A house in a day, quilting and other things

Completed cotbed quilt

It has been rather busy here since I last wrote anything to the blog. My apologies for that. I have been busily quilting the cotbed quilt and also completing the cushion to go with it. These are for a very special baby who came to visit last weekend. She went home with the quilt and also the cushion. Her mum and dad were, I am very pleased to say,delighted with them.

Completed quilt with the cushion

The quilt size is designed to fit a cotbed rather than a cot since that is what the baby will be using when she is a little older. At just four weeks old at the time of writing this, her mum is more likely to use the cushion for the moment.

View of the quilting on the reverse of the cotbed quilt

I never know whether I overdo the free machine embroidery. However, since I enjoy stitching it it is probably okay........ what do you think?

Completed cardigan

This cardigan also got finished during the weekend. I had left the crochet edging until the very last minute since I wasn't that confident about doing it. I had to grab the cardigan back, briefly, to get a photo of it whilst the baby was being changed. The mum really liked it. Can't say that the baby was too impressed. Free design by Martin Storey called "Elly".

Closeup showing the crochet edge

I've also started putting together some pages for a book I need to complete for an exhibition in October. I'd better get this done before I get involved in anything else.

The pieces started as a Chinese Whispers challenge. Such fun. The idea is that each person taking part finds a photograph. This photo is not to be shared with anyone taking part. This is my photo. It was taken during a visit to Hong Kong back in 1998. The dragon carving was one of a pair of temple lantern holders.

Original photograph

I next made a textile piece, A5 size (8.25" x 5.75") based on this photograph. This was then passed to the next person in the group, Anita.

Chinese dragon - my design

Anita then completed her own interpretation of my piece, returning my design back to me.

Japanese lettering and fireworks - Anita

Her piece then went on to Meryl, who made her own interpretation of Anita's piece. Part of the challenge was that we were not allowed to show anyone any of the pieces during the course of the challenge. We couldn't chat about it either, to anyone taking part.

Chinese acrobats - Meryl

Meryl's piece was then passed to Glenice, whilst Anita's interpretation of my piece was passed back to me.

More acrobats - Glenice

Glenice passed her completed piece to Minnie while Meryl's version was handed on to me.

Circus acts - Minnie

Minnie was the last person in our group. She completed her version and then handed both Glenice's version and her version back to me at the final exchange meeting. We then all showed our little collections to everyone, disclosing the original photos at the same time.

Although I have only written about my own theme, I should explain that everyone was collecting work for their own themes. 

Here are the pieces I made for each of the other members of the group. In all, we had three groups working at the same time. We should have fifteen books to show at the exhibition. 

"Music" - made for Minnie

Accidentally dyed fabric with silk scraps appliqued in place. Free machine embroidery and couching. The white threads show the outer edges of the A5 shape.

"Garden" - made for Glenice

 The background fabric was printed onto cotton sheet using my computer. It was a scan of a piece of paper which had been painted with acrylics. Free machine embroidery and quilting over silk scraps appliqued to the surface. The faint white stitches delineate the A5 edges.

"Fairground" - made for Meryl

 My own printed fabric with thermofax and stencils over a piece of cloth originally used to mop up spills of dye. Free machine embroidery of the figures.

"Celebration" - made for Anita

The background is a piece of silk which I had dyed. Silk and satin pieces appliqued over free machine embroidery. The strings are couched in place.

Lastly, the "Build a house in a day" challenge which Pinfold members took part in earlier this week. Needless to say the basic house was completed during the session, but the stitching took rather longer. I still haven't quite finished it.

 I still need to stitch the tree and tree trunk. The idea came from this bag which I found in the latest edition of "Love Sewing". Still not sure whether this will turn into a cushion or a wall hanging.

Unfortunately there are some things I can't show you yet.

Pebbles

This is going to be one of those posts where I really cannot show you anything I have been working on. For the most part these are presents which will be passed on soon, but not before I post this. Anyone reading this will just have to be patient.

"Pebbles" is an interpretation of a design by Alexandra Waylett which was printed in the current "Stitch" magazine. I got rather excited about having a go and so this was my trial run. It was a lot of fun rooting through my "interesting fabrics" collection to find pieces which might just go together. I'm not yet sure what I shall do with this piece, since it incorporates purchased acrylic felt, chiffon, silk, velvet and various other fabrics. The circles of fabrics are held between layers of gauze and felt, being free machined into place. It was quick and fun to make, so I may well try something similar again.

Chinese Whispers - a collection

Rather later than I intended, here are the pages I produced for the other members of the Chinese Whispers Challenge. We all saw each others pages and original inspiration for the first time at a recent meeting. Here are my contributions in chronological order.

Rosemary's page.

This first one was for Rosemary. The fabric picture I received reminded me so much of a bear wandering through a landscape. The original photograph was rather interesting. I showed a rather beautiful valley called Bryce Canyon in the USA. The shape I had thought of as a bear was actually a shaped rock in the photo graph. So my landscape was truly fictitious. The image is constructed using simple kantha style stitches for texture and commercial fabrics appliquéd onto a black background.

Brenda's picture.

The second picture had already been to Rosemary, so I was working from her stitched picture. The image I received reminded me of the story of Jonah and the whale. Hence my own hand stitched image using a variety of accidentally dyed dyecatchers. I used back stitch and simple kantha style stitches for the image. What amused me when I saw Brenda's original inspiration was that it was the famous painting of the wave!

Bernice's picture.

This third image had come to me through versions made by Brenda and then by Rosemary. As a result the original image came as rather a surprise. It showed a snowy lakeside scene in Handforth, Cheshire. My own version was based on what I saw was an interpretation of the four seasons. This used my own dyed fabrics, free machine embroidery and some sheer fabrics cut using a soldering iron.

Mary's picture.

The inspiration for this one was a seaside scene which I received from Rosemary. She had interpreted a scene from Brenda, who in turn had received one from Bernice. The photos for this were printed onto silk and allowed to fray a little before being handstitched in place. My photos came from a trip made to Llandudno in Wales. The background is made up of sheer fabrics over different colours of satins used both matte side up and shiny side up. The original inspiration was the photo of a lighthouse. So perhaps I wasn't so very far out with this one.

Chris' page.

This last page was inspired by a rather nice stitched picture of a pigeon. It reminded me so strongly of a song we were singing with the choir that Rosemary, Chris and I sing with. I just had to use the information from the song. It is one of a series about pigeons by Guy Turner. This particular song was "Wood pigeon in the Weald" and uses a pub and place names around Hartfield in Sussex. The hand drawn images were printed onto silk and then bondawebbed in place. The stitching was all by hand with many french knots. The phrase on the grey border at the bottom of the image was directly taken from the song. The original image from Chris was a Kiwi bird. So her pages have travelled rather a long way from New Zealand to the UK.