Beach Belles

 It is time for another Endeavourers Challenge reveal! This quarter the theme was "a newspaper headline", well didn't that provide endless scope! 

There have been lots of apocalyptic headlines in the last year or so, but I decided to go for something a bit different for the inspiration for my quilt. Like many of you, I suspect, our summer holiday this year was a "staycation", which as we live by the sea wasn't exactly a hardship :) There are no beach huts nearby, but if there were I wonder would they be selling for the record sums described by my chosen headline - https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/06/why-the-humble-beach-hut-is-the-new-des-res  

Beach huts, of course, are not a modern phenomenon mobile changing rooms were in existence in Scarborough on the North East coast of England well before Victorian times. In the 1890's, the mobile rooms had become static and geared towards leisure rather than taking the seawater cures. 

So, I have imagined my Edwardian beach belles enjoying a stroll along the sands on a lovely, summer day in front of the newly built, colourful beach huts. 

I stitched down strips of scrap fabric for the sea and sky, with little bits of lace and shimmery net to represent the sea foam and sunlight on the water. Scraps of fabric were upcycled from my OH's redundant workshirts for the beach huts and the door outlines free motion embroidered.

The Edwardian ladies were from a FQ of fabric lurking in my stash. The fabric was brushed with Mod Podge for Fabric and left to dry, then the ladies were cut out and free-motion appliqued with invisible thread.

I was even able to stitch together several wadding offcuts for this quilt, so it was a very economical exercise indeed.

I am delighted with how this piece turned out and can't wait to see what my fellow Endeavourers have created for this challenge! You can see them for yourself here

Once again, I have to thank Catherine and Janine for organising this group, I am so thankful to have the opportunity to stretch my creative muscles for these Challenges.

Reflections in the rain

Today is the reveal day for the Endeavourers Quilt Group, where we unveil our makes for the quarterly theme. The theme for this quarter was "Raindrops keep falling on my head" which doesn't immediately bring quilts to mind you have to admit!

My piece for the reveal is entitled "Reflections in the rain", it is quilted, beaded and appliqued slubbed silk joined in 4 pieces to create a 3-D raindrop.

When I started to think about this project I remembered seeing these amazing felted teardrops several years ago at a textile art exhibition in Riga, so they were the inspiration for my project. I knew that I wanted to make a 3-D piece for the theme so experimented with shapes to create the raindrop that I wanted.

The prototype that I stitched was definitely more raindrop shaped than the final piece, but as they say "finished is better than perfect!"

I used the instructions in this book for the appliqued heads and it seemed to work well.

Fabrics are coated with Mod Podge before cutting, which gives them a nearly plastic feel and made cutting out intricate shapes like the Japanese lady's head above much easier than it would otherwise have been!

I added small seed beads to the ends of the radiating machine quilted lines to replicate more raindrops

and layered my coated heads across the base of the raindrop before stitching them down with invisible thread.

As ever there were lots of challenges throughout the making of this piece, but also, as ever, I thoroughly enjoyed creating "Reflections in the Rain" for this quarters Endeavourers Challenge.

To check out the wonderful projects that my fellow Endeavourers have produced for this quarter's challenge head on over to the Endeavourers blog and prepare to be amazed :)