Joy Of Stitching

Happy St. Davids Day from Port Talbot - Wales  This is the third of my contemporary quilt challenge quilts. And being March's I thought a daffodil most appropriate. AND With it being St. Davids Day today (1st March) St. David is a patron Saint. of Wales AND The Daffodil is our National Flower You'll see lots of these worn in Wales today. If you see someone with a daffodil on elsewhere in the world on 1st March Chances are they are Welsh and showing their Welsh pride.  Anyway I digress This is another project using my new needlefelting machine. I cut out the daffodil shapes in felt  and needlefelted them onto the back of the black felt background to create a 'painterly' effect on the front.  I then freemotion stitched around the outlines and into the leaves and flower I stitched a grided 'nine patch' effect and then stitched around the edge using yellow thread and a zig zag stitch. I had intended ...

Well I'm busy working on my second contemporary challenge quilt - Febuary's offering. I've decided to keep to a Welsh theme for the year. And this one is the Welsh Pear or paisley to most of you. I'm still playing on my needlefelting machine. And here is a close-up of the work in progress. The red and black fabric you can see around the outside edge has been used as a backing to the black felt. I've then needlefelted the outer border and a paisley shape from the back of the work creating a more subtle red and black image. I'm currently hand stitching quilting lines onto the work. Just thought I'd share with you my progress so far. Update - All finished now - mind you it's not a very photogenic quilt - looks better in real life. Still - I've finished it - and I've learnt lots in the process.

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...