Good to be back!!

After nearly four months, it's good to be back! I have still been busy with the cloth and stitch, but a new laptop has caused me a few headaches, and in between we spent a glorious four weeks with our daughter and grandson when they visited us from New Zealand.

These first few photos are of my challenge quilt for cqgb (Contemporary Quilt, a branch of The Quilters' Guild) The criteria has the theme as 'Horizons', this long narrow orientation,and the size 150cm x 50cm.

The orientation really vexed me to begin with, and then I found a photo I'd taken of Southwark Cathedrall while standing directly underneath and looking up. I decided that I liked the skyline and the perspective of this, so went ahead with the idea.

However, it wasn't all plain sailing, and having spent hours on the paper lamination that stretches from the top of the building to the bottom, I decided that the row of gargoyles across the bottom wall were wrong! (See previous post) The whole of the bottom section was cut off, and remade.....but what to put there? The original photo had a gargoyle, but I couldn't quite see how this would be relevant to the horizons theme.

Listening to a discussion on radio 4 about the Church of England, and some of the hurdles it is facing with regards female bishops and gay clergy, I had a sudden flash of inspiration! What is on the horizon for the Church as it tries to deal with these dilemmas?

Instead of a gargoyle, I made a paper lamination of a stone carved Bishop along the lower section, and painted a rainbow in the sky. Both symbolic for these issues that the Church is facing.

I used newsprint for the paper lamination as it gave me a good texture on the paper side up to paint and stitch into. The sky is calico that I have painted with watery acrylic paint, and then appliqued a paper laminated rainbow on top. It is all quite heavily free motion machine quilted, and also some machine embroidery.

As far as I know, it will be displayed at the FOQ's on some of the days this year. I haven't heard which day/days, but as I can't make it this year, it hasn't really worried me. What I do with it after that is the next question. It's not exactly something I would want hanging in my home, so any ideas gratefully received!

My four journal quilts from May to August are here too. Patterns from the Landscape is my chosen theme this year. Above is the first of four, and is a slightly stylized view of the beach at Goodwick at low tide, looking towards Dinas Head.

The second one above is similar to the first, but I have tried to simplify the abstracted shapes.

Version three is in black and white, with yet more simplification of the shapes, and below is number four. I made two identical versions of three, but chopped one of them up randomly and rearranged the shapes into a simple pattern on a black and grey background.

Well as I am now officially retired, hopefully I will be posting more regularly again. I have lots of plans, so keep dropping by and thanks for reading.