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.....

Just Keep Swimming, Swimming

I have finished my March quiltlet for the Contemporary Quilt Group Challenge.

The quilt follows the rules I set for myself using fabric from my stash which I have hand pieced.  I applied a variety of gold fabrics and hand stitched the quilt with a selection of goldwork threads and cotton perlé.  

The quotation from Dory is written with permanent ink.

The design was inspired by the idea of looking up from below the sea to the sunshine.  The rays of the sun offer an escape route from the cold, dark depths but the sun is distant, frightening and hard to reach.

March 1 - Just Keep Swimming

The inspiration for my journal quiltlet for March comes from several places.  

The text is the most obvious, that great advice from Dory in from "Finding Nemo" is appropriate this month.

But as well as swimming, there is the opportunity to look upwards from the dark and murky waters and see the sun shining down on that water, extending its rays like lifelines.

I have pinned a curved seam, using fabric from February's quiltlet (as per my rules) and some hand dyed cotton.  I am now auditioning fabric for the sunshine and then I will get stitching with gold threads.  

More soon.

In addition I have been making some goodies with batiks for the latest Global Piecers' swap.  We've been a bit quiet recently, it goes like that, but it's good to be swapping again.  These will be for Easter and need to be flying soon!  I can't show more than these pinned pieces, ready for the machine....