Getting Ready for Festival of Quilts

I've been a busy bunny today, getting ready for going to the Festival of Quilts next week.

I've started to make a few lists - what to see, what to buy.  Then I thought it would be nice to cover my notebook.

Next I thought I'd like to have a new bag.  I only need to buy needles and a new thimble so I thought a small bag would do! Hmm, just in case I buy a little more I made the Natsu bag from Japan Crafts.  "Natsu" means Summer and this enormous bag would hold everything necessary for a day by the sea so it should be big enough for my needles and thimble!!  The bag is an easy pattern made of 40 charm squares and a metre of fabric.  There's quite a lot of hand sewing and I used an extra strong thread, just to be on the safe side.

I've nearly finished the journal quilt for August, just some stitching to do.

Green has been the colour for these four months:

May

June

July

Right, back to those lists I think. I'm only going to FoQ for two days so I've got to be a bit organised to see everything I want to see, including, of course, the Country Roads Quilt.

Remember Me?

Oh dear, I have not written a blog post for absolutely ages.  Thank you my dear followers who have enquired after me in my absence from blog world, I appreciate your concern and care.  Nothing too dramatic has been happening, compared with earlier this year anyway, normal life has just got in the way.  

I am behind with my journal quilts, October's is designed but not made, November's is forming slowly in my brain.  I also have two swaps to make for Global Piecer friends before the end of the month. I have, however, achieved some finishes.

The boro table runner is nearly complete, I have added a koi in kantha that just needs some detail and then I'll share it with you.  Last week was a mega stitching fest with the Christmas meeting of Country Roads Quilters where, between us, we made fifty Bags for Beads of Courage, followed by a two day workshop with Helen Howes working on trees and tigers.  I have just finished off my wall hanging from the workshop and called it "Indigo Winter Woods".

You can see Helen's work on her website, www.helenhowes.co.uk but here's a taster.

And, while I'm uploading photographs, here are all those bags we made at Country Roads Quilters.

JQ August - Deadline Met

Only just!  This is my Challenge JQ for August, the text if from the poem, "Appeal" by Anne Bronte. The last four months' quiltlets had to be posted to the Contemporary Quilt Group Yahoo page by the end of August, this one got there with no time to spare (although May, June and July were posted during their respective months).

Very little quilting has been going on, in fact, very little of anything has been going on recently.  I have been in hospital for a week following a Crohn's flare in the early hours of Saturday 22 August.  I'm now home, taking some hefty meds that stop me seeing well or doing a lot.  A little reading, a little time on the computer, a little sewing, or a little television viewing and then my eyes cloud and I have to rest.  My appetite is massive but as I am hardly moving I am having to be very careful about what I actually eat.

I am feeling a lot better than I was, I was well looked after in hospital and now am being well cared for by Al and getting lots of love from friends and family in messages, cards, flowers and phone calls.  I have to listen to my body and rest for a while.  I should be setting off for Harrogate tomorrow for a weekend including the Quilt Show, the Quilt Museum in York, Harlow Carr RHS Garden.....but that will have to happen another year now.  I'm looking forward to hearing all about it from friends and on blogs, lots of photos please.

While my body is resting, my mind doesn't seem to.  I am hatching plans and quilts and I'm delighted that Global Piecers have started some new swaps - more to think about.

A nice cup of tea and sleep now.....

RIP David Harwood

You know when you say, "Hey, at least it can't get any worse....."?

Many of you already know that it has and I thank you for your messages, prayers, cards and support, you have helped more than you can know.  

Other friends, blog readers and Facebook friends that I don't communicate with very regularly, will not know that Daddy died suddenly on 18th April.  His funeral is not until 13th May and so we are all in a strange limbo.  This limbo is preferable to the limbo we might have been experiencing as Daddy  discovered he had secondary cancers (liver and spleen) a week before he died.  His death was unrelated to the cancers, being due to a ruptured colon, and he died with dignity and free of pain.  God moves in mysterious ways indeed, Daddy would have hated a slow, miserable death being cared for at home or in a hospice, he would have been very irritable about the whole thing.

These are two of my favourite pictures of Daddy, this one taken a year ago, the oldest and youngest members of the family:

and this one taken with Mummy on their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2006:

Needless to say I am doing a lot of stitching.  I have been working on my New Zealand journal quilts and the hand stitching has been marvellously therapeutic and it somehow felt as if I was stitching my prayers into the quilt (there was no time to make a prayer flag for Daddy) even though Daddy never visited NZ.  This is not a good photograph, apologies.  I have to quilt the "Wellington" block and then add the binding and labels.  I have haikus to add but haven't decided yet whether they should go on the blocks or on the back....

It's a Bank Holiday weekend here, three days of chilly winds but some sunshine promised, have fun whatever you get up to and I'm hoping normal service will be resumed fairly shortly.  Love Lis xx

Contemporary Journal Quilt - February

This is the start of my quiltlet for February.

I am on holiday in Malta so this month my work will have a very different feel from January.

You will see that I have included one fabric from January, one of my self-imposed "rules" for this project.  Another "rule" was that I include some text and I am currently collecting ideas and pondering this for February.  It won't be written in Maltese though, I couldn't pronounce it!

Today is the Festival of Broken Needles in Japan so it is a good day to be stitching and be thankful for the most simple and essential if our tools.  Firstly though I have a pedicure booked in the spa 😉

Two Sewn, Four To Do

The weekend's work!  So many of you have, like me, spent a lot of this weekend sewing.  In the UK it has been cold, with a lot of places experiencing heavy snowfall and to sit by a fire and stitch was the perfect plan.

The first two, actually the bottom left two, journal quilts from my NZ trip are now joined and quilted.  I've used a large sashiko stitch and cotton perlé for the quilting in the borders and a variety of threads for quilting the blocks.  Again I was caught out by hand stitching through batiks, also known as sewing concrete, and my fingers are suffering a little, but I live batiks!! How we suffer for our art!!

Contemporary Quilt Challenge

I have decided to take part in the QGBI Contemporary Quilt Group Journal Quilt Challenge for this year.  The main criteria are that quilts must be 12"x6" and that participants have to choose to work in either landscape or portrait orientation and stick to it for the quilt we make each month, no chopping and changing.

I have opted to work in landscape layout and have also agreed some rules/guidelines with myself for the challenge.

1.  I will only use fabric from my stash (although I may buy threads).

2.  Some fabric from January's quilt is incorporated in February's quilt etc, to provide a link and some flow.

3.  The quilts are based on mood and seascapes.

4.  Each journal quilt will include some lettering, words or haiku.

January's quilt in progress is shown above.  The sea is dark and murky, storms have taken place and there is fear and sadness.  Roll on Spring!

Thank You

I seem to have rediscovered both my blogging boots and my stitching slippers (if not my alliteration acumen!)

Today I started the sixth and last quiltlet inspired by NZ.  This, when pressed and stitched, will be the background for a piece based on a wonderful beach we visited on the Coromandel Peninsula, a place called Kuaotunu.

Today I want to say a massive 

THANK  YOU 

to a small and very special group of people.  

These are the people who have stuck with me while my posts were few and far between;  who wrote lovely comments and continued to do so even when I didn't get around to replying to or even just acknowledging those comments and who stuck with Piece'n'Peace even though it seemed as if their own blogs had been abandoned by me.  

THANK  YOU, I really appreciate you all.

Trout Caught

Poppies and Drain Covers

Today I have been stitching and I also received a wonderful item of post - my poppy from the Tower of London installation, 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'.  I got goosebumps as I opened up the package and read the companying booklet.  While the poppy itself has been cleaned after its time in the moat, the stem and fitting have a poignant coating of rust from their time outside.  I was sorry not to have seen the actual installation, especially near Remembrance weekend when almost everybody I know was posting pictures of their visit to the Tower of London on Facebook and I was in New Zealand, the poppy is my "piece of history".

My stitching today has been a reminder of my time in New Zealand.  I have six small pieces planned reflecting different places I visited.  Three are hand stitched and ready to layer up and quilt, this is the fourth, in planning:

and stitched ready for quilting. 

Al declared this, "That's very precise.....that's really precise for you".  I think I'll take that as it was intended, not as a backhanded compliment, just recognition of a different style!  

The piece represents the capital city of NZ, Wellington, and the wonderful time we had there.  It is based on a drain cover.  Now, I first noticed interesting drain covers when I was in Japan, where each village or town area has their own design.  Then I saw the lovely covers in Wellington which I interpret to represent city, sea, mountains and bush.  A quick google proved that I am not alone, there are some very serious drain spotters (ouch, sorry) out there.

Have a great weekend.

Progress and Purchases

Here's a progress report on my Northumberland/Hadrian's Wall textile book. I think this page is finished (who knows for sure?) and it was inspired by the flowers we saw, predominantly heather and rosebay willow herb. I had a very relaxing time doing all the stitching on a piece of dyed linen (from Images of Egypt at FoQ).

The next page isn't finished, it will have more stitching and some words. I've never got on very well with transferring photographs to fabric, the surface/texture is always disappointing, but I had to include my little Roman soldier in the book :-) The background is fabric weaving, not pieced.

Today I went for a mooch and happened upon this book for the bargain price of £3. I did a weekend workshop with the author, Richard Box, many moons ago and hesitated to buy the book as it was expensive so I'm extra pleased with buying it today.  Sorry this photo is sideways (still getting to grips with posting from my iPhone).

I am going to save my other bargain for my next post, suffice to say it is a "project" and will need some thought. Now I must away, Sam will be home from school very soon and I promised to take him to the playground. It's such fun being a Nanny :-) 

Pony Trekking Video

I can't believe I didn't post a video of Sam on his first ever pony trekking experience while we were in Northumberland.  As you can see, I have remedied that :-)
Tomorrow Al and I are looking after the wonderful Sam for a few days.  I'm taking some sewing with me as Sam will be at school during the day.  I should have something to share soon.  I'll be continuing to work on The Wall (thanks for all your encouraging comments, here and on Facebook) and working on a piece based on the colours of the landscapes we enjoyed, especially the heather and the stunning rowan trees which were heavily laden with deep orange berries.

Been Stitching

I'm shocked to see how long it is since I last wrote a post.  I have several excuses, would you like to hear them?  No? Oh well, fair enough!
I haven't done a lot of stitching but what I have done has been of the extremely noble kind - I've been working on my UFOs/WIPs.  I do seem to recall promising that I would finish one project for each new one I started....
So, I've been working on journal quilts from my trip downunder earlier this year, I'm making good progress on a quilt for my daughter and I've done another block for my sampler quilt.
As far as new projects - I've joined the BQL postcard swap group.  I had lots of information from Sue about this group and decided to go for it as the swaps are small (7 other people maximum) and optional - so no pressure.
I have nothing much to show you but I can't do a post without a photo so how about this one?  Wouldn't these tiles in Jerusalem be a great design for a quilt?