Nativity

My Emily collects small Nativity scenes, especially those from other countries which are not traditional. So I made her one for Christmas 2017. I purchased the buttons in a packet from a stand at the Quilt and Craft show at the Brisbane Convention Centre. Then had fun stitching a little stable and positioning the buttons.

Oh Tannenbaum

Oh Christmas tree oh Christmas tree
Of all the trees most lovely
Oh Christmas tree Oh Christmas tree
Of all the trees most lovely
Each year you bring to me delight,
meaning in the Christmas night
Oh Christmas tree Oh Christmas tree
............with faithful leaves unchanging

My tree is filled with decorations that have so much meaning for me and my family. There are all those wonderful little girl handmade angels and fairies and baubles.
Then there are the many angels from the years I spent making a Christmas angel to mark the passing of the years. Only kept up for about 10 though. I can spy other ornaments I made at quilt meetings, retreats, or WIP days. Many others were given as gifts...quilting friends and an exchange with a quilt group in the U.S. There are those bought by my Mum each year for her young granddaughters . Two of these show the wear from being taken off the tree and played with. There are handmade decorations I purchased from fundraising gift stalls. There is a special teddy from my godmother and a red bird I received in a Girl Guide secret Santa swap. All treasured and all bring special memories.

Christmas cats

Today having fun creating something from what I can find. So here is a Christmas angel for 2017. The hankie was in my pile of vintage white hankies and I noticed the bells embroidered on. That  was the starting point. Christmas bells, then some folding and it became a dress for an angel. Then the search for the angel was on. Not many around here .I was thinking if I had any wooden large beads with faces or not as I could paint them on. Then I thought maybe an old doll would have a head I could pull off....told you no angels. Found a bag of ‘stuff’ and in it was these two little abandoned Sylvania cats. So they became Christmas angel cats. Mother and child , Madonna and baby, Mary and Jesus.

The small lace tablecloth in the hoop was inspired by a similar hanging hoop by @aknitakcreations . The Cat angel can be packed away after Christmas and another object placed in the hoop...or not maybe they’ll hang around for awhile.

Journey

As I contemplate my entry into the 2018 SoTA ( state of the Art ) exhibition I have been reflecting back on this piece Journey which was juried into the exhibition in 2012. I had painted and stenciled a piece of calico. This sat for awhile before I noticed the large central circle. The colours led from there and the boat as a symbol for a journey came from the quote by Mark Twain

         ‘ Twenty years  from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do
             than by the ones you did do.
             So throw off the bow lines , sail away from the safe harbour’

Boats and sailing on the high seas have always been a part of the folklore within my family now and in the past. The words  salt spray,  trade winds, marine, anchor, ocean, roaring forties, mainsail, Cape Horn and North winds touch the part of me that holds the genetic memory of ocean sailing and always invoke a feeling of excitement and longing and so these were used to form a mind map for stitching on this journey.

After watching and dabbling in slowstich by following along with Jude Hill @spiritcloth I knew this was the style of textile work I preferred. Hand stitch , slow stitch , story cloth , mindful stitching , soft, organic, free, no rules, no confinement, mending , darning, vintage and tattered textiles.  So my little piece Journey was the start of a new journey for my work.
 Now to 2018’s entry 🤔