Noah's Ark Block - birds and tortoises.

I am busy working on my City & Guilds samples for college this coming weekend so not much 'proper' quilting going on. Although I have recently finished this block from Lynette Anderson's Noah's Ark series.
If you look in the sidebar you will be able to link to the other blocks I have made. I am now stitching the Ark.

Looking forward to visiting the Knit and Stitch show at Harrogate on Friday so it is going to be an enjoyable but busy weekend.

Noahs Ark BOM

A few months ago I started Lynette Anderson's Noahs Ark free Block of the Month. I completed three blocks which can be viewed in previous posts and then had to put them to one side when I was doing my C&G pieces. Anyway they have come out again this week as part of the 'Free Summer of Quilting' and 'Finish Up Project'. There are a couple of blocks I am going to leave out and one I have changed but I am now on track to get this done.
When I looked in the bag I found that this lion block had been completed but never posted. I really enjoyed stitching this and I love the lioness with the heart on her chest!

When I showed these blocks to my friends on the City & Guilds course Anthea was really taken with them and has decided to make them as one of her summer projects. So we have challenged each other to get this completed by September and I promised I would post my progress on my blog!
While I am on the subject of Anthea, she does not have a blog (Yet!) but she is a follower of this one, so I am taking the liberty of showing two of her pieces which were on show in our end of year exhibition. She is a very talented and creative quilter and if you want to comment, feel free because she will read this!

This is Anthea's kite quilt - all the fabrics were dyed by her and she came up with this lovely way of grading the colours in her flying geese.

Her fish cushion is all hand stitched with clam shells, Anthea loves hand stitching and applique and I think her creativity really shines through in this piece.

Two more Noah's Ark Blocks

I have two more of the Noah's Ark blocks done and am still really enjoying stitching them. I even took the kangaroos with me to work to stitch at lunchtime - much to the interest of my students - mostly late teenage girls. It is such a shame that not many younger people do crafts in this country.

I am going to be working on the lions next - hopefully later today.

Spent most of yesterday working on the Gears of War quilt which is now finished - had to pack in stitching the binding at 2am and finished it when I woke up. We hope to deliver it to Jamie this afternoon. I will post photos on my blog tomorrow.

Lynette Anderson Noah's Ark BOM

OK, I admit it, I read loads of quilting blogs! Too many probably.
However one of the techniques that I have been admiring is embroidery in quilts - sometimes known as 'stitchery' or even a variation of redwork. For many years I have been an embroiderer so was really drawn to this technique. I never was much of a 'freestyle' embroiderer but loved the primitive / folk art qualities of the designs.
One set of designs that I particularly liked was the Noah's Ark block of the month by Lynette Anderson. Here is the link if you want to join in.

This is my version of the first block. It was lovely and easy to stitch, so relaxing and easy to do while watching TV. The white fabric I have used is from a vintage cotton pillowcase I bought in a charity shop for 35p. There should be enough to do all the blocks and it has a lovely washed and worn feel to it.

I decided that I wanted to make my blocks double the size so my finished quilt will come out bigger. So this little block is approx 5 inches square. This has worked fine with the first two blocks but I have had a few technical hitches enlarging the others. Hopefully I will be able to resolve these as I really love the designs.

Here is a close up. Have a look at Lynette's blog - I am sure you will be tempted!


I am also working on a new quilt which needs to be done quite quickly. I am just at the design stage but will share on the blog soon. Last Monday my youngest son's close friend was in a very serious accident and will be in hospital for some time. He was crossing at a pelican (pedestrian) crossing and a car hit him going at high speed through the red light. He suffered serious head and neck injuries and it was touch and go for a few hours whether he would survive. He is in hospital in the nearest city to us but we are hoping that he will be transferred to the local hospital soon (which just happens to be a few minutes walk from our house). He has a blood clot on his brain and may need surgery so the doctors are waiting to see how the situation develops before they move him.
Obviously I thought about making him a quilt immediately. I mentioned it to Rob expecting him to dimiss the idea as childish as Jamie is 18 years old. However he thought it was a great idea and we have even been working on the design together. It will be a fabric painted wholecloth quilt based on an image from an Xbox game which Jamie happens to have tatooed on his arm!