Quilts - In no particular order!

If you have looked in on my general blog you may know that stitching, at the moment, is held up for me while I try to allow damaged tendons in a couple of my fingers to heal.
Sooooo frustrating!! So I have ended up browsing past stitching projects and thought I might show you a little of my quilting journey over these past years ..... in no particular order!

This bed sized blue and white quilt was inspired by a book I was given one christmas about snowflake photography. These images are so exquisite I just had to have a go. Each white panel depicts a different snowflake, I remember having such 'fun' trying to draw them!!
I chose the cool blues to surround the panels because what else does the temperature feel like when it snows? Why the quilted rings because that is how the snowflakes appear as they melt, little drips of water that flow back into our rivers and seas.

Just a little closer in on a snowflake, I also added some silver beading to these panels at a later date - this quilt I have kept for myself!!

This is my original 'Kaleidoscope' quilt using pillow patchwork made for a little american boy who lived in England for a while due to his parents working here - I guess it carries on its travels over in america now, I have lost contact with them.

This was a cot size quilt inspired by a kirlian photograph of a butterfly where only the energy
around the object gets picked up - its like its just the presence of the butterfly rather than the creature itself, I found it fascinating. The rigid quilted triangle expressed a little of me caught in a world of being 'mum' and how I sometimes wanted to lift free of all that and just be me!!
This was a donation to a childrens hospital charity.

This bed quilt was inspired by a teeny-tiny scrap of material - a panda print!
I loved the dresden plate patchwork back then so used that and added my applique block in the centre panel. Some of the quilting depicts chinese script which I hope says 'Big Bear Cat' the chinese name for these gorgeous animals and hence the name of this quilt.

A little closer shows the panda chomping on bamboo sat amongst,this a nod to the oriental,
a rock garden.
This quilt was admired on the quiet by mum-in-law, guess where it ended up!

This is 'Kaleidoscope II' a much zingier pillow quilt which has found its way to
my lovely little nephew.

This quilt doesn't exist any more but it was the beginning of my love affair with the swirling celtic designs of old. It is an appliqued silhouette of an ash tree, so abundant here in the Dales,
the border is a stylised pattern of appliqued leaves, anchored at the corner and centres by

the appliqued sooty black buds that distinguish this wonderful tree.

This cream quilt I've called 'Daisy sprite' for the embroidered daisies scattered
around the borders. I took it into my head to do a single colour patchwork, why? I guess just because I could - the pattern was quite apt as apparently it is called 'crazy ann'.
I think people thought I was crazy chopping up a length of cloth to stitch it back together again!

This wall hanging was a first foray into felt applique. I would do it so differently now but I called it Muin - a celtic name for the blackberry which was said to symbolize the golden things of life (outside of money!!) Family, spirituality, regard, love...... needless to say I quilted some of this using a gold thread!

Another wall hanging called 'dewdrops'. Again I was using the curling, flowing celtic style I love and added the almost tear-like dew drops - inspired by early morning dew on grass seed heads one early morning walk with our old labrador.

This was one of the few commissions I have undertaken, very specifically a central
medallion motif was wanted and it had to fit on a double bed. As much as I enjoyed the creating of the quilt I do find such specific requests quite stifling as I can't go off on a tangent
as the design unfolds, my usual method of working!

This little mat I made on the one and only quilting class I have ever been to....called 'Forest green' for the colour of the applique motif. I almost headed off on an hawiian type of stitching around it. This one enden up in Norwy with a pen-friend of child-hood.
(I really must get in touch with her again!!)

This is one of the few quilts I regret letting go of, a 21st birthday gift to a sister-in-law, I loved the rich red colour in the patchwork and the idea behind the quilt. The print in the centre of the star is of ladybirds .......
'ladybird, ladybird fly away home '.
I used a quilting motif that represented the 'white rose' of Yorkshire and my family had just wended its way back to home territory after moving around the country for work -
Hence this quilt was called 'Fly away home'.


There, a meandering around some of my past work.
My ideas and style is slowly changing I know and I find it quite desperate trying to keep away from my needles. That has happened so much this last few years, I hope I can begin to change that and maybe make my life and part of my living through what I love.
Watch this space as they say!!! :-)

Thanks for calling in, please say hi it would be good to hear from you all.

Wensleydale Rose

This smaller quilt I really enjoyed making. I'd seen in a magazine a wreath style quilt and wanted to have a go at my own - I used applique and enhanced the flower motif by adding an extra crocheted layer using some of my hand spun wensleydale yarn, hence the name!
I didn't want to use a five petalled 'rose',that would have been more natural but that motif is already 'taken' in the symbol of the white rose of Yorkshire - its close enough though to the dog rose that grows wild in the hedgerows around here.

In the centre of the wreath I quilted a repeat of the rose design and then went for a traditional quilting filler design.

A little closer on the applique,
I love using cream and liked the muted tones to go with it....

.....here closer in on my 'dog rose' flower.

....and the border where I quilted the rose repeat again before venturing into the large scalloped edge, very fiddly that bit!!

I'd used a very soft organic cream cotton for the front and back and with the colouring of the applique it gave a lovely antique feeling to the whole quilt.

I think I'd like to try 'mark II' of this quilt just to see how my style has changed over the years and to see what comes out of the idea this time!