New JQ's and mirror hanging

The pix and details of the next four of the Contemporary Quilt group Journal Quilt challenge for this year have now been sent off. This is September's, painted outlines of leaves from a tulip tree at Stapehill Abbey (see earlier posts), so will wait for the next batch . . . . . . . but these two are July and August. This one has prints made using eucalyptus leaves, also from Stapehil, and the surrounding strips are fabrics from a swap with an Australian quilter.
Infinity, the small CQ group that meets locally has been having its own challenge and this next jq is doing double duty, featuring in both challenges. For the Infinity one we pick ideas out of a hat - this is Bicycles. Oddly, while in the middle of making it I went to watch a bit of the Olympics coverage and cycling was on. All those wheels, with black solid bits over the spokes! I really didn't see them till after starting the jq! Must have had the image in my subconscious somewhere. There is monoprinting on a dyed background, black felt, and free machine quilting.
. . . and here's my effort from WCE last Monday, plus some more work on it this morning. You can see it is a mirror in the centre one! Now I have to couch cord round the centre holes, stick all the bits together and put more cord round the edges. Oh, and musn't forget to attach a hanging cord before sticking the back on. There will be another pic in due course.

Ruby Lever I have discovered did these in a workshop in March 2003 for Workshop on the Web, the online embroidery website run by Maggie Grey. The actual workshop is only available for anyone who was subscribing to it then but the link is to the homepage (hopefully!).

West Country Embroiderers, September

This month Ruby Lever came and showed us how to make a mirror hanging. It involved making a sandwich of fabric and felt, free machining all over it, then embellishing with beads etc three small squares, the areas to be cut out for the hanging. I don't have a picture of a finished one yet, but hopefully soon there will be some. Like the pincushions (see below). One by one they appear.
At the Dorset WCE groups exhibition last month there was an 8" cushion challenge, with the winner chosen by popular vote. This was it, done by Anne Barlow from our group! This sort of 'casual canvaswork' was another of the group workshops, led by our current leader Pat Jeram, who made this:
I've a feeling this one needs rotating, oops. It's another lovely example of the pincushion plus needlecase Beppy Berlin taught us at WCE.

We don't get a lot done on the day usually, though most of us beaver away and manage to talk at the same time. It is just a slow process, stitching, that can't be hurried usually.

It did rain last night . .

. . . so I can't claim to be living in a desert, (- the water butts are half-full!) but these plants I imagine might be found in one. Actually they are in the greenhouse at Stapehill Abbey, and are such a lovely collection of shapes, line and colour that they had to be included here.



DH is stocking up on water butts, trying to collect all the (free) rainwater he can. It is not just climate change considerations - we are on a water meter. The rain brought out our solitary frog, that lives in the pond, and an army of slugs. A good anti-slug tip from somewhere was to spread orange peel around the plants. An orange a day and it soon mounts up. And it seems to be working. The little flashes of orange look rather interesting around amongst all the green.

Enough of the flowers . . .

. . . let's have some stitching. The next two 12" x12" journal quilts.
My work done at Lyn Prosser's workshop day with West Country Embroiderers . . .wet felting
and 'faux felting' , which is not felting at all really.
... and some stuff done with my embellisher/needlefelting machine. This one is done with wool tops, slivers of fabric and bits of knitting yarn.
This and the next pic are all one piece. I'm planning to make a bookcover out of it, with . . .

. . . a pocket on the back. The pocket was made just with wool tops and was punched into place. I've more stuff to put round it, then I shall stitch some felt pieces to the ends inside to make sleeves into whch the cover of a note/sketchbook can be inserted.Let's finish off with a needlefelted postcard.(You see, I don't spend all my time swanning round gardens.)

A great place for a picnic . . .

. . . and a soothing stroll. Stapehill Abbey, an ex-Cistercian convent, between Wimborne and Ferndown, a few miles from where we live. One of the local P&Q groups held an exhibition here a week ago. The quilts etc looked really nice hung around in various spaces in the buildings. Today Derek and I took a picnic lunch there by the lake, and wandered round the gardens soaking up the variety of colour, shape and texture in the trees, shrubs and flowers.


It's a bit warm today and we need some rain. Best we can do is a water feature or two.

. . . and a bit of Zen?

White silver birch peeling to cream . . .. . .black bamboo, and yellow, and green.And this plant has fantastic colouring.Can't finish without some flowers . . .

Celtic twists and turns

These patterns have fascinated me for a long time now. Typically, I find the accurate repetitive knots and braids hard but I do like scribbling, outlining and colouring in. And why not a bit of illuminated lettering, my style?

Time for a bit of gardening . . .

. . . and a bit of colour appreciation. Orange to . . .
. . . red to . . .
. . . yellow. OK a bit of blue, musn't leave it out.
Then on to purply shades . .

. . and for those of us who don't do pink . . .
. . . how can we resist these?

Not our garden, but one in our locality that we visited as part of the National Garden Scheme, where interesting gardens of private houses are open to the public for an afternoon in aid of charitable causes.

No UFO's here

Three bags produced by WCE members, finishing off after Eileen Pugh's workshop in June. Hazel's black and red one is striking, and unusual among the more conservative fabric and colour choices of the rest of us. Mine's the pink one!!! I don't do pink!! But I did!