Cecil's Quilt

Just a quickie, I've just realised I've not shown you Cecil's lap quilt now it's finished - how remiss!!

Here it is - the front

and the back

I'm amused to notice this fabric covering a cushion in the current series of "I'm A Celebrity" - which is unwitting testimony of the fact that I'm watching it! I don't watch a lot of telly, but it is such fun, and a good way of chilling after a day at work - usually with stitching in hand for the ad breaks. I refuse to watch them, and mute the sound when they come on; a tad eccentric perhaps, but why should I slavishly allow myself to be cajoled by "Them". it's much more peaceful to quietly stitch away while the goggle box flickers in the corner of the room - and have you never noticed how the sound is always louder when they're on?

Hope Cecil likes her quilt. I'll report back after Christmas.

nine patch laid

Being a follower of Jude I have developed a great affection for the sweet simplicity of the nine patch. Of course she takes it and does the most wonderful things, setting it free to celebrate the spirit of a loved cat, stitching it into stars, bending and weaving it around the moon. I love the subtlety of her work, the frayed edges and the gentle colours, the way she invests so much of her life into it's being, and brings us into her story with her honest words and beautiful cloths. I have watched what she does for some time now, popping over for each update, diving off into the blogs of her followers to see where others take her inspiration. One day, when I have more time, I would like to take one of her online classes, to see where that inspiration could take me. But for now I am learning, learning, learning, in between working and doing life. As well as taking Christine's monthly classes at Studio11, I am currently stitching samplers for the City and Guilds; our theme is grids - how appropriate. So we've had a splish splash splosh day with Barbara and have been sent away to explore the grid and to try our hand at laid work and couching. Well, I've not done either before, so am really enjoying learning new things. I've done a little bit of couching, but there will be more to do before next Saturday if I have time

With the template we made at the class, which reminds me irrepressibly of the Playschool Windows, I've done some design work on grids,

 my favourite probably being the black and white one

and I've been practicing my laid work as ... a nine patch

Of course this is quite different from Jude's subtle colours and complex cloths. It's a simple exercise in stitching, and tremendous fun to do. But still, it has the tiniest element of Jude in it, just a whisper in the shadows of the stitches really, a thought of her, as my needle went in and out, to and fro, weaving colours into cloth.

It pleases me. I hope it will pass muster on Saturday when we have our next class.

Goldwork dragons and a Royal wedding dress

The sun shone this weekend, after days of grey skies and intermittent rain - the ground is soggy, but the hazel just outside the window where I sit during the day has been just wonderful, clinging to it's leaves through all the wind we've also been having, as they have changed from their summer green to the beautiful clear yellow they are now. The colour just sings when backlit by the sun, bright, clean, uncomplicated. But even on those days when the mist has closed in and our view has not extended beyond the walnut at the end of the garden, this yellow has still shone for me, glowing with it's own inner light, right through to sundown and beyond - a smile outside my window each day.

Yesterday was our monthly Embroiderer's Guild meeting. We had the pleasure of a talk by Sophie Long about her experience of being an apprentice at the Royal School of Needlework. It was immensely interesting, especially as, having graduated, she then had the honour of being part of the team who worked on the Royal wedding dress. She brought along examples of the work she had done whilst studying at the School. They were really impressive, and many are shown on her website, including the most delicate whitework swan, a very clever blackwork image that was based on a photograph of her sister, and perhaps my favourite, her goldwork dragon. None of these pictures give you more than an inkling of the detail and craftsmanship in these pieces of needlework. We were able to peer closely, as she allowed them to be passed round as she was talking - I seem to recall her saying that the whitework piece took around 90 hours of stitching. I was really struck by how much work the apprentices had to do, both during term time and in the holidays - not for the faint hearted. Of the intake of 7 when she started her apprenticeship, only three graduated and she is the only one still working at the craft. She was very modest about her success, putting it down to the stroke of luck that meant that, just as she was finishing, someone in the Embroidery Studio was leaving and she was offered the place. I suspect this offer wouldn't have been made had her skill not been considered up to their very high standards.

After her talk, she had brought along bits and bobs for us to look at or buy. I succumbed to some lovely threads - now I look at them, perhaps I was influenced by the tones of Autumn ...

It is such a pleasure to belong to a Guild like this. There is so much to learn; both from the people Brenda invites to talk to us or run workshops, and from each other. Having not been a "joiner of things" in my life up 'til now - perhaps the result of being an only child, I am now reaping the benefits. In addition, after the talk a little group of us who are doing the City and Guilds together, got into a huddle to discuss our progress so far!

Thread storage

I've been taking part in a November Post a Photo a Day group on Facebook, which has been great fun; a theme for each day to photograph, then everyone gets to see and comment on everyone's pictures. There have been some great, funny, well taken, quirky, revealing (not in a naughty sense) and interesting pictures to see. Everyone has different perspectives and it is, to me, one of the great things about the Internet - the way it connects people. So, today's theme was "Man Made" and I added a picture of a rather lovely thing my ex-husband (but still friend) made for me many years ago. A bespoke set of little oak drawers in which to store my embroidery threads, which has been used with great pleasure ever since. It has caused so many positive comments that I thought I'd better share it here as well. Isn't it beautiful?

Then I made a comment about not showing "the other one with the fancy threads" and someone said "can we see that too" so I took, and posted another picture. This time a very old piece, which came home with me from Cecil's earlier this year when she was having a "purge".

It's a miniature Wellington Chest, very battered and worn and will have been in the family for ever, like much of our "stuff"! I gave it a clean up, pulled all the drawers out to wax the runners, tentatively put my hand into the opening for the bottom drawer, where something had rattled, and found, buried in some decidedly creepy black fluffy dust, those little bone handles embroidery tools you can see in the very bottom drawer. Once they were cleaned up, I thought they'd better go back in the drawer where they belonged, along with some ancient packets of needles which I'll include for Joe's particular pleasure, since I know he loves them.

Treasures indeed!

Mushrooms!

so here they are, all finished though not yet framed. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. I didn't expect to be able to create something that looks so complete from just one workshop (OK and a week off sick!), but having a kit to work from made all the difference as it provided the framework, all I had to provide were the stitches and a bit of thought about what colours to use.

 

A couple of closeups so you can see just how 3 dimensional they are once all is put together on the ground cloth

the grassy knoll

and a few little dewdrops, just waiting for a fairy to gather for her morning skin care routine.

Would i do more stumpwork? Yes, absolutely; it has a magic about it that I really enjoyed; the detail is such fun and creating a little three dimensional world ticks all sorts of boxes for me. I just need to practice more.
But first, there's a City and Gilds to work with. We had the first of our "splish splash splosh" days with Barbara yesterday, which was great fun, as ever. I have homework to do, having created a distorted grid stencil to play with ... oh and there's Cecil's quilt to finish. That's this afternoon's pleasure