Hunt for Roses

 It is time for another quarterly reveal from the Endeavourers Art Quilt Group. We were down to the very last suggested theme for this quarter which is Emotions/Feelings. I am sure that you will not be surprised to know that even although I knew that this was the only theme left, I had zero inspiration for much of the last three months :)

Finally I decided to use the language of flowers as my representation of an emotion, and the emotions/feelings I chose to depict were Joy and Gratitude, which is symbolised by a pink rose. This quote might explain why that might be -

“Historically, rose petals were valued for their medicinal qualities than their aesthetic qualities. Rose has antidepressant properties.”
― Amy Leigh Mercree, The Mood Book: Crystals, Oils, and Rituals to Elevate Your Spirit

 

Despite the restrictions and difficulties of the past two years, when I was trying to pick an emotion to depict I realised that actually I have a lot to be joyful about so a pink rose was the perfect fit. When our youngest son announced his engagement to his lovely girlfriend last week, well that was even more reasons to be joyful! 

I wanted to use a couple of New to Me techniques in this little quilt as well as trying to use what I had on hand. My local textile group has started off the year with a challenge to embrace "renewal" so this quilt is also my nod to that challenge too. 

The background fabric, which is a rust-dyed scrap given to me by a friend at a recent workshop, gave me the idea to base the quilt on a page from a vintage book of botanical illustrations. So, I was quite happy to embrace the "imperfections" to help convey the feeling of age and all that goes with that in a book. The fabric for the petals is taken from these now redundant work shirts of my DH. I was very happy to discover such a range of pinks for my rose :)

The rose stem and leaves were painted with these Inktense blocks and pencils. I had never used the blocks before, and as you can see from the colours above, my original intention was to paint the rose as well as the stems. In the end though only the stem and leaves were painted.

The Inktense pencils and blocks are water soluble, but on fabric can spread more than anticipated when diluted with water, so Aloe Vera gel is suggested as a medium that will allow the spread of the colour but stop the bleeding associated with water. As I needed clear lines for my illustration, I applied the colour to the fabric with the blocks and then used the paintbrush dipped in gel to intensify the colour. The colour is fixed when the fabric dries. 

I downloaded the rose template from here and traced it on to tear away stabiliser. During the first lockdown here in the UK I watched a Zoom demonstration by Gillian Cooper, who used a reverse applique technique to create a puffin applique notebook. This was, finally, my opportunity to have a go at that reverse applique technique! 

The stabiliser was pinned to the back of the background fabric and sewn from the back. I built up the rose from the outside in by attaching a piece of shirt fabric at a time with a small dot of fabric glue and stitching the outline of a petal before turning the stitched piece over and trimming back to just outside the stitched line. 

 Once the rose was complete I turned the piece back to the front and, using the stem and leaf part of the stencil, free machine embroidered the outline of the stem and leaves. The stabiliser was then torn away and the leaves and stem painted with the Inktense block and pencils, with more detail in the leaves added with some fme once the paint was dry.

As you can see above the rose was lacking a bit in detail, especially in the centre, where the fabrics were very similar. I, therefore, quilted around the rose petals with a deeper rose pink thread in the needle to accentuate the rose petals.

Instead of the botanical rose name below the flower I embroidered this phrase that I found online as it tied in with my theme of gratitude - "When life throws thorns hunt for roses".

I couldn't envisage this piece as a quilt and keeping with the idea of it being inspired by a botanical illustration, I decided to frame the piece in a picture frame instead. Fortunately as well as supplying the shirts for the rose petals my DH also painted the picture frame in a colour called "Stone Rosie", which seemed particularly appropriate too! 

So, once again another Endeavourers Challenge has been met and once again, I am really looking forward to seeing how my fellow Endeavourers have responded to the challenge. If you would like to see their responses too, you will find them here . Prepare to be inspired :)

As ever my thanks go to Catherine and Janine for organising another excellent Challenge!

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.

Catching up

Well it has been a while since my last post that is for sure! Over and above all of the craziness that the world has gone through in the last 18 months, life at the home of Celtic Thistle has been more full on than most. 

Two of our sons, their partners and our two grandsons all ended up living with us over the summer as their house and country moves dragged out. With 4 of them working from home as well, not to mention an overlocker service that ended up taking 2 months instead of 2 weeks sewing was very much on the back burner :)

It wasn't a complete write off though, I managed to make these two half-zip hoodies for the boys before they arrived. First time sewing in an invisible zip! More practise is probably needed on that though :)

Before the overlocker disappeared into the black void that was a supposedly quick service (!) I whipped up a few pieces for the boys.

So we had Tractors

Pirates

Seagulls (very apt for their holiday by the sea!) and rainbow submarines

Surfboards and campervans, especially appropriate when you enjoy sitting in the drivers seat of your Uncle's blue campervan!

Rainbow animals,

 

blue crabs,

nosy Highland cows

and parachuting penguins!

Some pirate boardshorts, first time using boardshort fabric too - very slippery! 

Jellyfish leggings! These have even been worn to school on a "Pantosaurus" day, so I think he likes them :)

Naturally there were a couple of underpants and boxers run up to use up some of the scraps! 

By the time that my overlocker was finally returned my friend's daughter had had a baby boy, so these outfits were soon hot off the needles. I had forgotten how tiny clothes for new babies are :)

It was a busy summer and we were so greatful to be able to spend so much time with our family after spending such a long time apart :)