A journey of creative thoughts and projects.

Working in conjunction with a wonderful local museum, surrounded by the beauty of Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales, the inspiration I find for creative projects and a meet up with all the lovely people I find there.

Thursday 12 May 2011

Things finished and still on the go....

Hello again, I am still busy on the museum front but I did escape out of the Dale the other week-end to visit an arboretum close by. We had a beautiful day, if a little breezy!, and caught the grounds just right for there to be lots of blossoms on the go - wonderful.

Though not a tree this caught my eye which is actually a Tree Peony - these flowers were around 5" across (15cm) and just glowing in the sunshine, and very much appreciated by the insects as you might just be able to see....


Getting back home and downloading the pictures, over 150 of them ooops!, the peony stuck in my mind and I switched into thinking of a cherry red yarn I had spun (see my folksy shop), and out came my heddle loom and I was off...
I have to admit in trying for extra colour in the warp I got it wrong and used a yarn that seemed to have stretched and the further along I went the worse the tension got - I decided then to cut the piece short so to speak so did not have as long a scarf as I had envisioned, but phew! I like to think I rescued something.....
The red of the yarn with its changing hues echoed the brights and darks of the flower I had seen with the troublesome black in the warp thread symbolic of the black stamens of the flower.


In the end I had a 'cross-over' scarf, more decorative than to wind around loads of times for warmth.


To hold the scarf or simply to add extra decoration I crocheted this flower to represent the peony and rather than tassles at the end, or nothing at all, I crocheted a mesh from the red yarn that I then wove the end of the warp threads through to create a solid finish to the scarf that showed off all the extra colours I had tried to include.
This next project has definately had its origins at the museum...
On display is this lovely old rocking crib, its provenance is not known, but it has been used in the past by a local family in the Dale. I would love to know how many babes have been rocked to sleep in this, it is quite narrow so I think the babies must have been swaddled so no arms flailing!



Of course, quilting being one of my loves, I began to think of a nursery quilt. I had some modern prints in small 5" blocks, could I use them? How would it come together? This childs nursery rhyme book caught my eye in one of the display cabinets too - could the images in there help?


I loved the line drawings inside - ideal for quilting designs, and it was fun to see this picture not so carefully coloured in - who had done this, were they still around? Memories too of doing the self same thing myself and getting told off - did this child get into trouble for making their mark on its pages?


Back to the fabric, I decided to keep to a simple patchwork of squares - deceptive though as it is hard to keep all the junctions precise, no hiding them! For decoration I added some old lace that I had bought from the museum shop, setting it across the grid of the patchwork and echoing this new diagonal grid with the hand quilting - I love hand quilting...


The border of the quilt took its colours from the patchwork pieces and in the design of the quilting here I tried to mix the old with the new, line sketches of childhood days, some from the nursery rhyme book and some from the fabric itself. I will be finishing the whole piece off by adding my own binding - a bright zingy pink to lift the whole colour scheme. (That idea was given to me by 'mother nature' herself - starting this quilt, our apple blossoms were just bursting. Have you looked closely at the deep pink on the fresh blossom, the pale inner petals and the new leaves just bursting too - there is your colour scheme!)


Just the rest of the border to complete now, I'll show you when I'm done. I'll be calling it 'Nursery Steps', a little like my first steps here into discovering inspiration at the museum and in Swaledale - funny how all the ideas coalesce in one piece of work!!