Joy Of Stitching

Recently my son gave me two pairs of his old jeans and a shirt he loved wearing when gigging, and asked me to make him a new quilt as the one I made him for the Millennium (The Millennium Quilt - which has a wonderful story of it's own) was showing signs of wear and he didn't want it to wear out. Anyway, I've just finished his new quilt 'Two Pairs of Jeans and a Gigging Shirt' I really enjoyed working on it. It's quite organic and proudly shows the signs of wear on the jeans, lots of big bold stitching and inside out seams. I kept some of the pockets whole from both the jeans and the shirt - it's the first quilt I've made with pockets in! As Craig plays both acoustic and bass guitars I printed out actual pictures of his guitars to use as templates for the appliqué guitars.  After I had finished the quilt I decided the appliqué shapes needed some hand stitching around them - so I had to finish it twice. As always it's hard letting go of a piece of...

Oh dear....I've been so good all year getting my Contemporary Challenge quilt finished each month on time. But for some reason July took me two months. I've just finished it this morning. Not sure why this was, because since finishing July this morning - I've almost completed August!!! The above picture is a 'cropped' section of the 8" Quilt. The fabric itself is a piece of Deborah O'hare's hand painted fabric.  As you can see, I'm continuing exploring the possibilities from this picture..   Which also inspired my June piece of work. Who'd have thought I'd get so much work out of such a simple scene.   I marked out the 8" square and started hand stitching from the bottom up.    Using different colours and either one or two strands of embroidery thread. I decided to just put some highlight stitching onto the sky. Added seven birds in flight (odd numbers are always good) And I'm done....

I've been working on this months - April's - Contemporary Quilt Group 's Challenge with The Quilters Guild of the British Isles. I began by making some headless sheep using water soluble plastic and freemotion stitching. Being a bit scared of getting their heads wrong I decided to make their heads later out of felt Then I machine embellished wool roving onto a felt background and added some wool to create the path and wall. I hand stitched and felted yellow flowers, Some grasses Swirly clouds and mountain trees Backed with a lovely grey wool fabric which I turned over to the front of the work as a self binding. Finally, I used a variegated thread to create a quilting stitch along the binding.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with the felt and wool  I'm going to explore these further.

I've signed up for the Contemporary Group Challenge 2014 (part of The Quilters Guild of the British Isles) It's one 8" Quilt a month for the year and there has to be a line, vertical/diagonal from one edge to another. Far far below, is my January Challenge Quilt 2014. I began with some scraps of fabric from Welsh Costumes  Here is a picture of my daughter Sarah wearing her Welsh Costume   This was about 30 years ago! But Every March 1st (St. David's Day) you will see lots of little girls going to school in their Welsh Costumes. St. David is the Patron Saint of Wales - which is home for me.    I got a new Needle Felting Machine for Christmas and Keen to try it out I needlefelted the fabrics onto a black felt background.  I layered up wadding and a red flannel backing.   Hand Quilted in white red and black thread. And finished by turning the backing over onto the front for the binding. I'm thrilled...

I've been busy making these Cuddles Christmas BearsChristmas tree ornaments By Brenda Walker . I bought the kit in the Malvern Quilt Show in May this year. And I've finally got around to making them up. As usual, like a good girl I read all the instructions - then made them up my own way. This doesn't always produce the desired results But This time I'm very pleased with the results. And I have to say buying the kit rather than just the pattern was a great choice. Everything needed was to hand no searching around for the right fabrics/colours/button etc. Only two more sleeps now Sew Happy, Joy 

Here my Stitching friends, is one of the ch ch changes....that I have been talking about on my Joyofquilting blog. I have decided to create a blog devoted to my personal stitching exploits. Some of you may be familiar with my Joyofquilting blog... it's a blog I created to run alongside our Monday Quilting Group so everyone could join in with our projects. However, I got to feeling that Joyofquilting was not the place to air my personal stitching adventures. Recently, lots of ch ch changes are going on in my stitching world Monday Class is a ch ch changing Swansea Quilters is a ch ch changing (I'm currently having 'time out' from S.Q.'s) And the Textile Group I belong to called Serge Ahead is a ch ch changing ME. I can slowly feel a new interest awakening, new ideas and new directions pulling me. Two words have kept cropping up over the last few months for me: CHANGE And RESPECT And so I decided now was the time for me to make a change, respec...