Sunday stitchings, four.

To this

From this

Sunday stitchings three

Don't feel as if I got a lot done today in the allocated time slot..makes it tempting to add a few more stitches here and there.

I have resisted that impulse (so the Borg are wrong) and here is the start and finish from today.

Starting point

Todays finish

A Field of Seams

My mother and I attended a craft session at church based on making pictures using scraps of material. Sister Scott, the lady doing the class brought some books to inspire us.  Such books tend to be called coffee table books,  you know the kind,big books with glossy photographs.

She also brought bags of assorted scraps in lots of different colours and types of fabric.

Between the two we were inspired to do a country scene. Here is a detail of poppies on the cord corn field.  My mother hand embroidered the poppies and did all the white French knots you can see.  The stems were machine stitched (that bit was my job)

Poppies 

It was interesting using the textures of the materials to add to the depth of the image.

Fence posts

The fence posts at the edge of the field moved from velvet to a lighter brown material to just sketched on with thread.

Fence posts and poppies

I am rather please with the result. and the perspective achieved. And with the overall result. We made it into a cushion (putting in the zip was my Mothers job too)

A field of seams

Sunday stitchings 2

Today's starting point is unsurprisingly last weeks finishing point, although I must say I was tempted once or twice during the week to reach for the black thread.

I resisted on two points, one that flower sampler is stubbornly not sewing itself so requires some attention and two, it is no good whizzing through my Sunday sewing on other days as then I will have to find another Sunday project.

Anyway here are the pictures.

Starting point

three quarters of an hour later 

Sunday stitchings

In recent years I have found the lights in the chapel of the Church I attend give me a headache.  Fortunately there is a room with the sound piped to it so I can sit there to hear the talks.

Now I remember things better if my hands are busy so sitting in the room with natural light mostly on my own I sew.  It keeps me focused on the talks so much better than just sitting.

I take a kit and just work on it for the 45 mins I am avoiding the headache. I did take the flower sampler when I was just doing cross stitch but it takes too much concentration now the special stitches are upon me...will up date on that on later.  I need something reasonably simple for Church Stitching.

So today I decided I would post a picture before and after today's sewing session..and if my memory fails me not keep doing it till the current project is finished.

Not going to say what it is I am sewing, you will just have to wait and see, all I will say is it was purchased at a British Heart Foundation charity shop for the grand sum of £1.99 and would not have been a normal choice for me.

Starting point

45 minuets later.

Willow Fairy quilt , Cicely Mary Barker, happy birthday.

After The Guardian Angel and William in the Window my friends third child, a girl,was to have a design based on a Flower Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker.  I had a nodding acquaintance with the artist and her works but was not fully familiar.

They picked the Willow Fairy. Now previous quilts have been worked out using the cross stitch pattern and whilst there is a cross stitch pattern for the Willow Fairy (which maintains the theme) the quilt design was extrapolated from a photocopy of the illustration in a book owned by the intended recipients mother.  I understood at the time there was the intent, as had been the case with the previous quilts, for the design to be cross stitched too, by either the mother or the grandmother in the family.

I used silk paints to get the shaded colours of the four solid leaves. The other leaves were outlined in  shades of green embroidery thread.  The hair took a long time and a lot of thread, at least two skeins and four, or was it five shades. That resulted in it looking like stump work.

Willow Fairy, appliquéd and quilted

Willow Fairy

The face was a bit loose and I gave her a face lift, tucking the loose "skin" up into the hair line.  The wings are made of voile, now it did worry me a bit that they might wear through however, I decided to go with it, thinking if they did, the satin stitched edges and veins would keep the wing section of the image intact and she would just have outlined pink wings.

The intended recipient was not a baby at the time of making and had, by the time I was working on her quilt,  formed a firm opinion about the best colour in the world, pink.

So Willow Fairy went onto pale pink marbled material again shot with metallic thread.

Willow Fairy quilt

I quilted it to reflect the ripples in the water and further willow leaves in pink.

I was quite pleased with the result.

Back of the quilt

Once again I patched the back to include the recipients initials. Having run out of the pink for the back I used some yellow metallic shot that had a hint of pink to it in combination with some blue.  I bound it with the same green material as the flower fairies dress.

Willow Fairy quilt,recent picture

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Here is the quilt being held up by its owner (fingers top right).  You may be able to see the colour of the quilt better in this picture.  Willow Fairy still has her wings so far.  

Sepia car (cross stitch)

I made this design is from for my dad .  I expect it is the only car he will get from me.

When I was choosing the design I was torn between the car and a motor bike, both in sepia.

The bike may make an appearance at some later date, if I can find it that is.

So Happy Fathers Day.

Forgotten herbs (cross stitch)

Rearranging the bookshelves, to fit in more cross-stitch books of course, I moved a book about herbs belonging to my mother.

Inside an extra sized bookmark I made for her to go with the book.  I had forgotten all about it.   

Herb bookmark

Bookmark and book

Marjoram

Sage

Thyme

Bay

Fennel

Looking at it now, I recall the annoyance of the French knots, even though it turned out OK. otherwise 

And if you read this far here is a link to a song to go with it. Hope you enjoy it, I like this version so much. 포레스텔라 - SCARBOROUGH FAIR [불후의 명곡2 전설을 노래하다/Immortal Songs 2] | KBS 210501 방송 (youtube.com)

Under the sea

One of my early finishes from a pattern not a kit, my first on a darker Aida, once again made for my mother.

I found all that empty space rather unnerving.  I much prefer sold designs with one stitch counted off against the other.

Still it turned out ok and I was rather please with the frame.  I had the mount professionally cut  and was less pleased with that as it was and is not quite central.

A little linky update in 2022 as Let the People Choose for September as hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is Under the Sea and this is the only appropriate piece I could think of. 

A touch of Satin.

I made two baby quilts for a friend from church, she had a boy then a girl in close succession. That the girl followed so quickly was quite a surprise to the parents, the boy had been very reluctant and some years of persuasion had been required.  His sister, obviously impatient with the waiting headed on down at the earliest opportunity.

In the earlier stages of my quilting journey as I was then, I kept the quilts relatively simple (I have discussed the tag of simple and log cabin previously on this blog somewhere) and as they were so close together (I had never heard the term Irish twins before, odd phrase) I did my best to make them similar whilst not identical.

Satin baby quilt

The first quilt was made without knowing the gender of the baby so I covered both bases using  turquoise and pink satin along with white. The edge and backing is white cotton which has crescents and circles in the same colours, a most serendipitous find that material.

I happily had enough material left over to use again for the baby that followed, although I altered the design so who's was who's could be identified.

Baby quilt in Satin.

However, I will admit I can't recall which is which. I do not know his from hers or hers from his!

Hopefully they do, or their mother does. (I remembered, the one with the two white squares came second and was for the girl)

For years I thought I only had a picture of one of the quilts however, I came across the second one just recently and nicely in time to post both today on the baby boy's 20th birthday!  Not such a baby any more, told told you it was a long time ago I made them.