The next challenge is:

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

The whole world relies on water - we, as humans,  are made up of 60% water.  Life would not exist on this planet without water, therefore there are so many subjects we can choose:  Beaches, Rivers, Ponds with vegetation and water birds, the list goes on and on.  Enjoy!

Bren as there are only 4 of us left on this group we decided to take turns on choosing the next subject therefore you will be choosing at the end of April, then Jinnie, Rosemary, myself and you.  This will give you a bit of time to choose next time around.

BOTANICAL

 FROM ROSEMARY:  

Rosemary is having trouble getting onto the blog on her computer so has asked me to post her piece on her behalf.

I really enjoyed this subject as I love flowers and anything botanical in particular, so this was a real treat for me to work on.  Here is my piece.

BOTANICAL

 When we got the title "Botanical"  I immediately thought of some beautiful little succulents we have in our garden which we call Desert Roses, which started me on a quilting journey using these little beauties in a totally abstract design.  My design is an abstract design which stemmed from these succulents, set out below:

Here is my final piece drawn, appliqued and quilted.

BOTANICALS

This is my interpretation of the theme.  I chose Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe as they’re all native to Britain and are winter plants.

I used Neocolour crayons and coloured pencils to draw and colour the plants.  The background colour is Procion dye.  I’ve then mounted on felt and free motion quilted.

I hope this is ok for my first submission!

Hello

 Thank you for allowing me to join your quilting group.  I’m really looking forward to the challenges!

A bit about myself!  I’m Brenda (usually called Bren) and I live in England with my husband, Frank and two cats.  We have two daughters - Katie lives in Glasgow with her husband John, son Jack (he’s 5) and daughter Robyn (3).  The other daughter, Lizzie, lives in Australia (near Perth) with her partner, Carrie and their son Benji, who is 18 months old.  I’m a retired Maths teacher who enjoys patchwork and quilting (obviously), painting and reading.

I hope to get to know you all better soon.

BARK

   There is an old robinia tree on our  housing estate, which I have used as the inspiration for my two small quilts. One has been printed with a styrofoam plate, into which I had incised the image, whilst for the other I used a home made stencil. This is the tree that inspired it:

Bark

 This time, I created the piece using a literal interpretation of the theme.

Two dogs playing and barking in the garden.

This month's quilt will be my final submission!

Due to personal circumstances, I regretfully cannot continue participating—it's truly a sad farewell.

Momo

SUBJECT FOR OUR NEXT CHALLENGE

 From Rosemary.  Unfortunately Rosemary is having a bit of a problem with her computer and has asked me to put up her piece, which I have done on her behalf  and I am also giving you her next choice for our new challenge due at the end of January 2026.

The subject is:

BOTANICALS

She thought that as we are all living in different parts of the world it may be quite interesting and varied as to what we all create and produce this next time around.  Trust you will all enjoy this challenge.

BARK

 From Rosemary.

Thank you Jinnie for this subject which I too found to be interesting.  We have so much rain here in New Zealand that Lichen seems to grow on a lot of our trees.  In our garden we have a great deal of trees covered with Lichen, therefore this is my interpretation.

BARK

 This was a very interesting challenge Jinny and I did enjoy what I finally decided to do.  As I did a tree, with some amazing fabric which was given to me by a good friend, it evolved.  As I had space at each side I used metallic thread to create the illusion of branches and then attached leaves to them.  My whole piece, except for the background, was quilted in gold metallic thread and also used the metallic thread to attach the leaves.  It is quite stylistic but I am happy with the result.

THE NEXT CHALLENGE

 Hello everyone.  It is time for our next Challenge subject Jinny, and I wondered if you would all be happy with the following idea, and as there are only four of us left, we could keep it in order e.g. Rosemary next, then Momo and then myself as we have done in the past month.  If you are all agreeable to this, and it is quite fair, Rosemary would be the next person to choose.  If you are happy with this please let us know and then Rosemary can choose the next challenge.  Please let us know.