Veronica

Click on the individual thumbnails to see a larger photo.

These are two pictures of a quilt I made at classes at a local quilting shop. I have always admired other people's quilts and never thought I would be able to make one myself but I have! I could have machine quilted it, but I decided to hand quilt it - a never ending, but fulfilling task! What makes it a 'quillow' is that you sew a pocket on the reverse of the quilt, then fold the quilt and push it into the pocket - making a 'pillow' hence quillow - quilt and pillow!

Jennie Rayment Twitch, Twiddle and Tweak Day school - This was a Dayschool where Jennie taught and encouraged us to twitch, twiddle and tweak fabric by making, in my case, a hanging for my ganddaughter's bedroom. I am a newcomer to such ways of embroidery, and these photographs show the finished results! My granddaughter was highly delighted with it as well! A thoroughly, enjoyable day!

Confusion. This piece of work did NOT begin as it is shown here finished! I was in therapy at the time of working it and I had it all planned out in my head as to what I wanted to do. However, the therapy became difficult and I could not put a needle into the canvas - I was confused, the piece of work was not going as I wanted it to! I decided to call it 'Confusion' and then, with that as the title, I could stitch away to my heart's content using variegated threads, ribbons, beads and whatever I fancied, I was free. Friends that know me look at hti spicture and cannot belive that I did it - it is so unlike anything I have done before. It hangs at an angle as I couldn't decide which way to hang it up!!!

Small slash bag - I bought the pattern for this bag in America, originally for my grand daughter. I made hers, and then adapted for myself. It is larger than an evening bag, so that you can place your phone, hairbrush etc. in the inner pockets as well. Plus, of course, lots of people want to know where you bought it!!!

Encrusted Calico Sampler - These are photographs of a project the 97 Group did recently. It is Encrusted Calico and for me, it was an excellent project because I learnt lots of new stitches. People tend to think that members of the Embroiderers Guild know everything about embroidery, and that is not right. In this piece of work, I learnt how to do – Bullion Knots; Woven Wheel; Back Stitch Wheel; Cup Stitch and Woven Picot.

Other stitches used were Seeding Stitch; Buttonhole Stitch and French Knots. Various threads used included Silks, Perle and Flower threads. I ‘trapped’ washers, curtain rings and wadding in-between muslin and calico before I began stitching to achieve this effect! It was a really fun way of learning new stitches and achieving a good finished piece of work!

Christmas hanging. I made this hanging for a service at my local church during Christmas. It was fun to do as it was mainly applique but I sewed 'sheep' and stones on the hillside and stars on the sky!

The stole was made for a friend at Rochester Cathedral. He knew what he wanted so designing it was easy.

The 'R' stands for Rochester Diocese, the grapes and bread for Holy Communion, and the sheep because Christ is our shepherd. The design is machine stitched on to the silk with hand embellishments.

The butterfly is in black work and was a present to a friend whose husband died unexpectedly. It is worked on 28 threads to the inch, using Guterman black cotton. The design was drawn onto the fabric using a water soluble pen and then each area worked with stitches I liked. The light and dark was achieved by working more areas of a stitch than others. The gold areas are gold sequins and beads.

This bag was made as a result of two things – one going to a WI day where I saw lots of pieces of work that had been 'slashed' and I thought that I could do that! The second reason was that as a member of EG then I needed a bag to take my pieces of work to exhibitions in. The latter gave me the reason to make the bag in the way that I did. Great fun to do but very time consuming!!!