Spring Flowers

The promise of Spring has been in the air, though today is wet, cold and grey!
We need a little colour....

Is this bright enough to bring a little cheer? My beautiful daughter has spent months stitching away in her free time.

She seems to share my love of hexagons, stitched by hand over papers, the traditional way.

She stitched together 14 rows, 161 flowers, 1127 hexagons. I can't imagine how many tiny little stitches were needed to make up this gorgeous lap quilt.

The finished top was tie quilted onto sky blue, polka dot fleece to make it super snuggly, then she stitched all the way around the edge.

It sits on her chair in the window, brightening my days. I will have to make the most of both of them before they both go off to university later in the year.

Wishing you a lovely weekend and a special Mother's Day to all Mums on Sunday. xx

When Everything Around Us Falls

This last fortnight has been a very painful time for our family. Our beautiful Mum had a stroke which has impaired her speech and to some extent affected her ability to carry out everyday tasks. Thankfully, she has no physical weakness and is still mobile. Mum is home now and is still smiling through it all!

My Mum has a lovely smile and I see it in my own children  - one in particular-when they smile.

                                      Mum and I last Christmas

IWith everything that has been happening, it has been quite poignant to have been working on this piece of work for the next Ten Plus Textiles exhibition which will be at the Platform Gallery in October.

                    "When Everything Around Us Falls"

I was inspired by some of the words of this song called "Shelter" by Ray Lamontagne.

Grandma's Garden

Remember this? My Nan's letter has inspired me in many ways and has crept into my recent work.

I had a thermofax screen made from a page of it in two different sizes and used it to print onto some fabric, which I have been using to make hexagons.

It's very difficult to see in the photograph, but the thermofax process uses a photocopy of an image to burn away the screen material wherever there is a dark area and can be used to make screens to print very fine marks.

I showed you some of my hexies a little while back, so here is what I did with them:

 Work in progress. You can just make out my Nan's writing  printed on the lower shapes. The hexagons are about an inch across- more and more I am needing to use my glasses to sew. Anyone else find that?

                                     The finished wallhanging.

I enlarged a photo of a section of the letter so I could stitch Nan's handwriting onto the quilt.

If you want a close look the quilt is on display at Altrincham Forward as part of the Ten Plus Textiles exhibition until 29th April.

Beginnings and Endings

BEGINNINGS
We had a very productive weekend, clearing out the loft, going to the tip and reorganising wardrobes, which felt very cleansing. My positive mood meant that I was amenable to persuasion and I finally gave in to my older children's requests to have Facebook accounts. I have set boundaries and we will see how it goes, but it means I will have to make the most of computer time during school hours- I didn't get a look in over the weekend!!

I have been similarly productive today- Pilates, shopping, baking and gardening- I will probably slump tomorrow:S
I have been thinning out my little seedlings, a job that I found surprisingly difficult to do. I'm not generally sentimental, but I feel so proud that the tiny seeds I planted are actually sprouting up abundantly, so plucking them out of the soil felt very wrong! I know why I am doing it and it is for the best, but it made me feel a bit glum! I replanted some of them where there was more space to make myself feel better.

ENDINGS
I was very pleased to finish binding this quilt, which I made from a "Park Avenue" Moda layer cake using the Tipsy Tumblers pattern from the Quilt Room (www.quiltroom.co.uk). It is a lap quilt to snuggle under in front of the telly in the winter months.

I have been working on it on and off for ages, though the quilt itself didn't take very long. I machine pieced it in a week and quilted it by hand.Strictly speaking it isn't a "quilt" as it only consists of two layers- the patchwork top and a lovely soft fleece backing.

The quilting pattern is very simple, but I enjoyed hand stitching it. Now I just need some chilly evenings so I can use it, but I'm not speeding them along. (Oh, and it is strictly a dog free zone!!!)