Chinese Whispers

A little Chinese Whispers Challenge

has been taking place within our

Contemporary Group.

This is my little 12" quilt

based on the one I received.

The little quilt I received to 

interpret was a landscape.   It

had what appeared to me to be a

rock face as part of it.

I chose to focus on this and to zoom

 in and produce it in more detail.

I used rust dyed fabric, painted vilene, smocking

thread, sweetie papers, tin foil and sheers to create

the rock face. 

Machine and hand stitch added the layers of texture

that finished it off.

Hexies Hexies Everywhere

For the last 18 months I have been

going Hexie mad!

After having a huge sort out of fabric I ended up 

with a pile that consisted mostly of pieces

of fabric that I no longer really wanted to

keep, or weren't big enough to use for 

any of my projects.

So....rather than just giving them away the

decision was made to turn them into a new

quilt for our bed, and so the Hexies Quilt

was born.  

Three thousand, two hundred and seventy seven little

1" hexies later, along with some half hexies

 the quilt was finished!  

Yes, that was 3277 hexies!!

All that was left was to put the boarder on and

decide on how to quilt it.

It was at this point I wimped out and decided that

the best thing to do would be to get it 

Long arm quilted.

Luckily for me we have a lady not

far from me in Newbury who

provides this service!

Barbara at 

Fir Tree Quilting

was very helpful and took plenty of time to discuss

pattern and wadding options.  Wadding

chosen was 70/30 poly which she supplied, so I 

only needed to supply the backing fabric.

 

My choice of quilting design is called Entangle,

quite approiate being that the quilt certainly 

entangled me, I loved making it, even though

I did question why I decided to use such small

hexies on more than one occasion!

 

It now resides on my bed, waiting for the cold

weather to arrive so we can keep warm and snugly.

Poppies

These little beauties are currently

being used in a shop window

as part of their display in

the run up to 

Remembrance Day

and form part of a bigger raffle

that includes a 

Tower of London

ceramic poppy.

Altogether there are 45 of these poppies.

Restoration Work

I was asked by a local embroiderer, along with a few other ladies

if I would like to be involved in the restoration of a textile piece.

It was originally hung in the United Reform Church in Newbury, 

which closed recently.  The piece was then donated

to the United Reform Church in Hungerford but needed some

attention, lots of cleaning and some repair work before

being remounted on it's frame.

It is made up of 1200 squares, all made by members of the 

Newbury Church

There was a lovely feeling of  friendship amongst

us all, Though most of us didn't know each other

before we started new friendships have been forged.

Open Studios has finished for this year.

A big thank you to all who visited 

and for the lovely comments

 left in my visitors book.

The studio has been returned to normal

working mode so it's back to the

sewing machine for me!

OPEN STUDIOS

It's that time of the year again!

Once again I am preparing for Open Studios

with the first visitors due tomorrow.

This years event runs from 2nd - 25th May

and there is some amazing work

to be seen!

Visit the web site for full details and 

opening times  of all the artists

taking part.

WEST BERKS OPEN STUDIOS

If you're in the area why not drop by 

 to say hello and have a chat.

Hag Stones

Been playing with one of the smaller pieces of

fabric from the last post.

Still got a little way to go before

it's finished.

Hag Stones is the theme for now

so I'll be creating more of these little 

pieces.  

They may even end up as one big piece.

Getting Creative

Now that we're well and truly into the new year

I thought it about time to get my creative mo jo 

working again.

So into the studio to play!

One Gelliplate and some seta colours later 

I'm well on the way to creating my stack of

fabrics ready for my sea inspired makes.

Seaweed mask cut out of paper,

I love the detail on this piece.

The possibilities are endless!!

More Seaweed mask pieces.

Lots of detail in this one too, is that 

a foot print I can see!