West Country Quilt & Textile Show

Judges Highly Commended!!!

For Ramshackle Suburbs

As well as the rosette, there were goodies. Somehow they had 2 goody bags left for 3 people! So we shared the goodies out between us. 😁

Photo by Pat Beattie 

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And the front!

Today I have been stitching the backing on...(while I sat for nearly 2 hours waiting at the hospital eye clinic. I am glad that I have had such helpful Dr.’s lately. )

I tried to keep the embroidery , done by the lady in Mali, the focus. Yet I wanted to set a scene as well.
The work had been called Hunting with Husband. In my head, the story showed the lady working in their plot while the husband gets rid of birds coming to take their harvest.

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So, teasing a bit, I have finished the embroidery. All that is left is backing and binding.

I hadn’t planned to put a backing and I really liked the way the back told the story of the stitching on the front. But when I was showing my friend the progress and mentioned leaving it like that, she suggested a backing. Her reasoning, that whoever would bid on it might be a bit reluctant on how to hang it and care for it. 

Closeup of part of the reverse. 

As I have thought about that, I realised it was wise advice. Someone who knows textiles might appreciate the view of the back. But if it were someone else, they might worry about threads catching, etc. 

The reverse of the stitching. 

So, I am putting on a backing and binding. I will show the complete version when that is finished. 

Another closeup. 

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close up of greenery in the foreground.

The fringe of the precious fabric (which didn’t work for this project). I turned the fringe upside down and secured it with a green crochet cotton thread.

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I am nearing the last of the stitching now. This is a closeup of the stitching on the tree leaves.

The fabric I used was actually shrubbery which I turned upside down to be clumps of leaves.

Bead on - 24,000 - 18-24 August

Day 236- 18,880 people noted.

This work acknowledges 24,000 individuals - Indian Christians who were physically attacked in one year because of their faith.

I am stitching 80 beads each day for 300 days - 10 beads in each small square eight times.

Something on Saturday

Treasure 26



I showed some bells near the beginning of the treasure collection, but today I had my phone upstairs, and saw this little bell with ‘barge painting ‘

I bought it when we took a journey on a canal barge on the Kennet and Avon canal with a large group of friends.

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so to the leaves for the trees.

I had a precious piece of fabric I knew was the right colour for the leaves. I cut it into sections that would work in an abstracted tree sort of way. 

That is until I had positioned and repositioned them. I just couldn’t settle on it. Then that night I realised the precious piece would just not work because there was not enough of it. If the tree trunks were smaller, maybe. But because they went from top to bottom, they needed more fabric to even just suggest the idea of a tree. 

Next morning, I went to the ‘ landscape’ section of my stash and found something better almost straight away. 

I fussy cut sections and worked with them to layout something much better. Not particularly the type of tree grown in Mali, but it gives the look of a view through the trees that I wanted. 

I am now stitching these clusters of fabric down. 

The precious piece does make a little showing... it had a fringe omit, so now it will become grass growing at the bottom of the trees. 

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Next step:
I wanted to make trees on either side of the scene. I liked the idea of something like bark cloth. But rather than the brick coloured bark cloth I have from Uganda, I found the mulberry bark I have to be a better colour choice. It picks up on the colour of the man’s hat and trousers.

I auditioned a few threads for stitching it down.

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Sister Artists- next step has been the side borders. I had this South African shwe shwe print that picked up more colour from the embroidery. It is more like quilting cotton weight, than the heavier fabric you normally see.  The fact that it has the different prints keeps it interesting.

And of course it wanted hand sewing, too! I finished last night. Took just over one skein of orange variegated thread from InStitches. I alternated running stitch and French knots.

Bead on - 24,000 - 11-17 August

Day 229- 18,320 people noted.

This work acknowledges 24,000 individuals - Indian Christians who were physically attacked in one year because of their faith.

I am stitching 80 beads each day for 300 days - 10 beads in each small square eight times.

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Now I have added the bottom border. I chose this African print from Tanzania. It brings it some of the colours of the embroidery. 

Running stitch 

I decided to use my adaptation of the Pekinese Stitch...the loops over running stitches. 

The threads are from InStitches , one of them the same as used on the scraps which make up the ground. 

When you see the piece in person, the lines that have been made by the loops are obvious. 

Heee you can see the difference made by covering the bold print with stitching. The original fabric is on the left. 

So the fabric is blended into the whole much better. 

Dragons spotted

just a few dragons I saw at the Festival of Quilts.


The Kiss of Gaudi by Isabel Munoz

Fabric I didn’t quite have the money for.

White Dragon by Lena Meszaros
Took me a while to work out why it was awkwardly positioned.
Can you see what this dragon is doing?

And then finally a cow!

Mad Cow by Teresa Summerfield.

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I have still been working on the embroidery from Mali. 
The kantha stitching with white sewing cotton is finished.

I have placed a batik piece at the top. Somewhat as a border, and so acting a bit like sky.

In order to knock back the butterfly print some, I have stitched over it in blue. You can see the difference in the upper right...the photo was taken just before completing that section.
Next is the fabric for the bottom.

Bead on - 24,000 - 4-10 August

Day 222- 17,760 people noted.

This work acknowledges 24,000 individuals - Indian Christians who were physically attacked in one year because of their faith.

I am stitching 80 beads each day for 300 days - 10 beads in each small square eight times.
Starting a triangular pattern at the sides.

Something on Saturday

Treasure 25

This is a new treasure.

A Certain Young Man picked this lovely mug when he had a layover in Dublin.

Sew Powerful helping to keep girls in education

one of the things occupying my time while at Festival of Quilts was to help at the Sew Powerful stand. This company has been involved in supporting ladies in Zambia to get their  children into school.
They taught and employed mothers to sew school uniforms. But after a time they learned that girls stay out of school when they are on their period. This means that they have lost so much schooling that they cannot pass their exams. So the project expanded to having the mothers sew reusable sanitary materials.
Soon they discovered that the families of the Ngombe slum where the project started, didn’t have soap! It was too expensive. After purchasing soaps from the market, eventually the project expanded to training more of the mothers to make soap, also being paid.
This part of Sew Powerful’s project is what impressed me the most. That mothers are being given the means to earn money that can mean the difference of their children being fed or not.
when I heard Sew Powerful  were to have a stand at the Festival of Quilts, of course I offered to help.

I met Jason and Cinnamon from Sew Powerful, Sandy Simms UK rep, and also Ginny who has been making purses with her sewing group. (I forgot to get a photo!) I gave a big pile of fabric to Ginny for a sewing day she was organising for the 3rd of  August. UK made purses can be sent to Sandy Simms.

Part of the project to keep the girls in education is to have people who quilt or sew to make cross body bags/purses. Then they are collected and with the help of World Vision are taken to Zambia to be filled with the items (including 2 pair of pants) and given to girls in their health class. The whole project has grown to include providing the kit to girls in other schools in the Lusaka area.
Last year 6,000 purses were sent. This year they hope to send at least twice that amount.

If you are interested, you can find out more on their website. 

But is it Safe? At Festival of Quilts

I was excited to see that my work in the Art category had been hung on one of the white walls, rather than the black drapes.

And even more excited to see I had a Judges Choice!

And then at the SAQA dinner, I met another member. We talked of family things. Then she asked about my work. I showed a photo of one of the Ramshackle pieces. And then discovered she was the judge who selected my quilt as her favourite!

This photo thanks to Roz Rossiter. 

Yes, and of course, I have forgotten her name! Oh, yes. It is on the email Roz sent. Jenny Hall. 

Thank you Jenny for this support. 

Bead on - 24,000 28 July- 3 August

I am back. I meant to post from Birmingham, but the days were very busy and I didn’t have a very good connection to the internet in my hotel.

So here is the bead project. I will show some great stuff from the show through the week.

Day 215-17,200 people noted.

This work acknowledges 24,000 individuals - Indian Christians who were physically attacked in one year because of their faith.

I am stitching 80 beads each day for 300 days - 10 beads in each small square eight times.