Sunday 28 June 2015

Willow Fairy quilt , Cicely Mary Barker, happy birthday.

After The Guardian Angel and William in the Window my friends third child, a girl,was to have a design based on a Flower Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker.  I had a nodding acquaintance with the artist and her works but was not fully familiar.

They picked the Willow Fairy. Now previous quilts have been worked out using the cross stitch pattern and whilst there is a cross stitch pattern for the Willow Fairy (which maintains the theme) the quilt design was extrapolated from a photocopy of the illustration in a book owned by the intended recipients mother.  I understood at the time there was the intent, as had been the case with the previous quilts, for the design to be cross stitched too, by either the mother or the grandmother in the family.

I used silk paints to get the shaded colours of the four solid leaves. The other leaves were outlined in  shades of green embroidery thread.  The hair took a long time and a lot of thread, at least two skeins and four, or was it five shades. That resulted in it looking like stump work.

Willow Fairy, appliquéd and quilted


Willow Fairy
The face was a bit loose and I gave her a face lift, tucking the loose "skin" up into the hair line.  The wings are made of voile, now it did worry me a bit that they might wear through however, I decided to go with it, thinking if they did, the satin stitched edges and veins would keep the wing section of the image intact and she would just have outlined pink wings.



The intended recipient was not a baby at the time of making and had, by the time I was working on her quilt,  formed a firm opinion about the best colour in the world, pink.

So Willow Fairy went onto pale pink marbled material again shot with metallic thread.

Willow Fairy quilt







I quilted it to reflect the ripples in the water and further willow leaves in pink.

I was quite pleased with the result.

Back of the quilt







Once again I patched the back to include the recipients initials. Having run out of the pink for the back I used some yellow metallic shot that had a hint of pink to it in combination with some blue.  I bound it with the same green material as the flower fairies dress.


Willow Fairy quilt,recent picture
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Here is the quilt being held up by its owner (fingers top right).  You may be able to see the colour of the quilt better in this picture.  Willow Fairy still has her wings so far.  





Sunday 21 June 2015

Sepia car (cross stitch)

I made this design is from for my dad .  I expect it is the only car he will get from me.

When I was choosing the design I was torn between the car and a motor bike, both in sepia.

The bike may make an appearance at some later date, if I can find it that is.

So Happy Fathers Day.

Sunday 14 June 2015

Forgotten herbs (cross stitch)

Rearranging the bookshelves, to fit in more cross-stitch books of course, I moved a book about herbs belonging to my mother.

Inside an extra sized bookmark I made for her to go with the book.  I had forgotten all about it.   

Herb bookmark

Bookmark and book


Marjoram

Sage

Thyme

Bay
Fennel

Looking at it now, I recall the annoyance of the French knots, even though it turned out OK. otherwise 

Monday 8 June 2015

Under the sea

One of my early finishes from a pattern not a kit, my first on a darker Aida, once again made for my mother.



I found all that empty space rather unnerving.  I much prefer sold designs with one stitch counted off against the other.

Still it turned out ok and I was rather please with the frame.  I had the mount professionally cut  and was less pleased with that as it was and is not quite central.


A little linky update in 2022 as Let the People Choose for September as hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching is Under the Sea and this is the only appropriate piece I could think of.