Apples October Journal Quilt

This is my little journal quilt for October - apples. The challenge is to use buttons for the next 4 pieces. I've been picking the apples from my Sunset apple tree and thought the apple pips and core looked a bit like a button. The background is a rustic open weave linen and I embellished apple shapes with little pieces of wool, adding them like watercolour. The leaf shapes were appliqued and layered with muslin which was also blattered with the embellisher to distress it a bit and then machine stitched to the background. I added handstitching and then white laundry buttons. They looked a bit stark so I painted them with some dilute Inktense colour.
I really enjoyed getting the embellisher out and needle felting the background, the effect can be quite subtle.

Traditional quilt

I haven't made a quilt like this for a very long time. My aunt was 90 this week so I decided at the last minute to make her a lap quilt. It is a little larger than the usual size, 45cm x 45cm and  I was determined to use up some of my commercial fabrics which I tend not to use these days. Inevitably I had to buy some more - you never have enough of the right colour. It has turned out rather bright but I hope she likes it. My mother will be 90 in January so I shall make her one too. Its very strange to think that they are the last of that generation in the family - more memories!

memories and connections

Several months ago my brother and I were forced to make the decision that our mother could no longer live at home and needed more help with her needs. She is suffering from dementia. Neither of us was prepared for the emotional implications of this decision let alone the practical ones. We were faced with a home crammed with things that represented our lives and those of our parents and grandparents. The home is now just an empty house and we have tried to deal with the contents. I collected up pieces of linen - table mats, hankies, embroidered napkins and tablecloths, gloves and aprons. These had been embroidered, crocheted, stitched, darned and and owned by my grandmothers Maud and Gladys and my Mum, Eileen. What on earth should I do with them.  I do not want to leave my boys with the decision of what to do with my things let alone my grandmother's. I wanted to do something that would connect me to them and also be relevant and even something of use for my children. I bit the bullet and started cutting up the pieces. I am stitching a crazy patchwork quilt in squares made up of pieces belonging to Maud, Gladys and Eileen. I am using old transfers to add my marks to the pieces now. So far I have made 17 squares so a long way to go but all the time I am stitching them ( glass of wine at hand in front of the telly) I think of these women, their lives and how they have made me what I am.

Flying the nest September Journal Quilt

Yesterday I came across the paper collage above which I did 18months ago. My eldest had just left home and was starting a new job and living in Brighton. I was doing a workshop with Sian Martin and had collaged bits of photos, receipts, computer printouts about Brighton and bits of  discarded artwork, then machine stitched pathways over the surface. We were using potassium permanganate and on that cold February day and I found the colour so dreary echoing my state of mind probably. I had a lightbulb moment looking at it again. I scanned and replaced the background colour with a lighter tone which immediately lifted it. I used a portion in large scale as a background then layered up the image again in two sizes. I printed the image on to old cotton sheeting that I had treated with bubble jet set and then machine stitched the background. I particularly like the scanned areas of the original stitching marks which picked up portions of the p.perm. and seeped into the needle holes.

Man Woman August Journal Quilt

This is my August Journal Quilt entitled "Man Woman". It is the third of the quilts which specified text. I have been suffering from empty nest syndrome. It always happens at this time of the year. The youngest (now 21 ) drew this little picture many years ago and I have had it pinned on my wall. The funny expressions always make me smile. I used this as an opportunity to get to grips with a new printer after my old Epson started dumping ink on the surface of my fabric. I defined the pencil marks and then added some more colour to the original drawing then I added a half triangle border to the design together with some repeating figures which I think must have been Ralph. There was a tiny little figure on a distant planet and I'm wondering if that was his brother! The little wholecloth was printed on bubble jet set treated recycled cotton sheeting and then machine stitched and I also put some little french knots where there were pencil dots on the original. It still makes me laugh.
The exhibition in The Guild in Bristol, Cloth, Paper, Stitch, has now finished. Thank you to my friends who supported me and the people who visited and bought my work and cards. There was a lot of interest in the lichen pieces again and I think I shall make another large piece soon.