Got some sewing done at last

Despite having several appointments this week I've actually managed to get down and do some work, not a lot but some. TextileChallenge group 'House' challenge for Deborah O'Hare is finished. Don't know why it took so long to get an idea of what I would do for this swap, the theme of which was "Home is where the Heart is". On the surface it seemed too easy, until I sat down to do it. I found some fabric with hearts on in my stash which I'd forgotten about until I came upon it by accident. I thought it would make a good gable end and damp proof course.

Having quilted the background fabric it looked a bit bland so stamped the hearts all over it. I knew I wanted to put some dangly hearts on it and thought I'd use the Hearty airdrying clay in red. Wouldn't you just know it the craft shop has closed, credit crunch perhaps? I rummaged around in my old C&G art stock and came upon some air drying clay, it was a bit on the dry side but it rolled out okay. Naturally as soon as I went to get my small heart cutter it had disappeared so I had to make a template to cut the hearts out. Once I had painted them with acrylic paint and they had dried they looked okay. I sewed out a free standing lace heart and attached it to the back and added my label.

Surface Design swap was a slightly larger A4 mini quilt on the theme of "Wifes of Henry VIII".

You had to choose one of his wives as your theme for the quilt. I chose Anne of Cleaves as I considered her to be the only one who really got what she wanted (a woman after my own heart).

The quilt was designed to be the centre of a Tudor knot garden. From research it is thought that the Tudor knot garden is based on the embroidery on one of Henry's waistcoats fronts.

Blackwork was also very popular in Tudor times and I've represented this by the blackwork Tutor Roses in the quilt corners. The centre is quilted with silver thread and Anne's portrait is printout of her photo onto fabric. Anne is stitched down using a blackwork stitch on my machine, again in silver. Silver gilt lace was expensive and as a Queen could be expected to have worn such lace.

I've finally made a start on my January journal page for this year's Contemporary Quilters challenge (I did February on time). I thought I'd finished it but its been on my desk for most of this week as I feel it lacks something, not sure yet what it is. As soon as it comes to me I'll post a photo of it. Surfice it to say its black and white and red all over.

One sad event Keith and I went to this week was the funeral of a very old friend Myles. He was 82 and suffered from a very aggressive pancreatic cancer. Keith and I met Myles and his wife Rita through the scouting movement and Myles was also Churchwarden of our church. He was an extremely happy person, always helpful, laughed at himself and was well loved. The church was packed with standing room only at the back. We'll miss him but he left us with lots of lovely happy memories.