Welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures - in stitch and otherwise! And I hope that you will leave a comment so that I know you have visited.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Question?

Does anybody know why when apply a picture to my background it comes up in multiple images instead of one? Help please.

A Signature Quilt

Two years ago we heard that our Assistant Chaplain, Caroline, had her house on the market and was planning to retire to the UK to be nearer her daughter.
Following her success with a quilt for our ex Chaplain who returned to the UK in 2009 my patchwork friend Madeleine and I decided that it was time to co-ordinate another quilt.

The Selman Quilt, 2009
Each of the blocks in The Selman Quilt has a biblical connection and relevant quotation, each of which is documented in a book along with the names of all in the Chaplaincy who contributed.


(I made the book)

This time, we went for a completely different look and wanted to involve as many people in the Chaplaincy as we could. We decided on a Signature Quilt and the call went out to all in the Chaplaincy for 'bricks' 
20cm x 10cm in warm, flame colours depicting The Holy Spirit. The fabric bricks could be decorated in any manner but had to include the signature of the maker. We received a wonderful collection of embroidered, painted, padded, beaded and appliqued bricks which miraculously blended well together.
The bricks were machined together and a frame and border added. The quilt ws then layered up and machine ditch quilted between the blocks and round the frame. A cable design was then hand quilted around the border.






The Quilt was presented to Caroline at her Farewell Service last Friday and she was delighted to receive it.

Until next time.

Lin

Monday 14 January 2013

I won a giveaway!

Last autumn Paula at Batik Quilt announced a giveaway and I put my name down expecting to hear no more. However, to my surprise, I won and have recived a copy of 'Reasons for Quilts' by Edyta Sitar.


This is a beautiful book. The quilts are stunning and the wording meaningful. The photography and layout of the book is superb. This is not a 'how to' book, rather a gallery of Edyta's work and collection of antique quilts. But it is just a wonderful book to look through and enjoy.

Finally got down to something creative this afternoon and made a cover for my new, small, camera. This is the one that will live in my handbag so that I will always have a camera with me!!


The case is aprox 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" so it is a small camera.
I used felt printed with a Hundertvasser spiral in gold acrylic, covered with a bright pink sheer and then machine embroidered.

As always I squeezed too much gold acrylic onto my glass so to use it up I pulled out a piece of black felt from my bits box.


I cleaned the roller up on it so the print is the negative of my spiral. I was so pleased with the effect on this small piece of felt that I pulled out a piece of shiny red 'scrumpled' fabric, squeezed out some more paint and printed and rollered away!


The black sample will be embroidered, cut into two pieces and used to make cards. The red piece could end up as two book wraps. The tombola for this years Festival of Quilts  will be book wraps so my plan is to make some contributions.

Until next time

Lin

Saturday 12 January 2013

Another grey day!

And yesterday it was so warm and sunny that we sat outside in the afternoon!
Good to be home again and now that everything is unpacked and put away and the house has been cleaned I feel I can get back to some sewing.
I did not get to do as much as I would have liked while we were away but I did manage to cover 200 hexagons

and I started to sew some of them together.


I spent the last couple of evenings sewing together some Dear Jane blocks I cut out before we went away.




So now I need to plan my sewing for this evening.

Hope you are having a good weekend.

Lin xx

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Another harbour!

Today it was Bristol docks - no pictures sadly as I have left my camera in Taunton!

Happy New Year everyone.

We have enjoyed our New Years day walking round Bristol in the sunshine - yes it has actually stopped raining! First of all we went to St Mary Redcliffe church - described by Elizabeth the first as ' The fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England'. And it is a beautiful church.  The bell ringers were busy and we could hear the bells ringing from streets away. The church has been there for 800 years and is a beautiful building containing some amazing windows and gothic architecture.
From there to the harbour and docks, a stop for lunch and then back through the town with a diversion to go down Christmas steps. There is some very interesting architecture hidden away round the back streets and our 'guide' who has lived here all his life gave us a good tour. Some beautiful almshouses and other gems that survived the bombing of the second WW in amongst the modern architecture.

With best wishes to you all for a very Happy 2013.

Lin xx