Boro Runner Finished

Today I have finished the boro style table runner that I have been working on for a while.

Here's the kantha stitched koi (which needs a press!)

and here's the finished runner on our dining table:

Now it is time to get on with swaps and Christmas stitching.  My Christmas cake is in the oven, filling the house with spicy alcoholic aromas and I'm going to sit by the fire and work on a festive prayer flag for a good friend. I feel like I'm living in the little house on the prairie!! 

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.

Getting Things in Perspective

It has been a very difficult period for my family recently but we are beginning to appreciate that the light at the end of the tunnel might not be an express train.

Getting things into perspective has been the order of the day over Easter and so that is the inspiration for my April quiltlet for the Contemporary Group Challenge.  The quotation is from Marcus Aurelius and I am continuing to adhere to all my rules.  This piece is based on groynes on the beach.

I stitched a prayer flag for my DD Sara over the Easter holiday.  She likes it but thinks it is a shame that the idea is that it disintegrates in the wind and weather.  I told her the prayers are already sent (and answered in some cases) and so I think she might hang the flag somewhere sheltered.

What else? Well how about these gorgeous Kantha stitched creatures on fabric dyed with woad?  Angela Daymond (Fenland Textile Studios) will be selling kits to create these yourself at Festival of Quilts this Summer.  She asked several people to trial the kit contents and instructions.  I've never measured the amount of thread I'm using before, quite interesting!  All the thread is beautiful Aurifil in various weights, including lana wool, all lovely to stitch with.  The Kantha stitching has been very therapeutic to work, just what the doctor ordered.

I love the movement and sense of freedom exhibited by Angela's hare.

The heron is so elegant and haughty.

This last hare is on plain fabric, not woad dyed and is only 4" round so it will be the perfect introduction to Kantha stitching.

Trout Caught

Stitching Fish

Having survived a wild and windy night (although not as bad as in the north of the country and Scotland), much of it spent awake and thinking, I am working on my trout today.

My original thought was an appliqué fish, if I could ever get the design right, I even have some vaguely fishy fabric. Then, during one of those periods awake last night I thought of Angela Daymond, or, more specifically, of her Kantha Hare.  Let me explain...

Last time I did a workshop with Angela she was talking about two kantha stitch projects she had designed and made, the hare and a heron, and is considering offering as kits at FoQ.  She asked whether I and the other ladies at the workshop would be willing to trial the kits to help her get thread quantities right etc.  Of course we would!  So my thought process last night took me from appliqué trout to kantha trout.  

This morning I got out all my embroidery threads and made a cunning plan:

This afternoon, while the wind continues to blow and the rain is only a short time away, I am sitting in front of a lovely fire stitching my fish. Bliss, thanks Angela.

Two Trips to Unique

On Saturday Al and I travelled to Spalding to visit the Open Studios at Unique Cottage Studios.  These are a series of farm outbuildings that have been converted to artists' studios and an exhibition space and there is now the addition of a lovely café.
All the artists were in their studios, demonstrating their skills and showing their work.  It was a very inspiring time.  Al studied ceramics a long, long time ago ('when dinosaurs were alive' according to eldest grandson) and has also done some stained glass work so he was particularly interested to talk to potter, Tony Orvis, and to glassworker, Gillian Wing.  I think he might sign up for some workshops with Tony in the near future and Gillian shared a technique of layering glass on glass, like a mosaic, that I think Al will be trying.  I was happy discussing the textiles group that meet at Unique regularly and seeing some of their work on display.  Something totally unexpected captivated us both, Katie Smith's 'Moveable Museum of Found Objects' and we had a lovely chat with Katie about her work.  I do encourage you to have a look at her website.

On Monday I was back at Unique, this time to do a workshop with lovely Angela Daymond and joined by my friend, Ros, all the way from deepest, darkest Norfolk.  The workshop was called 'Slow, Slow, Stitch, Stitch, Slow' and we worked on naturally dyed fabrics.

Angela had provided us with a lovely selection, dyed with woad, daffodil, logwood and weld, among others, and we arranged our pieces to create a new cloth in the boro/kantha tradition. Up cycling is not new!

We then started to stitch, with lots is support from Angela and using mainly a straight running stitch. So therapeutic, a quiet and relaxing day, even for Ros who doesn't "do random".