Can I have "A Big Hug"?
The answer is No. Just a virtual hug, but I will leave that question just hanging there. I have decided the perfect name for version of The Grace Heart Quilt, designed by mmmquilt.com is THE Big Hug.
The hearts seem to be very relevant at the minute. The big read heart at the front just seemed to leap out at me. I thought of The Big Love, but that reminds me of a tv series that was on (not that I watched it). The Big Hug just seemed to wrap itself around me, just the way a hug should.
The warmth and love that comes from a hug, says it all. Love, affection, caring, concern. This quilt embodies all this. Yet it is cheerful, these strong colours that I picked just seem to sing out. I decided to go with a rainbow of colours rather than the pastel shades Sandra had chosen. Again, this is coincidence, but windows all over the country are now displaying rainbows. This is to give children something to hunt and count when on their once a day walk in the area where they live. I can't blow my own trumpet. I didn't know what dreadful calamity was about to hit us when I started this quilt. It just all seems dreadfully appropriate.
When we went on the holiday that didn't happen, we returned 5 days into a 23 day holiday, I thought I would get stuck into the quilting. I still had some of the background left to quilt. The one heart I hadn't quilted was the big red heart on the front. Again, somewhat appropriate. Since I arrived home, I had been posting a Drink of the Day and a Craft of the Day on both my facebook and instragram feeds. A couple of people referred to the red heart and how it shone out. One man said he kept returning to the picture of the red heart, it was calling to him. A beacon of home. I was so touched when he said that. Another friend called it Heart Art, again I thought that was lovely.
When I started the embroidery on the heart, I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I had said I didn't want that vortex of heart within heart. I didn't know what I did want exactly. There was a danger it could end up a dog's dinner. First off I did a load of French knots, then a sort of unofficial stem stitch running along the left hand side of these. Pretty quickly the top French knots , or love knots, looked wrong. They were too bitty, and the white knots were lost in the white spot fabric. I took a chance and carefully unpicked them. I continued round with the green stem stitch and started adding daisies. As a child, I used to embroider with my mum. My favourite stitch was lazy daisy. I loved the name, I loved the stitch. I wanted to stitch lazy daises everywhere.
This quilt is for my sister. Have I told the story here about my sister and the daisies? I know I have in facebook and instragram. My mum was going to cut the grass. My sister began to cry because the daisies would all get cut and die, so mum left the grass. (I think I may have told this last post, apologies, my head's all over the place these days).
So that was a finish. I had already bound the quilt. I bound it in, guess what? Some spotty fabric, the good old Rose and Hubble of norm. Some things continue as normal. I used straight runs of the orange, with one of red just to break it up. And that left the photos. Recently we have been taking a day out to photograph my finishes. Generally we go to the coast, we have some lovely scenery here, albeit we are a small country. As I am confined to the house for the next 12 weeks, apparently my health makes me "special", so our photos are in the garden. How many photos have I taken on the bench of what we jokingly call the Writer's Corner. It isn't a corner, and its mostly for reading, but hey ho. If Monty Don can have a Writer's Corner in his garden, he is a tv gardener on the BBC, then so can I! The photos are taken in every direction in our small garden. There may be some repetition over the next few blog posts!
This last photo is one of those, you should have been here last week. Last week this witch hazel tree was filled with the most beautiful yellow blooms. Such is life!
In the mean time,
keep safe, stay safe and most importantly, Stay Home. Please
Helen x
The answer is No. Just a virtual hug, but I will leave that question just hanging there. I have decided the perfect name for version of The Grace Heart Quilt, designed by mmmquilt.com is THE Big Hug.
The hearts seem to be very relevant at the minute. The big read heart at the front just seemed to leap out at me. I thought of The Big Love, but that reminds me of a tv series that was on (not that I watched it). The Big Hug just seemed to wrap itself around me, just the way a hug should.
The warmth and love that comes from a hug, says it all. Love, affection, caring, concern. This quilt embodies all this. Yet it is cheerful, these strong colours that I picked just seem to sing out. I decided to go with a rainbow of colours rather than the pastel shades Sandra had chosen. Again, this is coincidence, but windows all over the country are now displaying rainbows. This is to give children something to hunt and count when on their once a day walk in the area where they live. I can't blow my own trumpet. I didn't know what dreadful calamity was about to hit us when I started this quilt. It just all seems dreadfully appropriate.
When we went on the holiday that didn't happen, we returned 5 days into a 23 day holiday, I thought I would get stuck into the quilting. I still had some of the background left to quilt. The one heart I hadn't quilted was the big red heart on the front. Again, somewhat appropriate. Since I arrived home, I had been posting a Drink of the Day and a Craft of the Day on both my facebook and instragram feeds. A couple of people referred to the red heart and how it shone out. One man said he kept returning to the picture of the red heart, it was calling to him. A beacon of home. I was so touched when he said that. Another friend called it Heart Art, again I thought that was lovely.
When I started the embroidery on the heart, I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I had said I didn't want that vortex of heart within heart. I didn't know what I did want exactly. There was a danger it could end up a dog's dinner. First off I did a load of French knots, then a sort of unofficial stem stitch running along the left hand side of these. Pretty quickly the top French knots , or love knots, looked wrong. They were too bitty, and the white knots were lost in the white spot fabric. I took a chance and carefully unpicked them. I continued round with the green stem stitch and started adding daisies. As a child, I used to embroider with my mum. My favourite stitch was lazy daisy. I loved the name, I loved the stitch. I wanted to stitch lazy daises everywhere.
This quilt is for my sister. Have I told the story here about my sister and the daisies? I know I have in facebook and instragram. My mum was going to cut the grass. My sister began to cry because the daisies would all get cut and die, so mum left the grass. (I think I may have told this last post, apologies, my head's all over the place these days).
So that was a finish. I had already bound the quilt. I bound it in, guess what? Some spotty fabric, the good old Rose and Hubble of norm. Some things continue as normal. I used straight runs of the orange, with one of red just to break it up. And that left the photos. Recently we have been taking a day out to photograph my finishes. Generally we go to the coast, we have some lovely scenery here, albeit we are a small country. As I am confined to the house for the next 12 weeks, apparently my health makes me "special", so our photos are in the garden. How many photos have I taken on the bench of what we jokingly call the Writer's Corner. It isn't a corner, and its mostly for reading, but hey ho. If Monty Don can have a Writer's Corner in his garden, he is a tv gardener on the BBC, then so can I! The photos are taken in every direction in our small garden. There may be some repetition over the next few blog posts!
This last photo is one of those, you should have been here last week. Last week this witch hazel tree was filled with the most beautiful yellow blooms. Such is life!
In the mean time,
keep safe, stay safe and most importantly, Stay Home. Please
Helen x
Well, a big heart for your quilt Helen, it looks great! ❤️
ReplyDeleteIt's a beauty, Helen, and I can just imaging what a warm, big hug your sister will feel every time she wraps up in it. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the daisy story, and your sister will love this quilt. I like all the little touches you put into it. All those French knots! I'm not a fan of sewing French knots - there would have to be several glasses of wine :-)
ReplyDeleteA big hug to you! A beautiful quilt and I like the addition of embroidery to the red heart.
ReplyDeleteThis just gets more beautiful every time I see it! I absolutely LOVE what you did with the red heart. It draws your eye to the heart and around inside it. Do not worry for a second about repeat photos in your garden as it’s so beautiful too. Writer’s Corner can be Reader’s Corner and also Quilter’s Corner. ;-) Seeing what you did with my pattern and knowing it’s going to your dear sister gives me a virtual big hug so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
ReplyDeleteGreat finish. It's amazing. Sorry your vacation was cut short. Hope you are well. Happy Easter.
ReplyDelete