Ostia Antica

 When this theme was suggested I bought myself a copy of "Stitched Photo Mosaic Quilting" by Timna Tarr. I found a video of our granddaughter that was going to provide a still photo for the basis of my first mosaic quilting. Then I promptly dithered over the whole process of translating the video into a still photo, (finally achieved!) and working out how and where to get it printed at the optimum size without bankrupting myself in the process (!). 

Whilst this thought process was still rattling about in my brain, I came across some photos on Social Media of the Mosaic of the Provinces at Ostia Antica, an ancient Roman city and the seaport of Ancient Rome. As you can tell from the title of this post the Photo Mosaic quilt idea was swiftly jettisoned, to be returned to later :)

Being inspired by the photos to delve further into the history and nature of the Mosaics at Ostia Antica I discovered a line drawing from 1912 of the full mosaic, which you can see here The drawing just looked like a quilt pattern to me, so I decided to base my quilt for this quarter's theme around one of the mosaic squares from the drawing of the original.

The original mosaics were made in black and white tiles and I did consider making a monochrome quilt, but in the end I decided that this quilt was inspired by not a copy so went with fabrics that looked liked tiling instead.

The cream fabric has a tone on tone check on it which you can't really see in the photo and the pink fabric reminded me of Venice so was a shoo-in for the central square :)

I found a length of this lovely fabric in my stash and thought it would be ideal for the backing fabric.

The blocks were fairly straightforward to put together. The cream squares within the purple strips were 6.5" squares, the purple strips were 1.5" wide, the pink squares were 2.5" and the cream borders were 2.5" strips too.

I wanted the quilting of the piece to reflect the Roman part of the inspiration for the quilt so I quilted straight lines in the purple strips - Roman roads, even in the hilly North of England and Southern Scotland were straight.

 My centre block was the ideal place for some cross-hatch quilting that resembles rows of the Roman Numeral - X :)

The original Mosaic of the Provinces has four fish swimming at the centre to represent the port, so I decided to quilt the open cream blocks with a fish. I ordered some dolphin templates to use for the blocks but they did not arrive in time, so I hunted through my many craft magazines and found this needlelace template to use instead.

The circle quilting in the remaining blocks is a nod to the shields portrayed in several of the other sections of the Mosaic. Some wavy lines to represent the sea were added to the border strips.

I used a New to Me binding method, using the backing fabric as the binding and finished it off with a zig-zag (now known as Roman Numeral V!) stitch to attach the binding to the front of the quilt:)

 I was tempted to call this quilt "A port in the storm" as I was working on it (before the power went out!) whilst Storm Eowyn was flinging waves up to our door and rattling our windows till we were sure they were going to fall in! Thankfully, the sea eventually calmed down, the windows withstood the ferocious winds and the power came back so it was all fine in the end.

Once again, I have enjoyed meeting this latest Endeavourer Challenge and look forward to seeing the wonderful ways that my fellow Endeavourers have interpreted the theme!

Just Spliced

 I was so full of good intentions this quarter, even if it did take me a while to come up with a project (what's new??). 

However, life has rather thwarted the plans.

For the last couple of months I have been stitching up a storm making Halloween costumes and winter outfits for the grandchildren. A Ghostly Bat (or Batty Ghost!) for the older grandson was fairly straightforward.

His younger brother takes a more creative approach to Granny's capabilities as a costume maker and put in a request for a Crash Bandicoot costume, his favourite video game character (overnight I might add, which he was quickly dissuaded of!). 

 

Our lovely granddaughter wasn't left out either, but I forgot to take a photo of her outfit :(

With those out of the way I finally decided on a topic for this quarter's theme.

 

 Many years ago we spent part of our honeymoon on Grenada, the Spice Island and this photo was taken from our beachfront villa at the Spice Island Inn.

Just before we headed off to France to close our house down for the winter I bought this book, so this was the perfect project to try out the technique. 

Alas, no progress was made on this sewing whilst I was in France, too easily distracted by good food and great wine :) 

My plan to knuckle down and get at least a quilt top done in time for the deadline has been completely scuppered by both the OH and myself coming down with a lurgy that has us wrapped up in quilts and reaching for the Lemsip at regular intervals since our return. 

I do hope my fellow Endeavourers have been more successful this quarter than I have :)

In the meantime here is a different type of spice to brighten your day (or not if you were not a fan!).

Getting Shirty

 I mulled over lots of different ideas for this quarter's theme - Vintage - from replicating vintage patterns to trying out the vintage technique of Manx quilting but in the end the (re)discovery of these in my cupboard decided the project for me :)

I bought this set of hand-stitched hexagons several years ago at a Craft and Vintage fair, with no idea of what to do with them. In all honesty, I think that I felt a bit sorry that someone's work had ended up on a stall selling all sorts of odds and ends, so rescued them to leave them hanging about my cupboard for years! 

There is also a rather large bag of loved, but now redundant shirts in my cupboard.

So, I had a rummage through to see if there was anything that might work with the salvaged hexagons and found these. 

There were 15 hexagons in the original set purchased, but I whittled them down to 6 that were compatible in colour and also quilting cotton weight fabric. There were a couple that seemed to be made with heavier furnishing fabric that were very easy to dismiss :)

It was hard to tell exactly when the hexagons were created from the papers used, but it looked like it might have been in the early 1980's or possible even earlier in the late 1970's, so I reckon either of those definitely qualifies them as vintage! The shirts used in the blocks are not nearly so old, but as vintage in fashion can be as little as last season, I reckon they qualify too :)

I went with a traditional layout for this quilt as you can see. I know that this has ended up bigger than our usual art quilts and, indeed, is very far removed from the idea of an art quilt but I really wanted to make something that would give the hexagons a new lease of life. In a further nod to the notion of vintage I wanted to end up with something that was useful as well. 

 After cutting the blocks I was left with these pieces from the shirts so, in true vintage quilting fashion, I pieced them together randomly to create a backing for my hexagon quilt.

I didn't have quite enough shirt fabric left over so supplemented the pieced backing with strips cut from an old pillow case.

The blocks were shadow quilted around the edges and the hexagons were quilted with a zig-zag stitch around the outer and inner rings.

As you can see the quilt is not quite complete as I have not yet added a binding. I have struggled to find another shirt in a colour that will work for the binding so might have to broaden my search :) 

I hope to donate the finished quilt to Project Linus as I think that would be a fitting outcome for these vintage hexagons, don't you? 

Looking forward to seeing the results of my fellow Endeavourers vintage projects.

Walking with Giants

 I had so many potential ideas for this quarter's theme, Patterns in Nature, that I found it really difficult to decide on a project.

When this photo, from our visit a few years ago to the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, popped up on my screen one day I knew that I had found my inspiration! The Giant's Causeway, which is the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. comprises around 40,000 interlocking basalt columns many of which are hexagonal in shape. The perfect inspiration for a quilter :)

Here, therefore, is "Walking with Giants", inspired by the natural phenomenon that is the Giant's Causeway. 

 I rarely buy quilting magazines, but in a recent, rare purchase I came across an advert for the Cottage Cloth collection for Andover Fabrics by Renee Nanneman and knew that it would be perfect for my basalt columns. Fortunately, I discovered that I could purchase appropriate fabrics from the collection in 10cm increments at Midsomer Quilting. 

Rummaging in a sewing room cupboard I happened upon these hexagon templates and papers from a long forgotten magazine purchase. I knew that they would come in handy some day :)

It took me a while to work out how to get the hexagons and columns combined, but I eventually settled upon half basting the hexagon papers and leaving the bottom of the hexagons to form the columns.

Given that the inspiration for my Challenge quilt was set in Northern Ireland I wanted to continue that theme with the fabrics that I chose for the rest of the quilt. Ireland, and Northern Ireland in particular, is famous throughout the world for the quality of its linen fabric, so I wanted to use linen fabrics for the background and trees in the quilt. (You can read more about the history of linen and linen production in Ireland here)

 I didn't have any light blue linen fabric in my stash for the background, but I did have an old linen/cotton mix shirt of my husband's so thought that was appropriate enough. I did have these two lovely green linen lengths, although they are Lithuanian linen rather than Irish, but I thought they would be ideal too.

The hexagon columns were built up on the background fabric and machine quilted with invisible thread and you can see the hexagon shapes more clearly on the back of the quilt below.

The green linens were appliqued to the background with double-sided fusible web and then FMQ'd.

I added a few clouds to the sky to break up that expanse of blue and to give a more accurate representation of Irish weather :)

As ever, this Challenge was delightful and daunting at the same time. I am looking forward to seeing how my fellow Endeavourers met this Challenge, I am sure I will be inspired all over again!

P.S. If you would like a more fanciful story of the origin of the Giant's Causeway you can read it here.

Dare to be Square

 I had so many ideas for this quarter's challenge - Circles and Squares, that I had real difficulty narrowing the options down to just one project. In the end my inspiration was a quilt, that I came across on a random swipe through Pinterest, with fabric circles appliqued to a background quilted in squares.

I decided to up the ante for the theme by having a black and white gingham fabric for the background and using only dotty fabric for my appliqued circles.

 

The gingham background fabric was quilted rows in a grid pattern and all of the appliqued circle were shadow quilted in the round (or just appliqued for the smaller circles) except this one hence the name of this quilt :)

I love receiving, and fortunately, my family are happy to buy me as birthday and Christmas presents, perfume from a well-known perfumier, who tie up their lovely cream and black boxes and bags with black grosgrain ribbon. I have a nice, little store of this ribbon which I was able to use to bind this challenge quilt. It is only wide enough for a single width binding, which I have stitched down with a zig-zag stitch all round. 

 

One of my other intentions for this challenge was a Halloween themed noughts and crosses quilt for the grandsons, so when I changed my mind to make Dare to be Square instead nearly all of my dotty fabrics were from a Halloween layer cake. 

 

So, along with the cushion from last year's Challenge I had the ideal setting for our hall table for Halloween last night :)

Happy to have completed another Endeavourers Challenge and looking forward to seeing the always fabulous projects my fellow Endeavourers have produced this quarter. 

If you would like to see what else I have been sewing for Halloween head on over to Celtic Thistle Stitches for a quick peek :)

Floating around

 Like so many of these challenges I took forever to decide upon my project for this theme. 

My lightbulb moment was coming across this unfinished project from the textile printing summer school I attended last year. I realised that I could use this as the starting point for a bigger piece of work with a water/underwater theme.

Rummaging through my cupboards I came across these orphan blocks that I thought would work with the original piece and fit the watery theme.

This is what I ended up with! You can see the original blocks, which have now been embellished with embroidery stitches, FMQ stitching and a random selection of beads and sequins. 

My luckiest find, and the focal point of Floating Around, was this piece of frog and lily pad cross stitch that I inherited when my parents passed away four years ago. My mother was an avid cross stitcher and left a box full of pieces just like this, so I am really pleased to have been able to put this one, at least, to use.

I also inherited several pots and blister packs of beads so they were put to use in Floating Around too. 

My intention is to mount Floating Around on a canvas but that will have to wait until I find one the correct size! 

Looking forward to seeing the results of my fellow Endeavourers responses to this quarter's challenge, they will, no doubt, be inspiring as usual. 

If you want to read more about the construction of Floating Around head on over to Celtic Thistle Stitches

Veni, Vidi, Vici

 Along with Amo, Amas, Amat (I, you, he/she or it loves) the title of this post (I came, I saw, I conquered) is the only Latin I remember from 5 years of study :( 

It is, however, the perfect introduction to my quilt for this quarter's challenge - Maps.

Our middle and youngest sons recently completed their walk along the route of Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. They have tackled the walk in stages so the section shown in the quilt above was the final section to be walked on a lovely, sunny Sunday last month. We were, fortunately, able to join them for this last section and for the pub lunch celebration after! 

The route shown on the quilt is contained within both of these maps above. When we lived in Northumberland, Hadrian's Wall was a popular destination for days out so, as you can see, the map at the back has been well used :)

Along this part of the wall there were several turrets and milecastles, which are marked on the map and quilt. Part of the route was closed for maintenance, so we had to walk around and through the plantation shown on the left. It was a good test of how waterproof our walking boots were! 

Hadrian's Wall runs from Coast to Coast along the edge of Northumberland and Cumbria and measures 73 miles along its length, but is 80 Roman Miles so I added the Roman Numerals for 80 to signify the boys' achievement. 

 I would like to make a similar quilt for the starting point of their walk so they can have one each to mark their journey.

Looking forward to seeing how my fellow Endeavourers have tackled this new challenge!

Head over to Celtic Thistle Stitches to read some of the background to the whole walk.

Repeat Offender

West of Scotland  

Repeat Crime Department 

 

Booking and Arrest Report 

 

 

Last Name - Gull

First Initial -    C

Date - 01/02/23   

 

 

Address -                             No Fixed Abode

Occupation                           Scavenger 

Marital Status                       Unknown

Age                                       8 years

Sex                                        Male

Weight                                   1.3Kg

Height                                   63cm

  

Offence 

 

 

Defendant is charged with the theft of an ice-cream from the hand of an individual on the 5th August 2022. Alleged crime occurred on the Largs seafront in full view of several witnesses, who were able to identify Mr C Gull as the perpetrator of the crime. 

 

 The victim had recently purchased a two scoop ice-cream cone from the Nardini Ice-Cream parlour. Victim was about to take his first lick of said ice-cream, when Mr Gull swooped down from his perch on the nearby lamppost and knocked the ice-cream from the victim's hand. Mr Gull then proceeded to consume the ice-cream cone now lying on the Promenade, leaving the two scoops of ice-cream to melt in the sun.

 

 

 

 

Previous reports (see Booking Reports 250421IC, 310522IC, 160722IC) highlight the serial nature of Mr Gull's offenses. Mr Gull has also been reported (Booking Reports 230621CH, 010722CH, 290722CH) for serial thefts of chips from individuals on the Promenade enjoying fish and chips with a sea view.

 

 

 

Arresting Officer     PC Thistle 

Location                    Largs Seafront

Booking Officer       Desk Sergeant CT Stitches

To find out more about the making of the mugshot head on over to Celtic Thistle Stitches