Sheep at Stonehenge

 I can finally tell you about the baby quilt I made since Christmas. I just delivered it. It is called Sheep at Stonehenge. You may think it a strange name for a baby quilt but I did see lots of sheep on my England trip in October, especially at Stonehenge. Also the main fabrics used are from the Stonehenge collection. The pattern is by British quilter, Lynn Edwards. I had been looking for something different and as soon as I saw this one, I knew it was the one to do. If I hadn't come across this one, I would have designed one from scratch. The sheep bodies are fleece with flannel for the faces. Everything else is cotton. I used the blanket stitch on my machine to stitch around the sheep. The flowers were hand stitched.  Free motion stippling was used to quilt it.

The sheep dog is on the back. I will embroider the baby's name and date of birth on the dog's chest when she arrives. 

 This is the book where I found the pattern for the above quilt. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Lynn when she did some workshops and had a trunk show for the Cabot Quilt Guild here in St. John's.

Blogs to Visit

I came across the verykerryberry blog from Devon, United Kingdom. It's an interesting spot to visit with some tutorials and swaps. What caught my eye was the list of online fabric shops from the UK.

Closer to home is Island Sweet with Shawn O'Hagan. Shawn is a visual artist living and working on the west coast of Newfoundland. Take a look at some of her hand dyed yarns!

Now, from the other west coast, San Diego, USA, is Jane LaFazio of Plain Jane Studio. The common theme in her art is texture and colour. She is inspired by traditional folk art symbols and icons of Mexico and Asia.

From Sydney, Australia, is Creative Dabbing with Erica Spinks.  Erica was editor of the Down Under Quilts magazine. Now she likes to design, make, teach and write about quilts and textiles.

Still down under, is the Stitchery Grub blog, from Perth, Australia. If you are interested in lace making, embroidery, textiles and hand painted bobbins, check it out.

Another interesting site from Australia is Eiloren, Art & Design by Neroli Henderson. Check out the tutorials and galleries.

That's it for today. Enjoy!

Spring is in the Air - Somewhere!!

Spring seems to be near - I hope! Today the temperature in my back garden has registered 10C (in the shade) and the snow is melting. I've also been doing some early spring cleaning. Clearing out the clutter is really what I'm doing. I have several bags of books from my studio that I am moving out (to make room for a few new ones!).

Yesterday's mail delivered Fanciful Stitches Colorful Quilts by Laura Wasilowski and Freemotion Quilting by Judy Woodworth. Today, Stitchscapes by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn arrived. I'm looking forward to reading these.

Anyway, since spring is just around the corner, I found a few sites for you to visit with some SPRING ideas:
The Floss Box   
Spring Patterns
Homeberries embroidery patterns
Spring Fling
Flower of Spring

Have fun. . . 

Stitchin Fingers

After posting my sashiko piece on Thursday, I decided to also put its photo on the Stitchin Fingers blog. I didn't give it any more thought until I started getting comments from members about it. It's now # 2 for Top Content on the home page! Thanks to everyone for the comments.

If you are interested in textiles and fibre arts, this is the site to visit. You might be so inspired as to join too. They have almost 4000 members at the moment. There are lots of inspirational photos of work by members as well as groups to join. Visit and have a look around. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Enjoy!

Eastern Edge Quilt Guild

Esmerelda 2006

Tuesday night the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild had a wonderful presentation by local artist, Carolyn Morgan.  She works in several different media, one-of-a-kind art dolls, painting, textiles, clay and enameled copper. 
Carolyn had photos of her work which were displayed via computer unto a large screen as well as actual pieces of her art. Everyone was delighted with her show and tell. It gave all of us something to think about when designing our own art.