choices and colorway! What a cute project and isn’t it great that you are learning new skills as you do this qal.
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So beautiful! I am working on this one, too! I’ll post my blog a little later today showing my progress and link up to Kathy’s Quilts. Hopefully today I’ll get the prep work done for my rabbits…I’m a little behind! My goal is to have this one done for my guild’s quilt show next May.
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Thanks Sandra, I’d like to get mine finished for May too as we have the local show then, not sure it will happen though! Looking forward to seeing yours 🙂
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Those rabbits are great. I really like that fabrics that you chose.
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The rabbits are gorgeous! When you guys are finished, we need to get a photo of yours and Tracy’s together, what a wonderful illustration of diversity it would be. I have a charm pack of Potting Shed and I keep holding it back for something special. It has some lovely dusty shades of purple in it. You may have to schedule another train ride so you can get some more appliqué done!!
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Your rabbits are adorable… love the little white tails!
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love your rabbits running on that purple field of flowers–the whole piece is just beautiful! I saw this QAL, but didn’t join up –after seeing all the lovely variations i wish i had…hugs, Julierose
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What a spectacular quilt – I love your beautiful palette!
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Wonderful ! And what a great way to learn new techniques.
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I’m so glad to have a fellow Rabbit Hole explorer in the QAL! I can get some tips from you since you are a bit ahead of me:)❤️❤️
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I love this quilt!
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This is the first one I’ve seen in cool colors, and it is gorgeous!
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It is great to see the quilt being built up. Love the rabbits panel and background. The colour choices are lovely.
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This is beautiful 😍 your colours are so soothing and those rabbits are gorgeous
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