Done !

Excuse the fingers peeping over the top :o)
It looks a bit squinty but it is just 'cos it moved a little at the bottom when the door was opened. It is straight when hung on a wall!

This is a painted wholecloth quilt that has been in my head for years! I always thought that a dry stone wall would make a brilliant quilting project!
I took photos and looked at walls but in the end drew this one with imaginary stones starting at the bottom as a proper waller would begin. Initially the colours were very pale but I intensified them and added shadows as I went on. The wall, fields and sky are mainly coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils but Pentel Watercolor Dyes and Fabrico dual point have also been used and all the stitching was done with Bernina 830.

The dandelion from the previous posting is on the bottom right hand side. All the flowers at the bottom are the early spring flowers. Above the wall the early orange tip butterflies are dancing watched by a nest building Robin. Sheep and lambs are on the slopes where the tree has not yet come into leaf. Bottom left a little bank vole is looking for a crevice in the wall for its nest.

In view of the very late spring /long winter we have had this year perhaps I should have included a little snow in the background!
I think I might eventually make a summer and autumn version  of this.

Back at the machine :o)

I am alternating my time at the moment between the garden and the sewing machine.

 Nothing much got done in the garden after I started being unwell in July ,last year,so there are vast tracts of brambles and sycamore seedlings to clear . I can nearly see all the daffodils now! Their position will be taken by a carpet of bluebells will be here in a few weeks so I need to keep at it.

The current quilt has a few flowers too.
They were painted and coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils and Pentel water colour dyes before sewing was involved..:o)
My Bernina 830 was updated recently and is still a bit tetchy with a couple of functions but it is humming away happily stitching on this which is just free motion work with the feed dogs down.

What a day!

 The hole in the road has got bigger and there is now a cave undermining the road by several feet. We still don't know when it will be mended as we are awaiting the outcome of talks about who is going to do it!

Aaagh!


The day did get better as I got a picture from Jan of my Pink Roses and Sweet Williams quilt at Sandown National Quilting Championships, complete with rosette!

Then I opened my British Patchwork&Quilting magazine and there was my Dragonfly Fairy quilt. The magazine had been lying unopened on my desk for a week. I can remember putting it to one side and thinking I would curl up for a read later but life must have got in the way.

The Sandown award I was thrilled to win and am grateful that Jan always send such good photos.

It is always a bit of a buzz to see your work in print but I knew that the competition results would ultimately be published

The next picture nearly swamped my keyboard with coffee though as I opened an EQuilter email and there was my Jaggy Thistle quilt!!!

There are even more pictures in Luana's Irish Quilt album.


It has been a bit of a WOW sort of day so I will link to Esther's blog!
:o) 

Olympic Torch carried through Cockermouth!

Great excitement in town today! Things in town are generally well supported but we have never seen crowds like this! Cockermouth has one of the longest widest Main Streets in the country and it was lined at both sides for the full length of the Olympic Torch journey. I am quite short so had a lot of views of peoples backs and umbrellas before I found a little niche to peep through.

The torch itself was preceded by several lorries and buses with music and several London Metropolitan  Police cars and motorbikes. I must admit I was slightly confused by the Coca Cola float and the Lloyds Bank one that preceded the Torch Relay coach but it was even more bizarre when great big police outrider motorbikes came along. They were steering single handed whilst high fiveing anyone in crowd reaching out to them.

I nearly missed the torch when it eventually appeared!

This was the only shot I got of the torch itself!
 At this point the torch bearer was Mike Park  Team Leader of Cockermouth Mountain Rescue who over the last three years have been involved in some very diverse and emotional times in West Cumbria.

BTW Did you notice the Lime trees lining the sides of the Main Street? They were planted to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. Lime trees are quite big trees so these are regularly pollarded and last year they were all cut back quite hard . They have grown this year but still have that lollipop look that initially follows pruning and look as if they are very neat topiary.
Whilst writing this I had  a senior moment and couldn't remember the word topiary. I asked my DH what was the word used when trees are cut into shapes?

 The answer I got was "Wood carving?"
He is not a gardener. :o)

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When we got in there was a message on the phone to say that "Pink Roses and Sweet Williams" has won an award at the National Quilting Championships at Sandown. :o) I think it was for fabric painting but the phone call was breaking up so I will have to wait till someone emails me to find out what it was.

 How exciting!

 

A lot to catch up on!

Today a parcel arrived from Lady Sew and Sew containing 15 metres of lovely Fabric Freedom fabric. They join the Aurifil suitcase as the main prize in a competition run earlier in the year by Patchwork and Quilting magazine. The combination of fabrics and threads have my brain going overtime with ideas. This is the little quilt that is responsible for all this treasure!

Last weekend "Jaggy Thistle " was over the sea in Ireland at the International Quilt Festival of Ireland.

 I gather a lot of people missed the quilts that were hanging in the theatre. It was in the Neighbours exhibit.

Wednesday was my birthday and it was rounded off well by the receipt of an email from Chris Porter to say that both the quilts below have been juried into the World Quilt Show in USA later in the year. :o)

 

"Clarice" and "It started with a Delft Blue Tile!"

These are both pieced and appliqued quilts.

 

 Last but not least my entry for "In the Pink"charity competition got posted off for National Quilt Championships at Sandown .This one is another painted wholecloth. Love using different colouring methods on cloth but the Derwent Inktense pencils are still my first choice!

The rest of the month so far has been taken up with gardening and decorating-----oh and a little dressmaking for GD's Jubilee/Olympics outfit. We have been luckier than much of the rest of the country weather wise and only last night and today have had any wetness worth noting for weeks.

The postie called twice today!

First to return this back from Sandown and much to my delight it has a Judge's Merit rosette. :o)

I had just finished unpacking that when the postie called again with my new Bernina Cutwork set!
This is going to be fun :o)

Something finished and something started!

The little butterfly quilt is now finished. Well it was finished complete with label about two weeks ago.

Since then I have been trying to plan my next project. I have sketched, doodled ,cut up pieces of paper and generally used a lot of time and thought and achieved very little, apart from confirming that I work better by just letting it happen! I was so sure that if I tried that I could work to a plan --------if I only I made a plan to start from!

Last night I put away the pencils and paper and picked up fabric and scissors. I thought I would start with one little bit and see where it leads. I was unsure about how the lighter coloured plant would go behind the bird but I am pleased with the result and it has suggested the way to go forward for the rest of the quilt.

From now on it is in my head and adjustments will be made as I go!

Nearly done !

It is good to be busy again.

I thought I would do another little painted wholecloth and this has taken me two days to get this far.





I am starting out with quite pale colouring and will increase the colour density with thread---------or that is the plan so far! The colouring is mainly with Derwent Inktense pencils. I recently bought a bigger set so now I have all the colours. It is funny I still have the same thrill when I see a full pencil box as I did as a child.

Of course the same feeling occurs now with thread and fabrics too!!!

End of the year.

It seems only a few weeks since the start of this year and here we are nearly to the end of it. I think it was John Mortimer who remarked on the fact that breakfast seems to arrive every five minutes as you get older! We have now got to the point of remarking how quickly the weekend paper reappears!

We had a quiet and slightly different Christmas this time! There is usually a succession of family visits over the holiday period but the snowy weather put paid to that this year. We have had to keep in touch by phone and email and will have a succession of visits over the next few weeks which will be lovely. We haven't had much snow really but lots of ice and the pavements are treacherous especially today when they had a little water on them.

The pictures above were taken on Christmas Day afternoon. It is only about 200 metres from our house to the first field and this is the view from the top of it, looking across to the Lorton fells. The building you see in the view looking south is the Sheep and Wool Centre which was one of the evacuation centres in November. Just opposite there is where Woolfest is held each summer.

Even if the weather had been better we couldn't have driven anywhere ourselves as we still haven't got a safe road to drive out on, so we are still marooned! We hope something can be done soon but fully realise that there are still people in far worse position than us after the floods. Town councillors and our MP have been out to look at the problem and promise to see what can be done to help get it sorted. Keeping fingers crossed!

Although work in town has continued on a lower level over the last ten days , it has felt more like our home town again without all the workmen and their vans and skips. One of the bridges has been passed as safe to walk over now so that all the people at the other side of the Derwent were able to walk into town again rather than driving several miles to cross via another bridge. They were very isolated until just before Christmas.

It will be really good to see the renovation start up again next week but also good to have had this breather. Some shops have already got dried out, refitted and reopened and many more are hoping to be up and running by Easter.
Cockermouth is open for business again!

I couldn't keep up with making the badges so we are having them made as metal lapel badges to sell in aid of the Flood Fund. They should be here in first half of January!

Hope they sell out! :o)

I had a phonecall--

to say that this little quilt has won a first prize! :o)
The whole quilt is shown further down the page but these are a few closeups. It isn't very big--maybe 24"x26" ?
The flowers were lightly sketched and then coloured with various methods including Derwent Inktense pencils and Pentel water colour dyes, before the quilting and machine embroidery added details. (If you click on the picture you will get a full screen view.)

It was made for the "Celebrate Summer" competition in Patchwork and Quilting magazine and will be on display at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham this weekend. It will be on the EQS Threadplay stand.
(The competition was sponsored by EQS Ltd in conjunction with Husqvarna Viking sewing machines.)

Wish I was going to FOQ--------maybe next year?

summer flowers quilt

Forgot to put in a finished picture of this one up.It is basically a painted wholecloth quilt.

Note to myself----------I must make an effort to remember to take pictures squarely!
This one was lying on the floor and I was slightly to one side of it but it is square ----honest:o)

Hot and sticky.

The heat and humidity have been really uncomfortable and I understand that next week is going to be much worse.

At least it has meant that I have got this little quilt finished. This is a closeup of a 3 x 7 inch bit in the middle.
I love the effect of the blue on white and will play further with that idea!
It has taken all week because of the density of the quilting. Once it was finished I was really surprised how much it had reduced in size. I always forget about that or underestimate the shrinkage!

Drawing and stitching.

Had a lovely time just drawing with the machine this weekend. Wish I had used an off white fabric though!

Playing again!

I thought that I was never going to get going again! This is just a little bit of doodling around with stuff I unearthed in my tidying up session. The colours are a combination of Derwent Inktense pencils, Caran D'Ache soluble wax crayons and Fabrico pens .




Not sure yet what it will turn into ---------but hey do I ever plan anything? :o))

Playing around

I came across this quilting sample that I did when experimenting with my friend Jenny's Bernina 440 BSR.

It just happened to be next to some Derwent Inktense pencils and before I knew what I was doing I was colouring it in. The pencils are great as you can use them wet or dry, can shade them with a wet brush or sponge and they become permanent when dry.

Derwent pencils are made just a few miles from where I live.