Rhonda Dort

One of the reasons I started keeping a detailed quilting journal is because I think I have such an excellent memory and I couldn’t be more wrong! Rabbits Prefer Embroidery bolsters this case. I have no idea when in the last 10-ish? years I made this little quilt top.

A Bunny Hill Designs pattern measuring 36 x 39″, I do remember this was a joy to hand embroidery. Here’s another mystery: did I see it done up somewhere in pastels or did I come up with the idea on my own? Who knows! Here’s a picture from the Bunny Hill website of the pattern done in red:

Here’s my quilt top before the quilting began:

Here’s my finished (well finished quilting that is) version of Rabbits Prefer Embroidery. Bunny Hill Designs show the finished project quilted in what appears to be 1″ spaced diagonal lines. I decided to do feathers in all the printed fabrics and parallel lines in the outside white borders.

I’m thinking I’ll do the binding on one of the greens, I need to do some auditioning to make the final decision.

The larger areas of white in the embroidery blocks caused me considerable concern. They needed quilting but I wasn’t quite sure what to do that wouldn’t distract terribly from the embroidery. I finally decided a simple scallop mimicking the outer pink border would frame the rabbits nicely. In the larger blocks, after a lengthy phone conversation with mom, she suggested I repeat a few design elements to further fill in areas. You’ll notice in several blocks I repeated the green line of grass and small flowers to give the areas additional quilting. Two blocks now have a quilted sun and one block got a tiny quilted butterfly.

I used a “new to me” thread and I’m blown away! Wonderfil Deco-Bob 80 weight, color 104. Here’s the amazing thing about this thread: it takes on the color of what’s beneath it. Take a close look at the feathers quilted in some of the pictures below. It appears that I changed thread each time I quilted a different fabric! I used this thread in the needle for the entire project!

By the way, here’s a shameless plug for ABM International, the makers in my Innova longarm! Love my machine! Another plug for my awesome dealer: Jo’s Quilting Studio

I used a white 70 weight bobbin thread and you’d be amazed at how many yards of 70 weight thread can be wound on a size M bobbin!!  My backing fabric is a white woven poly cotton and I used 2 layers of Hobbs Poly-Down batting. My total quilting time on the project was 15 hours, 15 minutes, with the outer border parallel lines taking almost 1 1/2 hours.

I’m thrilled to have this project this close to being finished! Hope you’ve enjoyed the pictorial journey!

Blessings and Happy Quilting,

Rhonda