Friday 21 May 2010

Blogger's Quilt Festival

"On the Broads in May, Stalham"


This wallhanging is my contribution to the Bloggers' Quilt Festival which is being organised by Amy
I made this wallhanging, "On the Broads in May, Stalham",  to be a reminder of a lovely day out on a boat in Norfolk and I did share it on this blog in it's early stages back in  February this year.

We sailed from Stalham Staithe and I wanted to capture the lovely bright greens of spring, the flashes of the electric blue kingfishers glimpsed along the banks and the yellow water buttercups. To capture the gentle movement of the water through the reeds I have used sashiko stitching and I machined the quilt together using a decorative stitch reminiscent of a wading bird's footprint.


I added some little butterfly and dragonfly buttons (I would rather have used the diamond and enamel brooch I saw, unpriced, in one of those antique shops where you have to ring the bell to be let in but I imagine it would have cost a great amount of 'fabric-money') and some Swarovski crystal beads and gold stitching to represent the glinting sun on the water.

I am pleased with this quiltlet, it looks the way I imagined it - I was not after a landscape quilt or a picture, but a representation of a time and place.  I suppose the appliqued, bias-tape "reeds" and, of course, the buttons, are the closest aspect of the design that is pictorial.  It will hang on the wall in our holiday 'bach' in Mundesley, Norfolk.

Thank you for visiting, please go over to Amy's site and you'll see where you can find other blogs displaying quilts this week.


Added 26 May 2010:

Some lovely visitors to BQF have left comments or emailed me asking to see some more detail of my wallhanging so here are a few more photographs and thank you loads for your interest and your encouraging remarks, I really appreciate it.
Here you can see the wooden dragonfly button, the sashiko style hand stitiching that was done with a Valdini hand dyed variegated 35wt cotton thread.
This picture shows the Swarovski crystals and the overstitching on the seams which I did on my Silver 9000E machine.
This is the best photo I could get of the handquilting in gold thread along the bias tape "reeds".  I used a Mettler Metallic thread for that.
Finally, the butterfly wooden button and some more of the sashiko style stitching.  I'm going to do a little sashiko tutorial on my Japanese textiles blog soon but there are plenty on the web if you are interested, it's very therapeutic to do.

42 comments:

  1. What a pretty wall hanging!

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  2. Wow! You really captured that moment well! You must have been sitting hours over that quilt!

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  3. What a lovely quilt! It does evoke being on the water in the summer (here) or spring (there).

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  4. I can just picture it, what a great idea making your memories into a quilt!

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  5. Hi Lis,
    How lovely your hanging looks I love the colours really bright and fresh.
    love Georgie x

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  6. Very pretty! I like your interpretation of Impressionism in fabric!

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  7. Your quilt is just beatiful! Thanks for sharing.

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  8. love the little button tab holders for the hanging rod

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  9. That is beautiful, and so totally different than anything I have seen before. I love the mood it invokes!

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  10. Wow; beautiful quilt! As if the quilt design and the fabrics themselves weren't beautiful, the quilting just takes this over the top!

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  11. Hi Lis, So nice to see this quilt . . . I love the evolution from the photos of your day out to the end result. Well done.

    PS. Glad you're back home safe and sound. Regards, Sue

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  12. Love it. A beautiful memory of a moment in time.

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  13. I am so in love with this quilt, you totally captured it - how special is this. I almost feel like I'm there. The sashiko quilting is just perfect!

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  14. A very nice quilt, and I really like the way you have quilted it :-)

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  15. What a lovely quilt! I really love it!

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  16. Your wallhanging is stunning, and it's obvious that it was created with careful planning and with expertise. Thank you for sharing it with us.

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  17. So pretty. I love all the details, the hand stitching is lovely.

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  18. Well, that's a really marvellous quilt! So lively and it's an original!

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  19. What a darling little quiltet! I would have liked to be able to see closer detail of your embellishmnets. What will you do with it?

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  20. What a beautiful quilt. Thanks so much for sharing it at the festival. Glad to have found your blog too.

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  21. So lovely to have captured a favourite moment in time like this. You've done a beautiful job of this Lis.

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  22. Your quilt is lovely. Thanks so much for sharing it.

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  23. What a great story and I love the colors and what it represents.

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  24. Really, really like the quilting you have done. It looks excellent.

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  25. This is an incredible quilt! You truly captured the peaceful feeling of being on the water. And your quilting is beautiful. What a wonderful piece. You should be proud of yourself!

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  26. Absolutely lovely! Love the colors and the quilting!

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  27. Wow, what a great way to remember such a special moment! Great job. You can tell how much thought and heart went into this!

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  28. It's a really wonderful quilt. I'm glad that I found your site!

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  29. That's a beauty ! Such a nice reminder, too.
    I remember once going somewhere and just being overwhelmed with the idea of capturing it in a quilt. I collected special fabrics for a little while, but never made the little quilt....such a shame. I'm so glad you made yours !

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  30. Very, very pretty - I love the special details you added to express your experience of one moment in time. It is a wonderful quiltlet.
    Thank you for sharing. Enjoy the festival- aren't so many beautiful quilts to see.
    Regards from a Western Canadian quilter,
    Anna
    http://quiltmomsjourney.blogspot.com/

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  31. A beautiful representation! I love all the special details you've added. It's such a lovely quilt.

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  32. This is wonderful, so evocative of the waterways. Reminds me of my own canal trips. I love the extras sewn onto it. thanks for sharing.

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  33. very impressive! and so much work put into it!

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  34. Your hanging is lovely .... thank you for showing the close-up shots!

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  35. This is a beautiful scenic quilt. I love the details you added with the sashiko and gold thread! Very nice!

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  36. Very original and beautiful. It is a soothing piece of art to look at.

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  37. what a lovely spring quilt, I feel like I'm walking in the reeds.
    Come see my antique quilt entries
    http://utahquiltappraiser.blogspot.com
    http://starleyquilts.blogspot.com

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  38. I love this piece; it's incredibly evocative yet peaceful.

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  39. what a lovely quilt--in whatever size it packs a big punch! so fun to look at the details you have in it. my grandfather came from lincolnshire turn of last century, and my grandmother from edinburgh, then met up in canada and eventually moved to washington state.

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  40. This is beautiful. I love the stitching.

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I really appreciate your lovely comments, ideas and opinions, they make my day. Thank you for visiting Piece'n'Peace,
hugs, Lis x