Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013

It's that time again, time to share in the amazing Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Everyone who follows my blog will know which quilt I'll be sharing, they have shared its creation with me every step of the way! So, to new readers, I present, David and Jessica's Wedding Quilt:

They were decorating the marquee ready for their wedding breakfast when I gave the quilt to them and they were (thank goodness) absolutely thrilled.  I had thought about getting the hotel where they spent their wedding night to make up their bed with it but decided that, as they would have eyes only for each other, they might not notice it!

The various elements of the quilt design are related to David and Jessica and to episodes in their relationship.  I included the block "Florida Star" because they got engaged in Florida for example.  You can read more about the stages of design and creation by searching "David and Jessica's Wedding" on my blog.  I asked them whether they'd like me to make them a quilt and checked out their colour preferences but other than that they had no idea what to expect.  It was such a delight to make this quilt, thinking of them while I was stitching and putting "love into every stitch".  It wasn't all plain sailing as you'll discover if you read some of the posts about it but it all came out well in the end.  I even got it finished with time to spare, which I didn't think I would at one stage.
I did a lot more hand stitching on the Wedding Quilt than I expected to, finding it was a much better way to be in touch with the work and with my DS and DDiL, and I think I will continue in that way in future projects (but not that I'm abandoning the machine all together).
I hope you've enjoyed seeing this very special quilt and that you have time to look at lots of the other wonderful entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I haven't entered for a couple of years but Amy's online festival was the reason I began this blog and I wouldn't be without it and my wonderful blogging friends and followers now, thanks Amy.
I'll end with a picture of the happy couple on their wedding day, 6th April 2013:

Stitches and Staples

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wannwannmaru/8190453875/

Julie at Mixed Media sent me this wonderful photograph of Fuji san.  I am thinking about how I can represent it in my current project, maybe with a few crystals.  Watch this space.

I went back to the hospital on Monday and had my bandages removed from my foot.  I was wondering how my surgeon's stitching would compare with my own but he used staples, fourteen of them.  The results looks good though.  I now have a pink plaster on for a further four weeks.  I hope I shall get a lot of stitching done in that time.  It has been more difficult than I expected to concentrate following my operation.  On more than one occasion I stitched my Mount Fuji to my skirt and I have done quite a lot of unpicking when I've looked at my stitching and thought, "Did I really do that?"  DH is going to layer my boro cloth for me today so I'll be able to work on that as well.  I also have two Global Piecers birthday blocks to make.  They are going to be hand stitched which I shall enjoy but it will take a lot more time than chain piecing!

Weather update:  winter is back!  We have had a fire for the past three days and last night we seemed to be caught in a wild and wet storm for many hours.  The garden looks very battered this morning.

Progress on Fuji-san

I've made some progress on stitching into the eco-dyed silk which I created with leaves etc found at the foot of Mount Fuji.  I am keeping the stitches limited, mainly straight and back stitch.

Meanwhile the second type of bargain tulip has come into flower as the first ones are dying down.

Post-Operative Stitches

I have a couple of finishes to share today.  My toe operation was put back by a day and so I had a free day to sew on Tuesday.  I finished my Malta cloth and a little bracelet bag (a kit from EuroJapan Links).

The Malta cloth, "Going Up, Coming Down",  has been a long project.  It started with cloth weaving when I did an online workshop with Jude Hill.  Over two trips to Malta I have added the embellishments, using up cycled fabrics, buttons and embroidery and lace, ribbon and thread bought on the island.  It is finally finished and I am finally happy with it.  I find it difficult to know when a piece like this is finished.  Posts about the project is progress can be found here, here, and here.  I used the piece of eco-dyeing that I did in Malta as the backing and bordered it with a batik to represent the island being in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.  I couched a bright cord within the border to represent the many festas and the big carnival that takes place on Malta.

This little bag was quick and straightforward to make.  I bought it as a kit but I think I will be using the pattern again and again.  It's a good size for a little portable project carrier and could easily be made larger to use as a toiletries bag for example.  I didn't quilt the bag but with a plain fabric I think quilting or sashiko would be very effective.

The bracelet bag is photographed against the piece I have been working on this morning.  As well as preparing the boro cloth to stitch during my convalescence I have this lovely piece of dyed cloth to stitch into.  It is a piece of kimono silk that I eco-dyed with Nat in Fujino, using moss, leaves and bark that I collected when we visited a shrine in the foothills of Mount Fuji.

So far I have simply back stitched the outline of the mountain in various places on the cloth using silk threads.  The bottom collection of peaks are stitched in a lovely thread that Carin sent me, it is a very fine perle thread and the green is perfect with the dyed fabric.  The paler threads at the top are YLI and Daruma silks.  I shall also be using some heavier threads that Blandina gave me when we were in Fujino so this is going to be another piece that is full of memories.  I think about those people and places as I stitch.

Not that stitching is that easy.  I thought I would have lovely long days of sitting with my foot up and sewing away to my heart's content.  At the moment I am finding it very hard to concentrate for very long and need to have frequent rests.  I'm sure this will improve, especially when I can manage with fewer painkillers, they make me even more ga-ga than usual!!  Wishing you a wonderful weekend, especially if you're in UK and have three days :-)

Practically Free Flowers

These are the tulips I bought in the garden centre sale earlier this year!  They were marked down to 50p as it was much too late for planting but I thought they had more chance in my garden than in their packet and at that price it was worth giving them that chance.  How beautifully they have rewarded me.

Folded Bow Tie Coaster

One of the demonstrations at Threads and Patches last week was of Folded Bow Tie Block.  We were given a little kit to make two blocks.

It was suggested that we could make a pin cushion with the two finished blocks but I have quite a few pin cushions!
I part-filled mine with rice and then put in some spice seeds.  It's softly filled so that my coffee cup will nestle safely on it, the heat from the drink will release the spicy aroma.

Soyetsu Yanagi and Bernard Leach

When I was in Japan last year I became very aware of the importance of pottery in Japanese culture.  We visited the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo and saw wonderful examples of the potter's art.  Mummy loaned me this book when I got back from Japan, it includes an introduction by Soyetsu Yanagi.  He coined the term "mingei", declared the Folk Art Movement in 1926, and established the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum in 1936.

I was interested to read Yanagi's opinion of Bernard Leach and his work in relation to Japanese culture and so I have reproduced it here.

I have never been attracted to making pots although I have always admired craft pottery.  Both Mummy and DH studied pottery at college when they trained as teachers, maybe it's in my blood somewhere.  I like the Buddhist quatrain that Soyetsu Yanagi chooses to end his introduction, excellent for travellers.

A Potter's Book by Bernard Leach was published in 1940 by 

Faber and Faber Ltd  ISBN 0 571 09672 7

A Quilting Jolly

I've had a great day out today with the local branch of the Embroiderers' Guild.  They had organised a jolly to Threads and Patches near Milton Keynes and I was able to join them.

It was an early start but we were greeted with homemade cake (chocolate cake for me please) and coffee and then settled down for some really useful demonstrations.  Time for a tasty buffet lunch and then shopping!  Here are some of the ladies queuing to pay for their goodies.

I stocked up on 505, was tempted by a pattern and fell for a Dresden Plate ruler that was demonstrated during one of the morning sessions.  Rulers seem incredibly expensive (I'm embarrassed to tell you how much this one was) but for something like Dresden Plate, that needs to be so accurate, they are worth buying, and it is a block I like to make.

The plastic things at the bottom of the photo are Bob-Eez.  These were demonstrated for use in making kumihimo, they hold the threads clean and tidy and also weight them slightly.  I only bought eight but if they work well I will need to buy a further eight.

"What about fabric?" I hear you cry.  Well my haul was of mixed pink FQs and a couple of metres of cream on cream.  Wasn't I restrained?  The pinks are for the next Global Piecers' swap which will be of hearts blocks as a reflection of the love and support us quilters have for one another.
I was impressed with the selection of fabrics available at Threads and Patches (they also have other craft materials, wool and a longarm quilter who works on site).  It's definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.

Boro Update

My new boro cloth is now pieced.  I made really good progress while at Country Roads Quilters on Tuesday and then added the borders today.  I shall layer it with wadding and backing and then put it on my "to do after my op" pile when I shall enjoy stitching into it with sashiko threads.

Tomorrow I am going on a jolly with the local branch of the Embroiderers' Guild.  We are off to Threads and Patches in Milton Keynes for demonstrations, lunch and shopping.  Report to follow of course.

New Boro

Today I started making my own boro cloth.  Not by repairing something I already have but by combining sample pieces of indigo dyeing done by my Indigo Sisters and me, pieces collected when I was in Japan this time last year.  

Judi brought pieces she had dyed in various shibori designs at home, Nat dyed indigo moons, Carin gave me a sashiko piece to stitch in my spare time (ha ha), Blandina gave me silk threads, we all cut our own katazome stencil and dyed sample pieces.  It seems appropriate to join all these together, with hand stitching, to make a souvenir cloth in the style of Japanese boro.  All the small pieces that could get lost somewhere in my sewing room will become a whole.

You might remember that I wrote about visiting the Amuse museum with Carin where we enjoyed a magnificent collection of Chuzaburo Tanaka's boro and of visiting Amy Katoh's exhibition of boro with Julie.

http://piecenpeace.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/and-again-ive-just-read-carins-comment.html

http://piecenpeace.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/thursday-japanese-contrasts.html

"More Textiles, Uniquely Japanese

Boro Futon Covers
Boro is a Japanese word meaning “tattered rags” and it’s the term frequently used to describe lovingly patched and repaired cotton bedding and clothing, used much longer than the normal expected life cycle. Like early North American patchwork quilts, boro textiles revealed much about the Japanese family's living standards and the nature of the economy of their time.
The penny-wise Japanese rural wife repaired the family’s sleeping futon covers again and again by “boro” patching fabric scraps over thin areas and holes in the fabric. Adding sashiko sewing to the repair gave greater strength to the material. Today international collectors regard boro textiles as uniquely Japanese and striking examples of a bygone and lost folk craft.

The same sewing technique that was used to repair boro futon covers was also put into practice when repairing noragi (farm clothing). This was done in order to increase the lifespan of the clothing and add extra layers of fabric thickness for warmth.

At the time when Japan was struggling to recover from the devastation of the Second World War, the Japanese regarded boro textiles with great shame in that these utilitarian textiles served as an open reminder of Japan's impoverished past. Currrently, these same textiles are cherished and collected for the stories they tell and the windows they open into Japanese folk culture and history."

From http://www.kimonoboy.com