Quilting, split rail fence..almost

I started a split rail quilt (in blue, lilac and white the colours are not to easy to see in this picture). I got all muddled up with it and could not figure out what I was doing.

I decided not to keep going with the rail fence and to make it the middle for a quilt instead.

A mix of eight rail block not used for the middle, bits patches, some big bits to make it up to size and there was a top made.

I hand quilted it with stylised tulips round  the edge and in the furrow for the middle.

It made a nice house warming gift for an acquaintance who had a tendency to fall asleep in front of the TV. She said that with her new quilt she did not wake up freezing.

Although it was not what I envisioned when I started it was pleasant enough when finished and utterly unique!

One of theses days I may have another go at a split rail and get it right.

Bowls season open...fire!

This is an embroidery I first did for my Dad.  Again its inspiration was a card with a humorous depiction of "firing" a technique used in the lawn bowls game.  My Dad likes this sport and has been club champion at the local club more than once.
                                                                 

I made a second one for my mother's uncle Tom.  Uncle Tom lived in Australia and was also keen on the game.  Although the prizes he won were a bit more usable than the medals and trophies here.  He often wrote about winning "chucks" chickens that is, ready to be cooked, not the breathing laying kind. He played into his nineties, when his vision deteriorated he played with verbal instructions  and still enjoyed an end or two.  The embroidery made him chuckle, he knew, he said people who played that way.  He was looking forward to getting a telegram from the Queen for his 100th birthday (I did tell him it would have been a card, telegrams were phased out before he was 98) sadly he did not quite manage to stay with us long enough to get his card.

Anyway the local season opened today so a good day to share this.

The square stretch frame was a bit more difficult on the back and I had to lace this one.

Psalms 46:10, painted egg

                                                                       Happy Easter.

Easter themed painted eggs

Golden fish Easter Egg

This golden fish on a blue background is another of my mother's designs.  It was painted for an Easter celebration at Church which included a decorated egg competition.

Mark !:17

back of the egg has the scriptural reference which makes the fish image  very appropriate.

My own entry had a similar style, image on the front and a scriptural reference relating to it on the reverse.

Painted egg Lamb

John 1:29

I can't recall the results of the Church competition, but they had a competition at work the same year and my lamb did do well in that and won me a chocolate version.  That is long gone, but the painted one is still there.

Dragon egg

well an egg with a dragon painted on it at any rate.  Sorry if you were hoping, like Hagrid, for a real dragons egg.

Dragon egg

If you have visited my blog before you will have seen a version of this design on an embroidery, the acknowledgements for the origin of the design are on that blog (Any one with ability..) and so I won't repeat them here.

The excerpt written on the back is in a book by Kathleen Woodiwiss (so I think it is by her) and is one of many dragon poems and quotes I like very much.

Back of dragon egg

Painting Easter Eggs part two

I made a start after my mother did a class on painting eggs at church.  She did  a painted example for the evening and a scratch egg .

Here they are:

Painted egg

Scratch egg

On the night I had a go at a scratch egg, with my attempt at snowdrops on one side and of an oriental landscape on the other.

Snowdrop scratched egg

bridge and pagoda scratch egg

Painting Easter Eggs..the inspiration

My mother started me off on painting eggs.  Here are some of hers:

Farm cottage

Barn, tractor and haystack

Rabbit's burrow

Haystack and rabbits

The rabbits on this one were my favourite as a child.  However the egg that followed remains my overall favourite.

Mary Magdalene

The stone rolled away

Jesus Christ