I’m trying to make some inroads into my stash of kits, particularly the ones by Raggedy Ruff, they’re gorgeous but they do still intimidate me a bit! So to motivate myself a bit I’m posting about one every three weeks, on the Sunday without a SAL post!

Three weeks ago I made a cushion from the Susie the Cat kit, I managed to make it look like my walking buddy’s cat and sent it to her in the post, she loved it.

This week I’ve started a gorgeous one of a hare. These kits are all designed by Andrea Walpole of Raggedy Ruff Designs, I follow her on facebook which gives you a tip off when kits are available. The disadvantage of this is that I find them hard to resist so I have quite a few waiting to be made!

The background is a lovely patchwork of purples and cream with a little green. I think it’s one of the blocks from the Highland quilt but it works just as well as a one off. I usually try to buy kits rather than just the pdf pattern as I really like the fabrics used, it’s mainly batik with a little linen for a change in texture.

Andrea’s technique is to trace the applique shapes onto freezer paper, iron them onto the batik and then cut the shape out, it does allow for pretty accurate cutting out. Andrea just lays them in place before stitching all round the pieces, I’m not that brave, I put a tiny blob of glue behind each piece to keep it in place whilst I get the basic outline done.

Once all the shapes are stitched round the embroidery begins. I’m using mainly variegated thread, I bought a bundle when I made the Spring Woodland wreath so I use those where possible but add plain Gutermann if I don’t have a suitable colour.

I’ve done a fair bit of the stitching on the hare, though I’ve still to stitch his eye and a few whiskers. The eyes are the scary bit to stitch as it makes or breaks the final finished look. I’ve now started on the background with the butterflies stitched and a few flowers too, these are meant to be lavender, not sure what mine are but they don’t look like lavender!

Next to be stitched are the seed heads (brown blobs!) and the corn. Once I get going these don’t take too long, it’s just plucking up the courage to do the free-motion embroidery…I still have to remember to breathe!

If you fancy having a go I can highly recommend these kits, Andrea puts just the right amount of fabric to comfortably cut everything out, all the fabrics are clearly labelled and her instructions are good. She doesn’t teach how to do free-motion quilting but she does describe what to stitch and in what order. She has quite a few kits for sale at the moment, as well as the patterns. Please follow the link to see her other kits. I’ve also found free motion machine embroidery is surprisingly forgiving, the eye tends to see what it expects to see and ignores the occasional wiggly off line.

Hopefully next time you see this it will be finished and made into something, probably a cushion.