WIPW - Christmas Ornaments

In this Work In Progress Wednesday report I have put the Mandala and the Sunday Stitch School Stitch Sampler on the shelf. Instead, I made some Christmas ornaments to send with a greeting card to friends overseas.

Christmas Wreath Ornaments

I used the design and instructions from Needle 'n Thread's Stitch Snippet, but worked on a piece of leftover patchwork even weave instead of the recommended linnen.

Merry Christmas

I got inspired by Mary Corbet's small Christmas tree embroideries and decided to use some stitches from my collection to make two cards.

The fir tree on the blue card is made up of Beaded Alternating Feather (TAST #155).

The starry tree on the red card has a trunk of Corded Coral (SSS #46) and branches of Thorn Stitch (SSS #41).

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and Boxing Day.

WIPW - Completed x 3

Work In Progress Wednesday is a way to help you finish your needlework projects. Read about it here at Pintangle.
WIPW really works; I don't know if any of my progress this week would have happened if it hadn't been for the weekly routine, and the supportive and kind comments and suggestions by WIPW participants.

Kafferepet
Completed #1.
The quilting is done!

I have also bought some fabric for the next stage, the edge.

Swedish Cushion
The Swedish cushion has been sleeping all week, and is patiently waiting for a new TAST stitch to fill in some stray empty spaces. (A hint to Sharon, I am hoping for a triangular stitch... ; ) )

New WIPW - TASTy Beads Galore
As there are no beaded TAST stitches on the Swedish cushion, I have started on a new project where I want to add the TAST stitches with beads.

The first stitch is TAST #135 Beaded Fern Stitch.

Swedish Wool Embroidery Collar
Completed #2.
Here is the completed collar shown with the two wrist warmers I made last year.

We are ready for the cold!

Extra WIPW - Felted Bluebells
Completed #3.
Do you remember the felted bluebells I had intended to use as ornaments on the strings of the collar? As they were too large, I dressed them up with some embroidery and beads, and turned them into Christmas decorations. Who's heard of Winter Bluebells?

TAST Reference Chart
#135 Beaded Fern Stitch has been added.

I hope you are working towards completing a project, too. Keep up the good work!

Christmas 'quilts' from my stash - 5

This is not a quilt, but a piece of embroidery:

It was made by a much loved great uncle of mine when he was about 95.
When he became a widower and had to move to an old people's home, he was bored and lonely. The staff suggested that he should take up needlework. Although he had seen his wife and daughter fill their home with cross stitch craft, he at first thought it was an unmanly past time for himself. However, once he had started he was 'bitten by the cross stitch bug', and produced lots of wall hangings that were sold at the OPH's charity events.
He said that keeping busy with the embroidery was the best way to stop brooding or feeling lonely. I feel as if he is in the room when I display one of his embroideries (I have several) and this one is a must to have on show at Christmas.
It is so charming with its large stitches and simple colours.

I wrote about the hanging Christmas mobile before. You might also remember a bridal crown I bought last summer. More recently I blogged about an angel and some other felt dolls. These ornaments are now hanging from 'washing lines' stretched across the room, as I do not have a decorated tree in the house.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas quilts from my stash - 4

The fourth quilt I have on display at this time of the year is called Tudor Echoes, and is related to my Sub Rosa (shown yesterday).

It is made by my good friend and award winning hand quilter Jacquie Harvey in the UK.
The two of us worked the Kaleidoscope Hoffman challenge side by side, but on either side of the Globe. We checked our progress weekly, a kind of private WIPW report, and fondly refer to our quilts as Lizzy. I am sure you can recognise some of the prints from my Sub Rosa in this quilt.

Jacquie is not only a talented quilter but has great skills as a dressmaker, too. She often combines quilting and dressmaking and makes 'wearable quilts', or rather quilted garments. Well, I am sure her wonderful creations are not to be worn, they kind of belong in a museum. Head over to her website and check the Gallery.

In this close up you can see her skill in Elizabeth I's costume. By embroidering the beige Hoffman fabric with black she created a bit of 'Blackwork' and the flute ruff collar is cleverly made. There might be more beads on my quilt, but the ones on Jacquie's are bigger!!!

The two quilts we made for the Kaleidoscope Hoffman challenge are a challenge to store, and that is one of the reasons why Jacquie gave me the quilt! As if I would have more space in Tokyo!! It travelled to Japan inside a suit cover bag and was lucky to be hung in the business class wardrobe. Like true royalty Lizzy sailed through Customs in spite of all her jewellery, well it is paste, after all!

Christmas quilts from my stash - 3

The third quilt I usually display in December is called Sub Rosa.

In 2003 I made it for the Kaleidoscope Hoffman Challenge. The theme was Elizabethan Splendour.

One stipulation was that it should measure 1 m square and contain at least 50% of one or more of the seven challenge prints. At that time I had been given lots of fancy remnants from a seamstress who makes evening frocks and wedding gowns. Here was a good opportunity to use some of that red silk with the Hoffman prints.

This is an extract from my entry:
'The theme is ELIZABETHAN SPLENDOUR...' so I decided to make something that reflects Queen Elizabeth I. A traditional quilt, with an organized pattern but many new ideas, rich and overly decorated but tasteful. To bring out the beautiful patterns in the Hoffman prints I used a heavy red silk as the main contrast and added as much gold, pearls and jewels as I found suitable.
The centre of 'Japanese patchwork' blocks, filled with wadding and decorated with metallic embroidery and pearls, is framed with eight borders. The main of these borders consists of a winding Hoffman bias tape where various flowers have sprouted; they are appliqued, folded, ruched and embroidered. There are several flowers in handmade velvet; I even turned one Hoffman print into a velvet flower! This border is then quilted with tiny pearls on the front and gold beads on the back. There are well over 3000 pearls and beads on the entire quilt and it is edged with a frilled gold lace.

As you can see I was into quilting in unusual ways already ten years ago.
Sub Rosa didn't pick up a prize, but it was featured in 'Fabrications' Oct/Nov 2003.

Christmas quilts from my stash - 2

The second in my series of Christmas quilts is the painted stained glass quilt.

I made this quilt based on a piece of real stained glass

As you can see it is a very small piece. It was once attached to a holder (the reason there is a round hole at the bottom) for a tea light.

The quilt is larger and measures 29 x 40 cm. I painted the off white cotton with acrylic fabric paint and then set the paint with a warm iron. The outlines were quilted in black. The front was folded to the back and a backing was stitched on. There is no border, nor a binding.

A change of decorations - Christmas quilts from my stash - 1

There are four seasons in Japan and each is full of its own character.
Winters are cold, and in many parts snowy,

you eat hot pot dishes and keep warm with hot water bottles or kotatsu (table with heater underneath and a thick floor length cover to keep your legs warm).

Spring is famous for its cherry blossoms,

flower viewing picnics, the end and beginning of the academic year, and hay fever.
In summer, the humidity is over powering, first with the rainy season, then with the heat. Hydrangeas,

fans, water melon, ice tea, fire works, mosquito coils belong to this time of the year.
Autumn harvests fill the tables with fruit, vegetables and delicious oily fish. The changing of the leaves can be spectacular...

There are other things that mark the seasons and time of year. There are about 16 public holidays. The Japanese love to celebrate, they have festivals at local shrines, note the dates in the Japanese and Chinese calendar, or take up foreign traditions like St Valentine and Halloween.

Everywhere you go you will see signs of what time of year it is - there are decorations in shop displays, in schools and workplaces, on posters and advertisements, and of course in homes.

After arriving in Japan I soon took up this tradition and change the decorations at home for the various events.

Now it was time to put up the Christmas decorations. In the coming weeks I will blog about them, and first out is this wall quilt.

The mother of a student made this for me many years ago. I feel so humble and grateful that she would spend so much time and effort on this. It is mostly made of 1 cm squares, and she must have had a fantastic collection of Christmas prints to make the tree. There are lots of tiny bells embellishing the quilt.