Flower Quilt ...progress

In my last post I mentioned my Flower Quilt which I was working on about this time last year.

it was more of a remake / refashion. 

I wanted to make it a bit smaller and a bit more interesting on the reverse, I got as far as making a new reverse side complete with four new painted panels.

 pieced together with the squares I removed from the other side.

The new side.

 I took out the thick heavy blanket that was in there and replaced it with a thinner fleece throw from IKEA. Im thinking this will be just as warm but easier to wash size and weight wise.

A few hours spent over the weekend 

re-hand quilting the six painted panels on original side 

 the colours have faded a little

 but still as pretty

 I enjoyed the process of quilting it by hand again 

 onto the new cream throw

I worked with a large hoop to quilt and found it much easier and quicker, 

I bought the hoop a while ago and have never used it before now.

Today more progress......

Some of the original green backing fabric cut into strips for binding.

I'm not too in love with the colour,

  thought I'd use some blue or green fabric paint to brighten it up

I settled on the blue, covered the table with cling film and

 brushed the paint & water solution onto the strips. 

Strips all dried and colour fixed with a hot iron ...a nice match for the quilt 

they have a little bit of a sparkle to them which you cant see in the picture.

good match for the paler original side too.

The strips are 2.5 inches wide, for a double binding these are now folded in half 

ironed and ready for stitching on tomorrow.

Little House

I have been working a little project for the past couple of months in the construction of 'A Little House' 

each member of Fife branch Embroiderers Guild is making one for a future exhibition.

you may have read this post 'Little Stitches'where I posted some little glimpses of the pieces I was working on. This is it finally finished after much arranging and rearranging, sometimes you put things together and they look great for a while then the more you look ....they don't work any more when a better idea comes into play. I'm happy with the end result now ....

 front and side

Copper ring window surrounded with cast on stitches 

french knot roses

stump-work velvet window frame

little door

extending a little fragment

 back and side

Wisteria detail using isolated drizzle stitches on stump-work branches

working on the A-Z stitch tags has brought some new and varied stitches to my attention, this project has enabled me to develop them further so I feel doing the tags has been really worthwhile

 back view 

You can see also the laced up side closure on the right.

The transferred image is of a photograph of a real window from a derelict house from the Highland clearances the date plaque coincides with the period also.

my little spider and web I stitched at Halloween found a home!

as well as the Queen Ann's Lace.

This is the roof ....

strips of fabric, yarn and rick-rack, a paper butterfly and a vintage china cabinet key attached with some pink silk ribbon.

I have photographed it on top of my flower quilt you may remember my posts on that.....here

Flower Quilt

Retrieved from my workshop, I'm determined to work to get that completed, its been sitting unfinished for too long..... hopefully I'll get back on it soon.

Oh almost forgot my little house is called 'Blue Lace Cottage'