Just For Fun

In 2002 I was asked if I would be prepared to act as the 'Class Angel' for ANG Cyber Classes. The class I was appointed to was called "Just For Fun" and was taught by Caela Conn Tyler.
The Class Angel looks after the 'paperwork' and is not required to take part in the class, but the techniques and threads looked interesting, so I signed up for it.

The techniques included beading, ribbon weaving and a wheen of stitches I had not yet tried. The kit also included threads I had never worked with including rayon and ribbons. One important lesson I learned was how to use a damp sponge to take the kinks out of Rayon threads.
The course started in April 2003 and I completed this in June 2003. It was, as the title suggests, lots of fun, and it also gave me the opportunity to see how much organisation goes into preparing a class.
Much respect to all teachers!

Fawny of Eight

Bedroom Games was a bit of a marathon, but I didn't work exclusively on that. I stitched a number of other projects during the same period.

There was a time when I only ever worked on one project. "You can't be a real embroiderer until you're working on a number of projects at once," I was told. (No names, no pack-drill!)
So this may have been about when I became a 'real embroiderer'! It certainly helped me get past the 'godai'* of Bedroom Games.

I needed something smaller as a change from the quilt, and I knew that I really needed to increase my repertoire of stitches. I didn't want to do a traditional band or block sampler, so I came up with this.

I decided to call it "Fawny of Eight", a play on the heraldic "Gyronny of Eight" as it was all done using the same hank of Appleton's Crewel wool and it contained eight different stitches, not including the border.

Working round from the top right corner they are:
(Obviously) Basket-weave, Woven Stitch, Twill Variation, Horizontal Brick, Scotch Stitch, Florentine, Byzantine and Upright Brick. I have since learned that some of these stitches have different names in different places, and some of the names can be applied to another stitch - that's life!
Whatever the names you may know these stitches by, it was an excellent exercise in learning new stitches and working out how to compensate them.

I stitched this between March and July 2002. I think of it as a 'stash' piece because nothing new was purchased. The canvas was already in the house, and the Appleton's was left over from the chair I posted about in October 2018.

* 'godai': The point you hit on any large piece of work, no matter how much you love the design. Extrapolated from the phrase "God I hate this". It hits me at least once in every project, but the trick is never to let it overwhelm you because you know that if you push yourself past that stage and complete the project you (or someone else) is going to love it.

Bedroom Games

Really!

It's a quilt of course. The inspiration came from seeing a black-work chess board. I did consider, for a few moments, a chess-board quilt. (Hmm! Thinks! Maybe next year?)
For some twisted reason my mind jumped from chess-boards to board games, which then reminded me of childhood illnesses.
That might not appear to be a pleasant memory, but coming from a large family, when something like measles or mumps hit one, it hit us all. We'd all be put into the same large bedroom (you could fit in eight in bunk beds) and when we had recovered enough we would be given board games to play. (Let's not talk about the bad loser who would kick the bedclothes and upset the game!)

Leastways and whatever, it made me think of the games and how easy it might be to create the game boards in fabric. That led on to the question of which games. It didn't take long to select them, longer to decide which order to put them in.
The top row is Tiddlywinks, then Backgammon, then Noughts and Crosses.
The centre row is Nine-Men's-Morris, Chess and Solitaire.
The bottom row is Snakes & Ladders, Ludo and Go.
I suppose that the inner border could be used for a game too, and the outer border is a wonderfully dot strewn cotton that could be game counters or the patient's spots.

All the parts of the quilt were cut and folded using English Piecing, with each block completed separately then joined together with red sashing. The sashing between the boards is bias binding. The embroidered snakes, ladders and numbers on the Snakes & Ladders board were added after the hundred squares had been sewn together, but before it was joined to the other blocks. The motifs on the inner border, including four trains, a lightbulb and a tap were appliqued in place before quilting, but were not themselves quilted.

Making the boards was fun, putting it together less so. The cottons were firm because I don't remove the papers until I have completed the quilt top, but the bias binding kept trying to show off its snake like propensity to wiggle off on its own.
The quilting is worked in diagonal Vs starting from the centre of the chess board.

It took nearly 18 months to build this quilt. I started it in March 2002 and did not finish it until August 2004. This quilt is a full double bed sized quilt, and that's where it lives, on our bed.

A Smile of Relief

This small quilted hanging was worked as a challenge.
One of the Patchwork & Quilting shops decided to run a Challenge in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief.  The shop sold a pack of the Challenge Fabric and the purchaser was expected to create a quilt or hanging from it. We were allowed to use additional fabrics, but as much as possible of the Challenge Fabric was to be used. There was also a size limitation as the Challenge creations were to be exhibited.

I took up the challenge, but I didn't have the least idea what I was going to do.
(A recent conversation with Jane-Beth confirmed that when I start a project I often don't have a clue how to do what I want, in order to achieve the final result I want - yeah, so that's how I learn.)
So I looked at the fabric for a while, I sighed, I despaired, then I had an idea. Make something based on the Macmillan Logo.
But what? The CR of the logo at the time was a flowing script of green ribbon with the C & R knotting together. One of the phrases they used in their advertising referred to the smile of the patient when the Macmillan Nurse came to call. The Logo became the eyes and nose and the Challenge fabric became the face with smiling lips.

All I had to do was cut the fabric, piece the fabric, find a backing and quilt it. (Doesn't sound like much when you say it quickly.)

The design was made up of 1" squares using English Piecing. The only fabrics I added were the border, the red of the lips, the dark blue round the head and the two greens at the eyes and nose. The Challenge Fabrics were the pinks and lavenders of the face and the pale greys of the eyes.

I started this in June 2002 and finished it in September 2002. At the exhibition, and much to my surprise, someone asked if they could buy it. Well blow me down! Of course! They named a price and I said to make the cheque out to Macmillan's.