Colours of New Zealand picture

I finished the Colours of New Zealand cq picture and I blogging it just so I have a record of how it turned out and also to compare it to my previous two "Colours of......." pictures.  There is a lot of background texture in this picture that doesn't show in the front.  For instance, the lake beneath the mountains is a piece of silk fabric which has been smocked on the back to create the ridges. Once it was sewn in place, I stitched rows of beads between the grooves. The snow on the mountains was a piece of very sparkly stretch open-weave material which was ironed onto a stabilizing fabric before being cut out and appliqued onto the grey satin mountains with blanket stitch worked in a similar coloured sparkly thread. And the fields on the left were small pieces of various green and yellow materials machine sewn into a patchwork of squares before being sewn to the backing.  The Kiwi was a piece of patchwork material with the Kiwis already included. I used two strands of embroidery floss and stitched over the top of the existing bird then went over the top with a single strand to make it more fluffy. I used the colours that were already printed on the fabric to create the shading.

The lady who ordered this picture was from Christchurch, New Zealand. She asked for mountains and sea, River Avon, lambs, the Christchurch Cathedral (now gone since the earthquake), Hydrageas, a Kiwi, a Tiki and she sent me a photo of the first house that they lived in which I printed out on fabric and embellished. The red flowers represent the New Zealand Christmas Tree.

 

When my friend saw the Sardinia picture, she commented "I wonder what the Colours of Widnes would be - dirty old town!". That was like red rag to a bull and I had to show her what my impression of the "Colours of Widnes", which is an industrial town in Lancashire, England, would be. Unknowingly, I included the bridge that her grandfather worked on and the Widnes Railway Station which was where her father worked. I love this picture, so dull and grey and yet so interesting.

And here is the original "Colours of Sardinia" picture which I made for a friend from work and his wife as a house-warming present. It doesn't matter that they'd been in the house by the time I finished the picture, they loved it, especially Anna who said that it completely captured the beautiful colours of their homeland, Sardinia, Italy. It was from this that the Widnes picture evolved and eventually the NZ picture.

Cream blocks joined in pairs

Here are the first eight cream-on-cream blocks which I've joined down the centre in pairs so that I could embroider over the joining seam. Apart from the gold basket which has been stitched over with flowers, I have unpicked all the metal charms and replaced them with gold embroidery. Now that I have to wait two weeks for my wrist to heal, I can at least continue unpicking more gold metal charms before I am allowed to start stitching again.  Anyway, lots of people have commented that my cream blocks have been a long time coming out of hiding so here are the first four pairs.

Hexagon 26 Finished

This is hexagon number 26.  A little too bright for my normal taste but I need to have an even mix of brights and pastels in this quilt in order to have some contrast.  I went back to something that I haven't done for ages, in fact I can't remember the last time I made a button trail but this block seemed to call out for one. The crochet lace and the green embroidery under the red flower is a chunk cut from an old doily I think it fits that corner quite well. I finished this one yesterday in the hospital.  Today Eddie wants me to bring the circle of 19 hexies and the seven finished individual ones and start stitching the next row around the circles - I think he wants to be part of the process of choosing which hexie goes where so that the colours of the borders look good together. I love it when he wants to be part of the process - it's his journey more than it is mine.........

Hexie 25 finished. Eddie's favourite.

Yesterday I sat with my husband Eddie in Kalamunda Hospital and finished the edging on Hexagon number 25.  He had been transferred to Kalamunda Palliative Care Hospital and Hospice earlier in the day from Royal Perth Hospital and was much happier to be in a place of quiet calm instead of the frenetic pace of a large public government hospital in the middle of a big city. Kalamunda is on the eastern edge of Perth suburbia, it is leafy and shady and surrounded by tall gum trees and the hospital is built around a quadrangle which has ferns, trees and a pond and fountain with gold fish........a lovely place to be. We could hear the sounds of Kookaburras and Magpies and Eddie could lie back and feel peaceful knowing that he is in a much better environment. His room is light and airy with an en-suite bathroom, the nurses are much more patient-friendly and he looks out onto the open garden area. Hopefully, if the doctors can do something about controlling his pain levels, he may be able to come home for a while, if not, then he couldn't be in a nicer place.

While he lay back and relaxed either on the bed or on a large comfortable chair, I stitched and when this hexie was completed, Eddie reckoned that it is definitely his favourite by a long way. I think it is the colours which are very light and Summery - whatever the reason, this one will always be special to me now.

The Princess Dress fits the Princess!

Today my step-son sent me this photo of his daughter Alyssa in her princess dress.  Considering that I guessed her length, it fits really well.  Now, if the two fairies fit this well, I shall be happy. I don't know what she was doing with her hands - flapping or clapping them probably!

Hexie 24 is finished.

My DH Eddie didn’t get a wink of sleep Saturday night because of uncontrolled 10/10 pain despite a morphine pump going into his stomach plus a load of oral pain-killers. Hopefully the radiation that he is scheduled to have today will work on the pain levels............fingers crossed.

In the meantime, he slept for over three hours yesterday while I sat next to him, stitching hexie 24. It wasn’t on my agenda to finish it but because I just sat and concentrated, here it is. I trialled lots of different coloured backing fabrics, thinking that lime green would be the best.........yuck! way too much lime green. After several trials and errors, I finished up (to my own surprise as much as anything) with pale sky blue. I’ve let a few of the beads and buttons go over the edge of the backing rather than stop short of the edge of the hexie leaving a bare bit along the seams.

 I'm not happy with the fold over the left hand side, I'll have to unpick that bit and re-do it. In the flesh, it is not noticible that it is crooked but in the photo it really shows up. Comes from sitting in a darkened room with the blind down, curtains drawn around DH's hospital bed and the door shut.
 

Finally - the Princess Dress is finished

With only six days to go before Christmas I finished the princess dress for Alyssa, who is six in January.  This has been a real chore in the end because I am spending every day, all day, at Royal Perth Hospital with my husband Eddie who is suffering from advanced cancer.  I have been going out to the sewing room sometime between 6 and 7 in the morning and sewing for an hour and a half, maybe two hours, and then going to the hospital where I do the hand-sewing.  This dress is the same pattern as the other two fairies, frankly I am sick to death of this pattern now.  Anyway, here is the Princess dress.......BTW, both sleeves are the same size, the way the dress is hanging on the hook makes one sleeve look bigger than the other........believe me, it isn't......