The Dallas quilt show

The bunny quilt

The Dallas quilt show was full of surprises and wonderful work, as usual. Three of my clients entered six quilts, three of which won four ribbons.

Let's start with Sally Brown's bunny quilt, which won a ribbon. It's becoming famous, people love it, and I get requests to ``make my quilt special like you did the bunny quilt.'' Here's how it got to be that way:


First, Sally's impeccable workmanship --applique, piecing, pressing, cutting and on and on. The pattern came from a book, but she added unique touches of her own, such as the border. She says the border piecing was so not easy to do, but it appears effortless to me. Her marching orders for me were ``do your thing.'' Had I done that, it would have turned out differently.


My instinct was to balance the sweet, feminine aspects with straight lines. Contrast is the name of the game in quilting -- or you end up with boring sameness. I chose channel quilting -- the straight single and double diagonal lines in the piecing and backgrounds. We agreed on feathers in the border. Around the feathers, the white spaces on either side struck me as two different elements, so I quilted a ribbon candy design (from Linda Taylor's Fancy That book) on the inside and a straight-line meander on the perimeter. The curls in the sashing are a great foil for the straight lines. Of course, I outlined and detailed the applique and ditch-quilted between the blocks and sashing.

The undecided part was what to do in the remaining light sides of the log cabin blocks, where the quilting would really show up. I set off in search of a triangular motif that would look great turned in any direction. At last, I found a sophisticated, abstract design I thought would be perfect. But Sally wanted something whimsical. The only other idea I had was to put in rabbits in a garden, an idea she loved.


Which leads me to a book recommendation, well, two: 250 Continuous-Line Quilting Designs for Hand, Machine & Long-Arm Quilters, and 250 More Continuous-Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz, C&T Publishing. These are wonderful resources for flora, fauna and many other representational designs. Her instructions on how to set a scene and tell a story are indispensable, especially for those of use who didn't attend art school.


With a King Tut variegated (Superior Thread) in shades of beige and cream, I lasered in the rascally rabbits, carrots, tomatoes, berries. peas and an artichoke. Everyone thinks it's cabbage, but Laura Lee labeled it an artichoke. Who knew vegetables were good for quilting, not just for eating. Finally, I did another little straight-line meander in the background. I like how it adds continuity with the border.

Part of the allure of the quilting is the batting choice: Hobbs wool, which is lofty, so it creates a trapunto effect and the quilted bunnies and veggies puff out. Well worth it.

More on Sally's stuff and the show to come ...