Works in progress and thank you
Thank you Mary Kate for the beautiful Autumnal coloured sarong from Malaysia. It is so beautiful. I love the way the fabric has been dyed in this pattern complete with borders specifically for that purpose. I promise to wear it with a sash this Summer.
Well I’ve not managed to have anything completely finished but lots of things have progressed.
The blue wave edging fabric got carefully cut to match the waves as much as possible.
This is my long term project “Ice Windows” I began it on the 7th June last year. It is a majorly huge relief to have got these done.
I used a range of fabrics called Fairy Frosts as they had a shimmer to them but were cotton so easy to work with.
The grey squares are 2cm. Every shape is hand basted to a paper template and then hand sewn. The red thread will be removed after I’ve hand sewn a grey border edge to each window.
I chose 9 shades to resemble a Wintery frosted covered leaded window and laid them out like a Sudoku puzzle so the colours were completely balanced. Each shade was given a number.
I used the tiniest stitches possible -I think Lucy Boston said you should aim for 20 stitches per inch. The review of the book has a link to the actual house “Greenknowe” that she wrote about in her wonderful children’s books. It was going there last Easter which really fired my imagination and started me on wanting to try patchwork. If ever you have a chance to go to the house, please do it is a rare example of a Norman 1180s manor house as well as still preserved as Lucy Boston left it.
These 2 fabrics together inspired a bit more crow mania. There was something about the Wintery trees and the almost frosted foliage which put a picture in my head.
I was reading a Miss Read book and the Shakespeare quotation came up, so that was it, I knew I had to make these. If anyone is interested in reading books based on Wood Green in Witney, Oxfordshire, then do try her ones based on Thrush Green. I used to live near there and one of my Great Aunts actually had a house facing the Green. She explains how she was inspired by the place in “The World of Thrush Green“.
Black flannel appliqued crow.
I reversed the fabrics for a 2nd panel.
“Sloe black, slow, black, crow black”. By Dylan Thomas in Under Milk Wood. When we lived in Wales we visited Laugharne to see his boat house where he wrote. There’s a virtual tour if you follow the link.
“Light thickens and the crow makes wing to the rooky wood” Macbeth Act 3 Scene 2- By William Shakespeare.
I’ve been very busy cutting the “At Water’s Edge”layer cake into all the right sizes for a quilt I’ll be trying to make over the Summer. Some of the patches will be hand embroidered, but I’ve not started on the first 3 of them yet. It’s another challange for me- making an accurate detailed patchwork with lots of different sized pieces. (Each size has it’s own labelled bag to help save my sanity). I needed 115 3” pieces alone!
My other cutting has been for a felt wallhanging or mat which I’ll be making on Saturday.
This time tomorrow I’ll have finished with the Planning Meeting. No more speech and no more trying to anticipate what questions they may ask me in response to my speech. I’ve chosen a reward for myself to help me get through it- a proper set of old fashioned kitchen scales. I am so so so fed up of these fancy battery operated ones which run out; won’t turn themselves off; start saying error,;turn themselves off mid weigh; etc. I seriously think I was born in the wrong century. 🙂
Wish me luck! I’ll pop over and visit you as soon as I can.
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