So, I appreciate that it has been a while since my last post regarding current work, but I have been very busy, and I have lots of new pieces to show you, some of which I couldn't post photos of earlier, in case people saw presents before they were given!
First fo all, the cup cake quilt that you have heard about but not yet seen is finished:
It's the biggest piece I have ever completed and measures 36inches (90cm) square. The crazy patchwork blocks were machine pieces, then the applied is stuck on with bondaweb, then I've done hand blanket stitch around every piece (the cupcakes and the writing at the top of the quilt). Around the edge of the design is the cupcake recipe, hand embroidered in backstich, and I have hand quilted in decorative running stitch around each of the nine panels. The quilt is finished off with a pearly button to top each cupcake.
As well as my beautiful quilt, I have been doing cross stitch. First some brithday cards as June is quite the busy month:
This is a Margaret Sherry design from the subscriber only pages of Cross Stitcher. It's stitched in Anchor threads on a piece of hand dyed 14hpi pink aida from Kates Kloths.
This was a birthday card for Jane.
This was a design that I have stitched before - it came as a cover kit on an issue of Cross Stitcher last year, and I stitched it as a birthday card then as well. This one is stitched on white 28hpi evenweave in Anchor threads and is for Aunty Margaret
Aunty Chris's birthday card: this design came from Cross Stitch Collection and is stitched on pale blue 14hpi aida in Anchor threads with some beads in the middle. The same feature on the magazine had a much larger design of the same style, and I would love to stitch that some day for myself....
And finally, this birthday card was for Granny. The pattern was stamped onto calical (the stamp os from letters tied with Blue) and then wadding was placed behind the calico and the design stitched in backstitch.
But I haven't just been stitching birthday cards. When I first thought about stitching the map pf Bedfordshire for Dad that I completed in April, I had wanted to combine Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire as one map - unfortunately, the two were designed at a different scale, making this as good as impossible.
So, having stitched the Bedfordshire Map for Dad's birthday, I made a start on the Hertfordshire map for Father's day. And here it is
As you can see, I have completed it as quilt using the same fabrics as for Bedfordshire. I had no idea how many places in Hertforshire began with the letter B, but I was sick of stitching it by the end!
This was a chart from Heritage Stitchcraft, and I stitched it on 28hpi ivory linen in DMC threads.
Due a small mistake in the cutting, the design wasn't central to the quilt, so I did a bit of quick thinking, and the text you can see (but probably can't quite read) on the left hand side of the design (vertically) is the motto of Hertfordshire - this addition just helped in re-centering the design, and meant that I didn't have to undo the quilt piecing I had already done - I think it finished the piece off quite nicely, and I am certainly not upset that I cut it wrong in the first place.
As if this wasn't sufficient, I then started another Heritage map of the Isle of Man. Some friends of ours have strong links with the Island, and a long time ago I bought the chart knowing how much they would love it, but I only just got round to starting it. I knew I would see them this weekend, so the deadline was set....
Despite totally underestimating how much work was involved in this piece, both of the maps were nearly finished by last weekend. All I needed to do was make them up into the quits. Two evening - no problem. Yeah, right.
At ten o'clock on Tuesday I had done all of the machine pieceing, the nad quilting and the pressing, but I hadn't finished off the edge properly.
It was lucky that I had a three hour train journey to come down to Mum and Dad's on the Wednesday evening - both quilts were finished before the train got to York! Not bad!
I gave the Isle of Man Map to Roger last night, and he was over the moon with it! It makes all the hard work worthwhile.
That's it for the moment - I do of course have other things in the pipeline - I can promise memory books, hardanger and a bit more patchwork in the near future. Watch this space!
First fo all, the cup cake quilt that you have heard about but not yet seen is finished:
It's the biggest piece I have ever completed and measures 36inches (90cm) square. The crazy patchwork blocks were machine pieces, then the applied is stuck on with bondaweb, then I've done hand blanket stitch around every piece (the cupcakes and the writing at the top of the quilt). Around the edge of the design is the cupcake recipe, hand embroidered in backstich, and I have hand quilted in decorative running stitch around each of the nine panels. The quilt is finished off with a pearly button to top each cupcake.As well as my beautiful quilt, I have been doing cross stitch. First some brithday cards as June is quite the busy month:
This is a Margaret Sherry design from the subscriber only pages of Cross Stitcher. It's stitched in Anchor threads on a piece of hand dyed 14hpi pink aida from Kates Kloths.
This was a birthday card for Jane.
This was a design that I have stitched before - it came as a cover kit on an issue of Cross Stitcher last year, and I stitched it as a birthday card then as well. This one is stitched on white 28hpi evenweave in Anchor threads and is for Aunty Margaret
Aunty Chris's birthday card: this design came from Cross Stitch Collection and is stitched on pale blue 14hpi aida in Anchor threads with some beads in the middle. The same feature on the magazine had a much larger design of the same style, and I would love to stitch that some day for myself....
And finally, this birthday card was for Granny. The pattern was stamped onto calical (the stamp os from letters tied with Blue) and then wadding was placed behind the calico and the design stitched in backstitch.
But I haven't just been stitching birthday cards. When I first thought about stitching the map pf Bedfordshire for Dad that I completed in April, I had wanted to combine Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire as one map - unfortunately, the two were designed at a different scale, making this as good as impossible.
So, having stitched the Bedfordshire Map for Dad's birthday, I made a start on the Hertfordshire map for Father's day. And here it is
As you can see, I have completed it as quilt using the same fabrics as for Bedfordshire. I had no idea how many places in Hertforshire began with the letter B, but I was sick of stitching it by the end!
This was a chart from Heritage Stitchcraft, and I stitched it on 28hpi ivory linen in DMC threads.
Due a small mistake in the cutting, the design wasn't central to the quilt, so I did a bit of quick thinking, and the text you can see (but probably can't quite read) on the left hand side of the design (vertically) is the motto of Hertfordshire - this addition just helped in re-centering the design, and meant that I didn't have to undo the quilt piecing I had already done - I think it finished the piece off quite nicely, and I am certainly not upset that I cut it wrong in the first place.
As if this wasn't sufficient, I then started another Heritage map of the Isle of Man. Some friends of ours have strong links with the Island, and a long time ago I bought the chart knowing how much they would love it, but I only just got round to starting it. I knew I would see them this weekend, so the deadline was set....
Despite totally underestimating how much work was involved in this piece, both of the maps were nearly finished by last weekend. All I needed to do was make them up into the quits. Two evening - no problem. Yeah, right.
At ten o'clock on Tuesday I had done all of the machine pieceing, the nad quilting and the pressing, but I hadn't finished off the edge properly.
It was lucky that I had a three hour train journey to come down to Mum and Dad's on the Wednesday evening - both quilts were finished before the train got to York! Not bad!
I gave the Isle of Man Map to Roger last night, and he was over the moon with it! It makes all the hard work worthwhile.
That's it for the moment - I do of course have other things in the pipeline - I can promise memory books, hardanger and a bit more patchwork in the near future. Watch this space!
Comments