A Woman's Strength and Courage

This past week, I happened to be looking for free daily offers on my Kindle and came across this children's book called Martha Ann's Quilt for Queen Victoria. I love quilt based fiction for any age.

Last night, I decided to read it before I went to bed. I was touched by this story that I woke up this morning and immediately started looking for information. As a quilter, when I read at the end of the story that it was based on a real woman's life and the quilt existed, I had to see if I could find a photo of the Coffee Tree quilt.

 

This is Martha Ann Ricks. This photo is part of the collection taken at the National  Portrait Gallery in London. It was taken on July 18, 1892. Her eyes and smile tell a story in themselves.



This is the Coffee Quilt which she stitched by hand for Queen Victoria. It was made with affection and conviction for the queen. She herself was quoted in The London Times saying...'The Lord told me I should see the Queen, and I know I will.' She hand appliqued more than 300 green leaves with red coffee berries.

Excerpt from Martha Erskine Ricks: 19th Century Quiltmaker by Hicks...
**The Coffee Tree Quilt Mrs. Ricks designed had over 300 pointed green leaves with plump red coffee berries all delicately hand-appliquéd onto a white background. The quilt was composed of a center tree trunk extending the length of the quilt. Mrs. Ricks divided the background into four quadrants with a main branch in each quadrant attached to the center trunk. Dozens of leaves with coffee berries attached to minor branches in each of the quadrants. Scalloped appliquéd leaves and berries bordered the entire tree. She most likely spun, wove and dyed her own cloth using both cotton and fibers from the silk cotton tree. The size of the quilt was at least as large as our present-day queen-size quilts.** 



I found this version of the quilt from the story Kyra Hicks wrote on her blog. Isn't it beautiful! Thank you so much Kyra for sharing this inspiring story with the world through your book. Martha Ann has really touched my soul.



Normally, I use my book and food blog to write a book review but I just had to share this book with you. It is such an inspiration to any woman who sews, quilts or stitches. I will be quilting today with Martha Ann in my thoughts and a feeling that I am linked to her and all woman who worked magic with their needle and thread before them and draw on their strength and courage.

Personal note:  I have been neglecting my blogs as I have not been feeling well. I had to go into the hospital over Easter and am not totally recovered yet. Rather than write it all out, you can read about it on my home and garden blog here. I find myself in bed at 7pm some evenings totally worn out. The specialist just talked to me this morning about my test results and it appears that my immune system just went on tilt which is something they cannot explain. It is not a result of anything I ate. I have an emergency kit with 4 medications to take if it happens again before I call an ambulance. I think I have a nerve infection in my right hand also which is causing me major discomfort for the last two weeks so my needlework is coming more slowly at the moment. I am left handed though and grateful that I still can do things. I do have some works in progress to share so hope to get to some of them on my next blog post. 

Looking forward to summer?

Well, not really looking forward to summer already but I finished another UFO! This is a SAL that I did back in 2010 from Sofie's blog. I loved the lacy simplicity of this design.

But it was round and I could not decide what I wanted to do with it. A couple of weekends ago, we left for Cranberry Cottage on Friday morning so I asked Jos if we could stop in at a shop I like in Staphorst. I knew this sampler was sitting in a stack waiting for attention but was not looking for anything for it. When you least expect it, there it is...the solution.

I found a round candle tray that I was thinking would be about the right size for this sampler. I cut a piece of poster board in a circle to fit inside the tray and glued a couple of layers of quilt batting to it. Then I stretched the sampler over the poster board and laced it after which I simply glued it into the tray. A piece of lace glued around the edge finished it off just right.

So far, I have finished 13 projects this year of which 6 were on my UFO list. I am really pleased with how many I am finishing so have been adding more UFOs to the list. I hope I can keep up the momentum.....
Anyone else working this year on UFOs?

Rabbit season.....

When I came across the Mosey'n Me free chart called Hare's Another Rabbit on Patty's blog, I loved it. Then I saw it again at Miss Linda Lee's and that was it...I had to make this one for Easter.

I decided to work on it while I was online talking to my mother each evening on Skype. I figured I would be able to finish it easily on time since we talk for at least an hour each day.

I already had decided that it would look adorable in a frame I had bought to paint and use for my Dagi sampler wall. I will just look for another frame later for those cat samplers. This frame was just too perfect for this little rabbit picture.

I used 30ct. Apple Brown Bindy R&R Linen for this one stitching 2 over 2. My eyes need a rest. Then I used Crescent Colours Roasted Chestnut to create a milk chocolate bunny. You see, I only eat dark chocolate so this will prevent me from biting his cute little ears off. Then I used Carrie's Creations floss Olives to create the little gingham border on two sides of the design. That was just a little deviation on the original design to work well in my frame.

So that's it...rabbit season has begun! Just in case you are not in a holiday mood for Easter here is Peter Cottontail which I played over and over to drive my mother nuts with. *grins*



Note: I am so sad that I am not able to comment on any WordPress blogs. It refuses my comment until I sign in but I am not a WordPress member. I hope this problem is solved soon but wanted to let people like Lillian, Amy and Barbara know that I am not able to comment. Is anyone else having this problem?

Little Red Riding Hood.....

Long, long ago...a little girl used to ring the doorbell. Her mother would answer and ask who's there. The little girl would always be someone different but her first choice was always Little Red Riding Hood. No matter how many times the little girl rang the doorbell, the mother would come open the door and ask who she was...

Yes, you guessed it...I am Little Red Riding Hood. *wink* So anything with this on it is special to my mother and I. My mother gave me this pretty picture one Christmas. Her Little Red Riding Hood at the door. So when I was at a big indoor fabric market and found some children's fabric with Little Red Riding Hood on it, I knew I had to get some and make a birthday gift for me mother.

I decided on a fabric basket to hold her knitting. I took the measurements from this tutorial and the instructions from this tutorial to sew the basket.

In working with this method, you end up with four corner squares of fabric from the fabric and lining leftover. Rather than waste this fabric, I sewed these pieces together and created a small basket to match the large one. I sewed the method from  the tutorial I used for the measurements since she does hers in 5 pieces for the basket which is what I had left from the large basket adding one extra square from the fabric I had left. Clear as mud? *grins* I got two basket out of a half meter of fabric and still have a fat quarter left for something else.

They were fun to sew and easy to follow the tutorials. A great way to make a project basket for knitting, crocheting, stitching or quilting.

Happy birthday again Mom from Little Red Riding Hood!

An Easter themed SAL Day...

Why Easter themed? Because Peter Cottontail came along and presided over the table...

Each time Bep comes for our stitch-along day, I give her a table present. This time I set the table with a yellow tablerunner and my cabbage leaf plates. This sweet bunny and a pretty green glass for her garden table were awaiting Bep. She surprised me with a pretty garden pot filled with tiny wood violets. I just love it and it looks perfect out on my garden table. Thanks Bep!

But we were here to work too! First we worked on a wedding quilt that Bep is making but since it is a surprise, I cannot show it that. She asked me to show her how I attach binding to a quilt. By lunchtime, it was on and she simply had to sew the back at home.

We enjoyed coffee and a lemon cream muffin. Then we got our stitching for the strawberry pincushions cut and interfacing ironed  on. We picked out little beads to sew on before we put them together. Funny but when you start to pick out beads, you can end up with ones that you totally do not expect to want to use. We both decided on our beads and are sewing them on now.  Sewing the pincushions will wait until the next SAL...

But that table was calling so we toasted to our lunch and friendship with a glass of Chardonnay and tucked in...

The theme was appetizers and finger foods...

Bep prepared Belgian endive leaves filled with scrambled eggs with red peppers and onion, mini pizzas and boiled eggs with anchovies on toast. I made real tartar sauce with English cod nuggets, grilled herb tomatoes and deviled eggs.

I am already looking forward to our next SAL day. *sigh*

Hermit doing the moonwalk.....

That was me this weekend. It was the March hermit weekend. First I forgot to add my link to the list before it was too late. Then I started my stitching tucked up in Cranberry Cottage for a nice long weekend. Sounds like all was in place for a great weekend of needle and thread? I started my moonwalk (remember that move by Micheal Jackson) on Friday afternoon. I needed to finish off the last bits of this project...

As easy as it is, I had to restitch the initials 3 times and the date twice to get it right. Tomorrow, Bep and I have our monthly SAL day and will start the next step of our strawberry pincushions. This stitching was just the start.

Then I pulled out this old UFO. Now I love this piece but it got set aside when I needed to work on stitching ort jars for my quilt group's Christmas in July party last year. Not so good as it stayed there until now. In the theme of stitching UFOs, this was going to be next on my list. Oh my! Thankfully I did not take along the quilt I am quilting as I would have set this aside again and quilted. I had a terrible time with seeing what I was doing and there making mistakes. I also did not like a color I was using and frogged the flower to change it to the pink. I also forgot to take photos of where I started at the beginning of the weekend but you will have to take my word for it that I filled in the heart at the top right and started on the keys next to the heart.

I never have trouble with small count doing 1/1. This one is not even all that small at 30 stitches per inch. I love working something so that it is little and delicate but I did not used to have this silly eye disease which is plaguing my being able to focus properly. After working on this on and off since Friday, I put it aside on Monday evening and could feel my eyes were very irritated. I woke up this morning at 3:44am to a full blown attack and having to get up to take some pain medication. I refuse to give up on this UFO though! It will get done but I need to pace myself a little more on it maybe...

We sometimes have our moonwalker moments as stitchers when you end up stitching more backwards than forwards. I am hoping next month will go a little smoother for my next hermit weekend...

In the meantime, maybe I should just try and catch the moon while listening to Elizabeth Mitchell (just love Elizabeth Mitchell and listen to her in my quilt studio all the time...) sing with Lisa Loeb...

DagiLuv - cat sampler wall

Hurrah...another finish...another UFO crossed off my list...

DagiLuv is framed and hanging on the cat sampler wall as of today! I had started this project back at the beginning of 2011 with the idea of stitching all 10 of the patterns from The Goode Housewife in that same year and a further 2 cat patterns. That was a bit over ambitious so I am pacing myself with the idea of finishing the wall in 2013. So my UFO goal for this year is to stitch a further 4 of the samplers. This sampler brought my total up to 6.

I christened this sampler called MayBelle by the designer as DagiLuv. If you remember, I am changing the colors of the cats to look like Dagi, our beloved four footer. The cat was stitched in DMC 3782 and 3790. I also used colors 830 and 834 which are the advised colors but changed to 3776 since I had it in my stash and 844 as I felt the dark grey color would look nicer with the frame since it was black. Black would have been too heavy with the thread color.

I found a perfect square frame again so did a little rework on hanging them and now can on kitting up a square design again. I was so happy to find this one as it is the bronze color which I am using here and there to ensure the look of the sampler wall is not too heavy. And can you spy my little addition? I added a springerle cookie mold that I bought years ago in The Alsace, France. I could not resist as it comes out so nicely between all the needlework while it did not show up as well with my speculaas cookie form collection being small.

Do you remember this pincushion from my old blog?



It has been featured on Ashlie's blog for her Truly Talented Tutorial Thursdays. I was really honored that she included it. You can see it here and follow the photo to link to my tutorial on NeedleNecessities.