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

Happy Mother's Day

While trying out that free motion quilting I made a little something for the front of a card for my mother.

There is something about a card you make even if it is not perfect, or perhaps because it is not perfect that makes is special.

A little try (quilting)

My friend has a new sewing machine, one with some bells and whistles, well with some fancy things mine has not.

It has a needle down setting, so it always stops with the needle down, it has a stitch speed setting and a stop start button so you don't need a pedal to make it go.  Just push the button and guide things gently through.

After a suitable period learning her new machine and developing that special relationship of trust, she let me have a try, an opportunity to test my resolve in keeping the tenth commandment.

As previously mentioned I dislike waste so having a try needs to be on a project of some sort, in this instance it needed to be something that could be finished in one night.  Just a few hours of sharing the new machine.  So a doll house quilt it was to be.

The first thing I noticed was the twitch in my right foot as it tried to get involved but with no pedal action required it was feeling very left out.  I kept forgetting there was a button for stop. It took awhile to get a speed setting I could settle to.  Very eerily it was possible on the longer edges to just let it get on with it, I did some unpicking whilst sewing, strange. (unpicking a seam on a scrap, not on the project I was working on).

Mini Quilt and Cushion

Top made with the straight stitch it was time to try out a couple of the fancy stitches to both quilt and decorate.  Fun and on this mini quilt looks good, and with a different bottom thread to the top a rather pleasant effect on the back as well as the front. 

Fancy stitches on the reverse

Fancy stitches on the front

So little quilt finished how am I doing with that commandment, not too bad actually.  It is nice, it has some smart functions however, just now I don't need it in my life, I don't surprisingly even want it all that much,  Of course given it lives at Best Friend's house and should I "need" any of its snazzy functions a visitation rights have been offered best of both worlds.    

What it did do was make me have another try with one of the features on my own machine, the embroidery foot, with feed dogs down.  Another mini quilt from scraps as a tester.  A tentative step towards trying free motion quilting instead of hand quilting.  Tentative is a good description and I feel a few more mini quilts may be required before I feel comfortable moving up to something a bit larger.   

Mini quilt and pillow

Free motion quilting on mini quilt

Pyrography, napkin rings

On a visit to my friend took some pictures of the napkin rings I personalised for her family as Christmas gifts.

Pyrography decorated napkin rings

Doing round the curve was not as hard as I had expected it to be, I used one of the napkin rings as a rest for one I was decorating.  It worked out a good way to do it.

I kept the design fairly simple, the family members initial and a Celtic Knot. Add the napkins and it made a nice little gift.

Pyrography Celtic Knots