A Pretty Picture for Sunday - Roman Silhouette

Taken in the late afternoon on 12th October.

Welcome to Sally and Debbie Kelly, the latest followers - thank you for joining!

                             Bristol Cenotaph this morning, Remembrance Sunday

Free Motion Oak Leaves and Acorns

The latest free motion experiment has a definite autumnal feel to it.  The last time I did oak leaves and acorns it was in applique, which is slightly more time consuming.

The shape of the leaves was not much of a problem.  I did the veins first and then went round them to give the outline.

The acorns were a bit more hit and miss, and using the dark thread the misses show more than I would like.  

As always, botanical accuracy had to be compromised.  A self-respecting real life oak hasn't got flimsy trailing branches, and the leaves have extremely short stems.  I have to keep reminding myself that this is quilting, not botanical drawing.

When I was busy with the applique last year I was lucky enough to stroll into the museum and see a touring exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci drawings owned by the Queen.  The drawings were displayed in individual glass cases, with the glass only a couple of inches from the paper so you could peer at them close up - which is what you need to do, because the drawings are really small, they would fit on a page of a school exercise book.  I spent ages glued to this magnificent work.

Welcome to the latest followers, Susan and Gail Auen - thank you for joining!

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.

A Pretty Picture for Sunday - The Square at Wadowice

Taken this year on 22nd August, a year and a day after our last visit.  This time we could get a good view.

Doll Quilt - Pegged on the Line

This is the quilt that I made for Pattilou, my September partner in the Doll Quilters' Monthly swap. The theme was "Quilt in a Quilt", so I decided to do a quilt hanging on the line.

First I pieced a tiny little quilt top from pieces of dress weight cotton poplin that I had stashed in one of my scrap jars.  The individual squares in the tiny quilt ended up at seven eighths of an inch, and the border about an inch wide.

In the finished quilt, which measures about 16 by 16 and a half inches, the tiny quilt is hanging on the line in a free motion quilted garden.  The background colours are varied to give the impression of depth, with darker neutrals for the ground and a strip of pink in the sky.

The real fun in making this quilt was doing the free motion quilting.  The line needed to be strung from something, and posts would have been boring, so I decided to have it tied between two trees.

The first free motion quilting I did was a line of ferns for the foreground.  Next I did a line of grass.

Then it was time to do the trees.  Doing the tree on the right was easy enough.  To prevent having too much of the work bunched up under the arm of the machine, I decided to turn the quilt round and worked the tree on the left upside down.

Once the trees were finished I filled in the rows of grass in the background, diminishing the size and changing to a paler thread to give a feeling of perspective.

For the binding I used a pale brown cotton with a tiny pattern in a similar rusty red to the border of the quilt on the line. 

The finishing touch was hand stitching on the cord for the line, and quarter inch cylindrical wooden beads for the pegs.

For the piecing, straight line quilting and binding, I used my 1949 Singer 15K hand machine, and for the free motion quilting, the trusty 1945 Singer 15K treadle.

This quilt is now hanging in Pattilou's house in Utah, and I have to give her a huge vote of thanks for sending me all these pictures today so I could do this post... I can't use my own pictures because our computer is totally out of action.  I love and hate computers, whereas I love and love my sewing machines.  And Pattilou tells me she loves this quilt, and I love hers, so we are both happy!

Linking up again with Leah Day's blog for Free Motion Friday
and Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Whoop Whoop Friday
and also this quilt is being entered into the Bloggers's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.... so loads of links for you to follow this week!

Made from Scraps

I was rummaging in the cupboard today and came across these - triangles joined in little strips, each a fraction less than six inches long.  They were made from the cut off spare triangles when I made a quilt in the Sister's Choice pattern about two and a half years ago.  I made them and then shoved them away, not quite knowing what to do with them, but after coming across them today I think there might be an idea brewing...

A 1905 Postcard

This photograph is on a postcard which I bought at an antiques market recently.  It still has the stamp on the back, with Edward VII on it, and the postmark is July 15th 1905.  The anonymous garden fence and the chair could just as easily be now, but the child!  How long was it before that beautiful fine white cotton dress and bonnet got grubby?

The more I look at this picture the more convinced I am that it is a little boy - there is something about the boisterousness, and the beefy fat face.  Also, I have seen shoes like that on Lindaroo's blog, and they had been worn by her father.

This picture now lives in my sewing room.  I enjoy having a cheerful little face looking at me.

A Pretty Picture for Sunday - Roman Sunset

Taken on the evening of 12th October, looking along the Tiber to St. Peter's from Ponte Umberto I.

Welcome to Judy Prescott, the latest follower - thank you for joining!