Song of Zadar

The second reveal of our Endeavourers Quilt Group is due today. This quarter the theme was Transformation/Change. Now you would think that as I was one of the members who suggested this theme that I might have had a jumpstart on making the challenge quilt, well you would be wrong :)

I had originally toyed with using the Mathematical concept of Transformation as the basis of my quilt for the quarter, but Mathematics has never really been my strongpoint so that idea was soon jettisoned.

Nothing was really grabbing my attention, until I came across this photograph taken in Zadar in Croatia last year.

This is part of the sea wall at Zadar, which was replaced with these steps and the system of pipes contained within them in 2005/6. As the water moves through the pipes it is transformed into random musical notes. I had my inspiration!

And here is my quilt - Song of Zadar!

I gathered together a selection of white/cream and grey fabrics and pieced them in strips to represent the concrete steps, then surrounded them on two sides with strips of blue watery fabric to represent the sea.

The back consists of pieced blue fabrics, each of which portray the movement of the water through the pipes.

I used a metallic blue thread to quilt waves on the sea strips and a light grey to quilt straight lines on the steps as a nod to musical notation.

When the quilt was bound I decided that it was lacking some movement, so I added some beads as well.

As well as giving a sense of movement to the quilt, the beads also represented the soaring sounds that the Sea Organ achieves.

I had received this book in the post the day before, so embellishment was very much on my mind:)

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this challenge and I can't wait to see what my fellow Endeavourers have come up with, I am sure it will be amazing. You can check them all out here

We visited the Sea Organ twice on our visit to Zadar, and I recorded the sounds of the Sea on our second trip but I have not been able to find that recording since I upgraded my phone a few months ago :(

You can listen to it here instead.

Seashells on the seashore

Welcome to this week's TGIFF link party where I am delighted to share my latest finish with you.





I shared some of my progress on the Shoreline embroidery with the new stitches that I have tried in my recent New to Me post, so I am pleased to be able to share the whole embroidery with you as it is now finished (finally!).

The whole process of creating this piece has been a joy from start to finish and I have tried so many new techniques and stitches along the way.

I fell absolutely in love with the Spiders Web stitch, used to attach the button and sea glass above and also on its' own at the top left in blue.

There were lots and lots of French knots and quite a few buttonhole circles!

I had a lot of fun adding the buttons, pieces of sea glass and even the odd sequin to the embroidery as well as the shells I started out with.

Now I have to work out how to frame it!

Over to you now to link up your wonderful finishes this week. Share the celebrations by checking out your fellow finishers posts and give them a virtual pat on the back too :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Stitches and Sealife

Welcome to this month's New to Me Link Party, where we celebrate the triumphs and disasters of trying out new and exciting things!

This month I have visited a New to Me place.

We visited the Bristol Aquarium with the gorgeous grandson and whilst he wasn't overly impressed with the fishy display, I was definitely inspired by the amazing textures of the coral and the colourful fish. I suppose when the Rays are as big as yourself it can be rather daunting :)

Sticking with the seaside theme I have also been exploring some new to me stitches in my Shoreline embroidery (yes I am still plugging away at that!).

First up Sorbello Stitch

next was Scroll Stitch , which was the perfect stitch for a wave don't you think.

I really like trying out new stitches in my embroidery projects and anything that replaces that old stalwart the French knot as a filler stitch is always a winner in my book!

So, that's my New to Me's for this month, now it is your turn to link up and show off the new techniques, patterns or anything else that you have tried out for the first time. As always, the link party will remain open until the end of the month, so if you have tried out something new but not yet blogged about it you still have plenty of time left. As Sandra can confirm the New to Me party accepts link ups right up to the deadline :)

An InLinkz Link-up