400 up and still talking..........

................... to all of you that is :o)


This is my 400th post - where has that time gone, over two years?


I've 'met' lots of lovely people through blogging, built up on-line friendships with people all over the world, gained masses of inspiration both about quilting and life in general, laughed and cried along with lots of you.


Thank you to my blogging friends you've added a whole new dimension to my life.


I'm having a giveaway for this landmark but more about that at the end of the post.


One blogging friend I've been chatting to on line for a while is Karol-Ann up in beautiful Yorkshire. Reading her posts and looking at the gorgeous scenery in her photos makes me often quite homesick about the county of my birth and upbringing.


Lately we've been talking about quilts to signify Yorkshire and I mentioned I'd made one some time ago - it actually turns out to be nine years ago.


So here you go Karol-Ann - this is at your request.


In 1999 the National Quilt Championships were held in Olympia in London. One of the classes was a quilt shaped like a playing card (rectangular but with rounded corners) measuring 24" x 36" and depicting an English county of your choice and it had to have the name of the county on the front somewhere.


As much as I love living here in Somerset, spent 13 wonderful years in Gloucestershire, gave birth to my eldest in Herefordshire and experienced 6 months of French living, Yorkshire will always have a strong hold on my heart.


For those of you slightly less familiar with British geography Yorkshire is the largest county in England with many contrasts. Wild barren moorland in the north to sadly now less concentrated heavy industry in the south. From the numerous pretty little dales in the west to the spectacular coast in the east it is a wide and varied land whose people are intensely proud to be 'Tykes' the colloquial name for Yorkshiremen.


My aim with this quilt was to signify that contrast in two halves separated by the token river running across the centre. (Apologies that the quilt looks somewhat crumpled - it's been in a bag in the bottom of my wardrobe for some time - I really should get round to finding it a home to hang it where it won't get faded)


The top right half of the quilt symbolises the 'moorland jock' sheep which are the only real cash crop for farmers in the rugged uplands on the Pennine chain of hills. This is the part of Yorkshire I grew up in.


I remember the process of getting his facial features just right was a real devil of a job



In the background I've endeavoured to represent the heather moors so gloriously purple in August and September each year


The sheep is peering over my interpretation of a typical dry stone wall of which there are miles and miles across the fells. If I had a pound for each mile of this sort of wall in Yorkshire I would be a rich woman. This lichen on the rock is made with tatted lace using perle embroidery thread


And his wool is actually knitting wool crocheted into a chain and stitched on to embellish him.


The river is made up of several layers - the background is some quilting fabric with a brown stone effect, then I built up lots of layers of slivers of translucent ribbons in watery colours and finally a layer of blue net to hold it all in place


Along the river I've embroidered the names of most of the Yorkshire rivers in a blue sparkly thread - that was an education, scouring the maps to try and include them all - I found many that I'd never even heard of - well I did say it was a big county. The river Wharfe runs through the village I grew up in - Wharfedale is my dale.


At the top of my river I hand appliqued the symbolic white rose of Yorkshire - in hindsight I do wish I'd embroidered black fine lines around each of the constituent pieces so it's easier to discern from a distance but this is how it is and this is how it will stay.

The opposite bottom left half of the quilt signifies the industrial south of the county - the area where I was born and lived until I was 18 months old.


Although I only lived in the mining area of South Yorkshire for a fairly short time my family has extensive connections with the coal mining industry, my father worked down the mine in his early twenties, my maternal grandfather was a miner all his life and on my fathers side we were the only family to my knowledge to have 5 First Class Colliery Manager's tickets in one family - my paternal grandfather, his three brothers and their father (my great grandfather) so you can say that there is most definitely coal in my blood.


Sadly the British coal mining industry declined in the 1980s and 1990s although there are still plenty of reserves under the ground - who knows maybe as fuel prices continue to rise around the world they might have to resort to mining again as it becomes less economically unattractive. Sadly by that time most if not all of the expertise of our mining industry will have retired or died and we will have to learn it all over again.


Anyway enough of our social history - I wanted this half of the quilt to be the complete opposite of the other so picked a sunset background with the silhouette of the colliery winding gear and the ubiquitous slag heaps standing sharply against the orange sky.


The orange also signifies the glow from the iron smelting works which also used to be such a feature of the Sheffield area - sadly most are gone now - heavy industry has very little foothold in the UK's economy any more. That's why I worked the word Yorkshire in silver metallic fabric and embroidered Sheffield Stainless Steel (famous all over the world) on the 'H' in the word.



The shadowed cottages in the foreground are miners houses.



They all have dirty smoke from their chimneys - as a child whenever I returned to this area to visit my grandparents there was always a certain smell about the air - mainly due to the coal fire in each house fuelled with the discounted coal which was part of the colliers wages.


Finally I pieced the back with another cottage but this time from the greener Dales environment - sorry I obviously forgot to turn this photo before I added it.

I travelled to Olympia to see my quilt hung with all the others - it didn't win any prizes although I do believe it was hanging next to another Yorkshire one which was third prize. As I stood anonymously near the quilt admiring my handiwork I overheard a couple of ladies viewing the exhibits and one of them pointed to my quilt saying 'Oh no, that doesn't work at all - why ever have thet used that orange - I don't like that at all' Obviously my subliminal message of contrast was wasted on this particular lady :o)

So there you have it -YORKSHIRE! - it will always secretly be my home, no matter where else life might take me.


Now onto 400 posts - I did promise a giveaway and I think I gave you all a little hint of its summery theme.


I stitched a basket of strawberries some time ago so decided to make them into something for this auspicious occasion


I added some strawberry fabric


And quilted various strawberry treats in the borders

Here we are - the finished object

All you have to do now to have a chance of making this your own is to add a comment to this post by the end of next Friday 13th June and I will select one from the hat - obviously Friday 13th won't be so unlucky for the person whose name is drawn.

And back to my own work

In between work this week I've managed to get quite a bit done so far


I completed my japanese folded patchwork blocks, put them all together and added an outer border.


It's just awaiting binding in the light blue snowflake fabric and then I can really have fun embellishing it with a selection of icy coloured beads and sequins I picked up in town on Monday. It will be a Christmas wallhanging, although it's one which could stay up all winter as there's nothing too Christmas specific on it.


For any of you readers in the UK who have a branch of Lakeland nearby (used to be Lakeland Plastics) they are currently selling off all their craft goods and returning to concentrating on kitchenware - I picked up all sorts of embellishment goodies - beads, brads etc - it might be worth a look if you're near one.

I've mentioned before that it's both sets of parents' Golden Weddings soon. Nigel's parents this weekend - Golden Wedding rose bush bought and ready for that. Then my parents four weeks later.

I've toyed with the idea of making a cushion or wallhanging of a design I've done before about 7 or 8 years ago of a yellow iris in the stained glass technique using gold bias for the leading. However I've kept procrastinating about buying the bias and then the other day when I was finishing Kate's mud and sand heart quilt I looked across at the black and citrus one I also had ready for quilting.

So I decided that as the hearts are golden coloured I would complete that for them instead.

I got the golden one and its teal buddy quilted yesterday. I've actually quilted hearts in the borders of the golden one - the light was too poor to show them last night but I'll get a macro shot of them when I've done the border. I counted up the other day and these are the last two of 25 of these heart quilts I've made which brings the total hearts stitched to 310! How anal is that? (One had 9, one had 25 and the rest had 12 each).

Still not quite hearted out though - Karol-Ann and I are hatching a cunning plan with 9 more teeny-weeny hearts but I won't steal her thunder, it's her design so watch her space on that one

Once on a quilting roll I changed to cream thread and got to work on the little mini nine patch design I'd copied from Lucy.

And voila! Here it is completed, binding and all. I think Patch, my patchwork teddy might have hijacked it actually - that's a very possessive paw he's holding onto it with.

I had a bit of a go at a completely freehand feather garland in the border which turned out not too bad either although don't look too close because the stitches in the feather spine are a bit on the long side in places - I'd never win a show with it, my stitches are nothing like uniform enough. But hey! who cares? I made it for my own pleasure and enjoyed every minute of it.

Now what shall I do today - think I ought to return to the rose stitchery for my Four Seasons summer quilt and I've a pincushion completed for that swap which I've yet to get a picture of so I'll save that for my next post which will be my 400th!!!!!

And some more...................

................quilts that is.

A lovely Japanese themed room screen

and keeping with the japanese theme this lovely sashiko styled wall hanging took my fancy too

A star block that looks relatively easy to paper piece - well for some people maybe :o)

This one on the initial look just seemed to be a collection of squares - then as you looked more closely the different coloured saw-tooth stars kept popping out one by one - some are more obvious than others - see if you can spot the dark green one.

This quilt really made me smile - I have some postcards somewhere of the original lady's work I think her name is Erica Oller and the stitcher described her as the American version of Beryl Cooke.

A friend of mine in Gloucester had a particularly objectionable mother in law - you know the type, daughter in law is never going to be good enough for her son even if she's a cross between Mother Theresa and Mae West (now there's a picture to conjure with)

The one picture she had showed a scowling lady sitting in her outdoor coat in an armchair and was titled 'She came, she criticised, she left' My friend framed it and hung it on the wall right next to the armchair her mother in law always claimed when visiting even to the point of evicting a sitting tenant! However she was so thick skinned she never realised it was directed at her.

Back to quilts - I loved the top of this box - sadly the camera bleached out the real colours, they were even more beautiful than this.

The 3D perspective effect on this one was very clever - you could almost walk into the quilt

And the little poppies appliqued on top were exquisite

I really liked the pieced binding on this one

Loved the idea of pieced centres for this courthouse steps

The ohio stars (are they?) look great at the centre of the blocks

And finally some more teeny weeny quilts to finish off with

Tomorrow I might even show you some of my own work again

More of my quilt fix

I did promise you some more eye candy from Sunday

There were a few dolls house sized quilts - this one made me think of Hedgehog who visited me back in April

Just look how sweet these little individual hedgehogs are.

Louise was very taken by this 'stack and whack' quilt - I haven't the inclination to make one of these myself - maybe I'll teach her how to make herself one some day.

I've had a book on curved log cabin for a while - I take it out, peruse it, think how lovely the patterns are and then dismiss it thinking how I'd never have the patience to make a quilt in that style

Looking at these two cushions - maybe I should bring out the book again, blow the dust off and make up a couple of blocks to try it out - after all I could just make them into cushions and not have to commit myself to a full quilt

I've always been a fan of hexagons over paper - it's how I first became acquainted with patchwork when I was not much more than Nick's age - I have a quilt top almost complete in a cupboard (only waiting for the final part hexagons completing down the sides - that's the bit I hate the most) - so this one took my fancy. It makes a pleasant change from the usual Grandmother's Flower Garden setting. I think this one had won the award for hand piecing at Malvern.

This clever little thing was simply an arrangement of horizontal strips but carefully chosen for colour, value and position - makes a very pleasing landscape

This was a fabulous study of rock surfaces. I'm not an art quilter but this really caught my eye.

The dyeing and over stitching made you want to study it for ages

And finally a macro shot of lichen on the rocks making up the sea defences on our Sunday wander - obviously she had used something like this for inspiration.

Might even treat you to the rest of the quilts tomorrow........................

This is post 396................

..................... so not long to go now until my 400th post giveaway.


Last weekend was a real mixture - some stitching, some drooling, some pottering and some wandering aimlessly



Firstly I managed to finish all the japanese folded patchwork blocks and this morning at my quilting group I got them put together with the borders ready to bind and then embellish to turn them into a wintry christmas wall hanging. I'll show you this next time


Then, after having big hints dropped by Kate about swapping fabric for a heart quilt, I completed one for her - it will head off in the post in the next couple of days.


The drooling was also associated to stitching as I somehow persuaded Nigel to whizz up to Bristol on Saturday for Bristol Quilters' Exhibition. Not a particularly big collection but definitely food for my soul.


Not least because two of the quilts were by one of the best hand quilters I know of - Sandie Lush. Her stitches are so fine and even - I just don't know how she does it but it was a great privilege to be able to get up close and personal to her work.


Although she mainly does wholecloth, this was a gorgeous applique number she'd magicked together - truly beautiful


There was lots of other inspiration there - from enormous quilts to teeny-weeny ones. I'm not going to show you any more except this one which was so teeny I had to get Louise to put her hand just in front of it to give you an idea of scale. The geese were less than 1/2" wide by 1/4" high - absolutely amazing!


I shall save the rest for further postings this week.


I did partake of a little purchasing, picking up these six fat quarters - I seldom buy matching fabrics from ranges - I prefer to pick at random not giving a jot if any of them match as I usually have something they'll each go with at home - but this little lot really caught my eye. I think it was the particular shade of dusky pink/mauve. All except the very dark burgundy are complimentary from the same make - but I thought the burgundy spray-time would play nicely with them too.


On Saturday before we left Nigel had a job to do - before we can get the contractors in to do the front drive one of the surface water drain manholes needed replacing. We think it had been damaged by a heavy vehicle while the house was still being built. Once he'd fitted the replacement top section he needed to remove any clumps of earth that had fallen in to ensure the drain didn't block.


Unfortunately Nigel is too large to reach down into the hole so went for the next-best thing - Nicholas! Thank goodness it was the freshwater drain for taking rainwater away and not the foulwater one for bathroom waste!


I wasn't quite quick enough with the camera, just before I took this picture Father was dangling his Son and Heir by his ankles upside down into the hole to bring out the clumps of mud! I'm impressed by them using whatever facilities are available to them but I did have to remind Nigel that here in the UK we stopped sending small children up chimneys in Victorian times :o)))


Yesterday we left the two eldest at home in the afternoon - Sarah revising for her second RE exam later this week plus two English and one French as well and Nick amusing himself on the Wii.


We headed off to the estuary of the River Parrott where it meets the Bristol Channel as there's a bird sanctuary there which is the sort of thing Louise always loves to visit. With all the sporting fixtures we've been committed to since we moved here we still have loads of exploring to do within just a 10 or 20 mile radius of home


We had a wander along the sea defences


Made friends with a local cat


And a horse


Then spotted a heron in the tide who in turn was spotting fish


And managed to get quite close to some other little birds at the edge of the water which I still have to look up in the bird book to identify


Finally we found a little village with a launching slip where we might be able to take the canoes out from sometime

And in the village was a cottage with this wonderful tower - who wouldn't love to live in a house like this?