To celebrate the Twelfth Day of Christmas, here is a a photo I took last week of a beautiful window in a country church in Herefordshire. If you can enlarge the photo on your screen, have a close look at the king kneeling at the front - his hair is flattened down and there is an impression left in it by the rim of his crown, which he has taken off to put on the floor.
Welcome to the latest followers, Paul Mangham and Jo Mb. Thank you for joining!
It is just over a year ago that I made a chequerboard quilt with Lily, so it was lovely having the opportunity to make a quilt with her for the Doll Quilters' Monthly swap. The theme was to make a quilt with or for a child, so Sharyn made her quilt for Lily, and Lily did lots of the work on the quilt for Sharyn.
This was the first stage, and this is all Lily's work. I went over to her house with the fabric, cutting board and cutter, and also a large piece of paper so I could do an actual size sketch. Once I had cut out all the pieces, Lily did all the sewing. She has a 1945 Singer 99K hand machine. She had never used a seam guide before, so her mum, Hannah, found some scrap material, and I showed Lily how to keep her seam straight. By the time she had sewn about ten inches I could see she had got the idea already and didn't need any more practice.
Then Lily did all the piecing. I passed her the pieces, she sewed them together, gave them to me to iron while she stitched the next seam... it went like clockwork, and Hannah was amazed at how quickly it was done.
Here is the back of the work. Look at those neat seams!
That was enough work for the day, so I then left it with Lily to do some hand sewing. She had a rummage through her box of embroidery threads and chose the dark green for the flower stems and the yellow for the door number.
After that I didn't see Lily and Hannah for a while, so Hannah posted the work in progress to me - stage 1 of its travels, South Wales to Somerset.
The next stage was for me to add a border. This pinky red floral print is really riotous. It made me think of a cottage garden buzzing with bees, just right for this little quilt.
Next I did the straight line quilting with the Singer 15K hand machine, then the free motion quilting with the 15K treadle. For the wall, door and border I did a meandering infill. For the path in front of the door I did a pebble design, and for the garden I did a grass design - I used completely the wrong colour threads because they don't show up against the brown fabric.
Once I had put on the binding, I stitched on buttons and beads for the little flowers. I love the way Lily had made all the stems different heights on the flowers beneath the window...
... and the stems for this climber go right to the edge, so I put in a couple of flowers overlapping the border, blending in to the busy floral print.
Meanwhile, Sharyn had finished her quilt and it had already arrived at my house, so I went to visit Lily two days after her 11th birthday, delivered Sharyn's quilt, and got Lily to put in the very last stitches...
... sewing on the button for the door knob!
So now you know why the house had to be number 11, even though Lily was only 10 when she did all that hard work!
This quilt was great fun to make - sewn by two people, in two countries, England and Wales, with three different vintage machines, and sent all the way to Sharyn in Australia, where it arrived with the New Year! What a great start to 2014!
Happy New Year Sharyn!
Happy New Year to all visitors and followers.
Thank you for all the visits and comments in the past year. Let's see what 2014 brings!
Welcome to Hilary Bravo, the latest follower - thank you for joining!
Linking up with Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday
Just a little selection of English cheeses lined up on a plate... (I scoffed them while cooking Sunday dinner and ever so slightly spoilt my appetite)
cut from these packets that I raided from the local supermarket before Christmas...
and now laid out on the fabrics with the result of the Boxing Day Quiz.
Number 1 is the colour of smoked salmon, so quite plainly a red herring.
Number 2 is a creamy buttermilk colour. I could just have easily grabbed a block of Lancashire or Cheshire, but I fancied some Wensleydale, which is perhaps a tiny touch pale for the fabric, but I was thinking primarily of my stomach at the time.
Number 3 - I have lost count of the number of times I have seen this colour on American blogs or websites referred to as cheddar, and I have been sitting here yelling, " No, it's Red Leicester!"
Number 4 - yes, here it is, the real thing. Living in Somerset, with Cheddar less than fifteen miles away, we are very particular about our Cheddar. We always buy Farmhouse Cheddar, and my husband likes it extra mature, so it has little chalky calcium bits in it. I prefer it a bit younger myself.
Number 5 - the same routine as number 3, but in this case I will be yelling "Double Gloucester!"
Number 6 in real life is a nice biscuity colour like home made cheese crackers, but my camera couldn't cope with the poor light so it has turned out the colour of dirty pastry that has been rolled out on the floor by a six year old.
Well done Gavin, breezing in first with the right answer! Note the confidence in his answer - no doubt or hesitation. He knows that we would have no problem finding our way round each other's fridges.
Motherdragon's Australian cheddar hit the mark, and Beth Strand realised there was something up my sleeve. Alcea Rosea just missed it, but getting subtle shades of yellow right on computer screens is a hit and miss affair... her cheese and number 2 on her screen may well have been a perfect match.
So if you are feeling a bit peckish by now, feast your eyes on more lovely cheese here, or just make a dash for the fridge.
Water can be so pretty in tiny quantities. This picture was taken in October last year.
Work is ticking ahead on the new project. The basic idea is to do panels with two colours, divided by a thin strip using up small scrap oddments. It was fun reworking the rudbeckias design on yellow - all very sunny and summery.
As for the burgundy red, the colour suggested blackcurrants, so that's what I did. The leaves are fancier than the real thing, but the sprigs of fruit are fairly accurate. I have spent so many hours in my time with my head stuffed in a blackcurrant bush that I didn't need to to look at pictures or draw a sketch. The fruit just grew out of the machine as I sewed. Fab fun.
Linking up again to Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday
and Lorna's blog Sew Fresh Quilts for TGIFF. I feel a bit cheeky linking up to TGIFF because it's not finished... but this block is finished, and she asked me to link up, which was very sweet of her. Thank you Lorna!
...and finally, Barbara's blog Cat Patches for the December NewFO.
The Boxing Day soup will be ready this evening. It smells delicious already. Sewing is fading into the background for the moment. Cooking is the order of the day. Is it possible to combine the two and expend as little energy as possible? Yes, with the Boxing Day Quiz!
Take a long hard stare at the photo above, showing various shades of yellow, with a couple of shades of not really yellow at all thrown in for good measure. Bear in mind that the camera can't cope very well with the poor midwinter daylight, and I have done my best adjusting the colour with the pictures editor to try and get the shades as close to real life as possible.
Now it is time to dash to the kitchen and get yourself a plate of cheese and crackers, settle down again and look at the picture, and tell me...
Which of these fabrics is the colour of Cheddar?
No prizes, I'm afraid, but a good excuse for a sneaky quick snack.
The answer will be posted next week. In the meantime I will be very busy relaxing.
