Sunday 22 February 2015

Postcard Delivered

This is my journal quiltlet for February finished.  Thank you for your comments, I decided to write in Maltese, the proverb translates as,
"After bad weather comes fine weather".
I used lace and thread dyed with woad on the quilt as well as commercially produced cotton perlé and a little of that Chinese silk thread used for tassels.  As the Chinese New Lunar Year was celebrated when we were in Malta it seemed appropriate.
Now we are home I shall return to my New Zealand project before thinking about the next journal quilt in March.  We also have two great workshops coming up in Country Roads Quilters, one to make a lantern-style fabric bowl and one with Jennie Rayment so I'm going to be busy!
The weather is awful here, grey, grey, grey and wet, just right for sitting by the fire to stitch.  Enjoy your Sunday.

Monday 16 February 2015

A Postcard from Malta

Today I think I have finished the stitching on my February journal quilt for the Contemporary Quilt group challenge.
I am on holiday in Malta and so my quiltlet is inspired by the island, the colours, the sea, the honey-coloured limestone rock, the ancient history:
I have decided on a Maltese proverb to write onto my quilt but can't decide whether to write it in English or Maltese (which I can't pronounce properly).  I shall sleep on it!


Monday 9 February 2015

Contemporary Journal Quilt - February

This is the start of my quiltlet for February.
I am on holiday in Malta so this month my work will have a very different feel from January.
You will see that I have included one fabric from January, one of my self-imposed "rules" for this project.  Another "rule" was that I include some text and I am currently collecting ideas and pondering this for February.  It won't be written in Maltese though, I couldn't pronounce it!
Today is the Festival of Broken Needles in Japan so it is a good day to be stitching and be thankful for the most simple and essential if our tools.  Firstly though I have a pedicure booked in the spa 😉

Monday 2 February 2015

Two Sewn, Four To Do


The weekend's work!  So many of you have, like me, spent a lot of this weekend sewing.  In the UK it has been cold, with a lot of places experiencing heavy snowfall and to sit by a fire and stitch was the perfect plan.
The first two, actually the bottom left two, journal quilts from my NZ trip are now joined and quilted.  I've used a large sashiko stitch and cotton perlé for the quilting in the borders and a variety of threads for quilting the blocks.  Again I was caught out by hand stitching through batiks, also known as sewing concrete, and my fingers are suffering a little, but I live batiks!! How we suffer for our art!!