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. 

Staying with rainbows (cross-stitch)

some of you, who participate in blog hopping will have seen this before, although not here. (if you aren't sure what that is take a look at this link to see more. secret sweetheart stitching hop

This is a gift I made for my BFF.  It has moved house with her twice and caused some comment that it was incorrect from those who could not read the text in yellow. (without that is says a completely different thing).

Sewing the rainbow was a relief after all that black and white.

A Special friend (cross stitch)

A Special Friend cross stitch)

This is the first cross-stitch gift from my BFF as she started to explore the craft.  The top white section is her own design worked out on graph paper.

It was originally in the frame on is own attached to some purple material (also her first go at framing) 

Now my friend knows me well and understands me better.  I meddle with stuff, I like to tweak things and in this instance she gave me her full permission to do just that with my gift.  

I liked the colour of the frame  and wanted to keep that and the main focus on my friends work. I too got out the graph paper and made a design with something to reflect each of us, dragons for me and a rainbow for her.  I had a bit of 18 count navy blue which was just the right size.  

A small bit of mount board and my hand cutter and there it was, well with the date and our initials embossed, not sure you can make that out here.

Oh and the purple material, it went into a Bits-a-quilt, well what else did you expect me to do with it. 

Noah's Arc, quilt and cross-stitch

I did not make a birth sampler for my BFF's son as by that point she too was cross-stitching and her mother-in-law was also a cross stitcher.

I had quilted a  pre printed panel baby quilt ( my friend picked and purchased the panel for that) which was a Noah's Arc so I cross-stitched a "nursery" picture instead of a birth sampler to go with it.

Noah's Arc cross stitch

The rainbow is one of my BFF's favourite things so it was most appropriate and this a very colourful version.

The red of the Arc picked up the red in  edge of the panel quilt. 

However, after finishing the hippo's, giraffes and flamingos, I spotted a mistake.

I will give you a moment to look at it, enlarge it even, can you see it?

The pale green section of the arc.

Yup it is a couple of stitches higher on the right than on the left.

Oh I was miffed with myself, how could I make such a mistake and as the adjoining animals had been counted out from there they would be wrong too.  I looked closely at my stitching and then at the pattern and realised that my mistake was following the pattern exactly, the mistake was in the pattern itself.  Had I spotted it before sewing it perhaps I could have made an adjustment however, unpicking and redoing was not an option so I left it in as a talking point, or an observational test.

Here is a sadly blurry blow up to help you see it.

Noah quilt

Oh and a picture of the quilt it went with.

Something for my Dad (cross stitch)

After several things made for my mother I wanted to make a cross stitch for my father.

It needed to be something suitably masculine. The Cross my Heart Inc's Artistic Landscapes set of patterns offered up a beautiful landscape. The Black in the foreground is three strands, in the background two.  The sky is completed in half stitch, this was the first time I had any large area of a design that was just half stitch.  

I started in the bottom right corner and worked lots of black, lots and lots of black.  It was a pleasure to move on to the colours.

I had the little brass frames for some time with no idea what to put in them.  The idea of leaves to reflect the colours of the sunset popped into my head and then into the frames.  I rather like the way they go together. The leaves are from Sam Hawkins Cross Stitch Seasons, Autumn's Riches.

Yes, you can just see a reflection of me in the glass taking the picture of this.  Reflections are a tricky thing.

Silhouette

Leaf

Leaf

My Dad liked his cross stitch, and occasionally compliments me by forgetting that is what it is and thinking I bought him a painting.

(addition 2025 of a link to some suitable music)

Some time ago (cross-stitch)

I said there would be more bookmarks as I either made them or found them. These two were both made for my mother, and unearthed as we have been doing a bit of sorting.  If you have been joining me for awhile you will know why the cross stitch parts of each are appropriate.

You may also note another appearance of the skirt linen, it won't be the last. I do like using up all the bits of material I have.  At the moment I am working on a very long term project alluded to in several previous posts and a teaser of which is in "eyes of Green" and I am making a push to get it done, or at least the stage that I can work on whilst looking after/keeping company with my mother.

Owl bookmark

Full view owl bookmark

Initial V bookmark