Autumn

   Last year I did an online course (Making connections. Mark Layer and stitch) with Cas Holmes and Fibre Arts Take Two.  Cas uses wallpaper paste on the fabric instead of a stabiliser when doing machine embroidery.  I used this technique at the end of the course to make a sample, which worked out really well, and which was the inspiration for this piece:-

  However, this time I thought that as I was doing the freemotion on the  background and wadding it would work,  but the free motion quilting was so dense that it distorted the background to the point that it would have been very difficult to quilt the rest into submission. So I had to cut out the tree, cobble together a new background from the scraps left, then appliqué the tree to it. At which point I discovered that I hadn't quite caught all the background under the applique and had to apply a little glue in one or two places. The quilting has taken longer than anticipated, as I decided to add seeding to give more texture to the background.  It's a little smaller than planned as a result, but despite all the problems, I'm pleased with it. The photo of the sample gives a truer idea of the colours. The weather has been very overcaste here, and not likely to  change in the next few days, so I've not been able to get a decent photo. Will I be able to change it later?

Shapes

Using any combination of shapes (any shape such as triangle ,rectangle ,hexagon or a created shape) construct a quilt of whatever size you wish.

Roots

 

Regarding the theme of the quilt, “Trees”, I used Van Gogh's painting “Tree Roots” as my inspiration for this quilt.

How to present Van Gogh's characteristic brushstrokes in a quilting way? I thought about it for a long time! I decided to try to use crayons(oil pastels)and fabrics for the work . It's like painting, coloring and pasting layer by layer, it's a fun way to make this quilt.

Momo 

 Teaser

    I am afraid that mine will not be ready in time. Earlier in the year I made a sample, a tiny portion of which is in the photo, and wanted to develop it further. The original worked, but for this quilt I made a few changes and it has been nothing but trouble. I had to cut part of it out, and cobble together the background from the remains plus the scraps that were left. I took it on holiday with me, intending to do the quilting, but found another major problem, which had to wait until I returned home to sort out. I am now quilting and hope to finish it maybe next week... unless it has any more surprises for me!

tree

This is my imaginary tree. It was fun to create and I enjoyed doing all the free motion stitching.

Rosemary
 

Weeping Willow

 In 2007 my UK family took me to visit Normandy in France.  We stayed in a lovely house near a small village (the name eludes me now) and at the side of their garden was a small river and Willow trees.  It was a magical time we spend there and brings back many wonderful memories.  I thought I would try and capture those memories in my piece.  It took quite a long time to put together but I really enjoyed the process.

APOLOGIES

 I am getting my apologies in early, even though there is a month to go, as I took a tumble 3 weeks ago and will be going into hospital on Monday for an L1 spinal fusion. I have been virtually flat on my back this whole time and I have no idea how long I will be confined to bed afterwards and what my limitations will be. 

 Acacia blues

   Over ten years ago I made a journal quilt with transfer prints on a manmade fabric, overlayed with more transfer prints on tyvek. 

 I wanted to try something bigger and had the idea for this quilt, so this challenge was the ideal opportunity to try it.

This time I printed the acacia leaves on a synthetic fabric, again using transfer paints. This was overlayed with a piece of silk organza printed with fabric printing inks. For the trunk I used a denim trouser leg printed with a collagraph plate I made using strips of gauze for the bark pattern.

Green

 

I've never had much inspiration for this project.While surfing the internet, I stumbled upon this stitching method, so I gave it a try.

The green color is the theme, and it's split and pieced, but I'm still thinking about the quilt part, so do you have any good ideas?

Momo

TREES, TREES EVERYWHERE

My hubbie and I spent a couple of hours walking around our local Botanical Gardens yesterday playing with our cameras mostly looking birds but the gardens are full of amazing trees. Here are a couple of them.

.....and coincidentally our International Quilt Festival is on at the moment and one of my Guilds Group quilts won first prize and the theme......trees.

Apologies for the poor Pic.  Hmmmm!  My head is churning away.  Watch this space. 

Sorry for the delay!

 Every one all did a great job with your quilt .

Sorry guys, I needed a bit of time this time and couldn't really find the inspiration.I'm really sorry and hope to have it up as soon as possible!

Momo

And the next theme is... TREES

 

    During the covid lockdown, when we were allowed to walk no further than a kilometer from home for the short period of an hour, I took a daily walk round our  housing estate, which has many trees in the passages between the houses, and on the stretch of grassland between the estate and the motorway. I began to take  more notice of the trees, filling two sketchbooks with drawings, prints and samples inspired by the textures of their bark, their silhouettes, and their leaves. For the last few years I have been working on samples and have  started making quilts inspired by them. So trees as a theme was a natural choice for me. Have fun!