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sorry I have not posted for a couple of weeks and as I have not got photos sorted yet I thought I’d post a bit of fun for the may holiday weekend,

when I was tidying up some photos recently I found one I took a long time ago but always find amusing,

so what do you think these donkeys are saying to each other as they view the world from over the wall,

at the last meeting of the club showed us a semi abstract method of creating flower paintings, Jane has in Carloway, the meeting was on Saturday 28th April I wanted to finish my painting before posting, Jane told us to draw some single flowers quickly without worrying about close detail, then to cut them out,


then we used a large sheet of paper to arrange our flowers on and draw around, using the shape several times, then we started to paint, I thought I had taken a photo of my painting as it was when I came home but I had not so this photo was taken after I had drawn detail in the flowers and started to paint them,

I had enjoyed this process it was like working with appliqué shapes and more suited to how I work, so I played around with some ideas in my sketch book before continuing with the painting,


And this is the finished painting, White Flowers,

anyone remember the well it is still in the making, I have decided to make 12 blocks all together, I have finished 8 so that means 4 more, I had decided I wanted to do a Shoo-Fly, I love the shape of this block which I have been told is based on an insect, there is also a Shoo-Fly Pie so if anyone can tell more about it I would love to know, I also wanted to do a Pin Wheel as I remember them from childhood, I loved watching the little pin wheel windmills turning around, because these blocks are all quiet large 12 inches I have done 4 - 6 inch blocks joined, another block I like is an Hawaiian appliqué block that is not cut yet, so one more block to chose, then I was reading and she is making a banner for her guild and had posted a Bears Paw and I thought yes, to remember happy walks on the north American continent and looking for bear tracks, (walking in Britain is soooo tame!), but better still remembering seeing my first black bear in BC, now just to make them all,

these are the blocks finished but not quilted, from the left, Bears Paw, Shoo-Fly, Pin Wheels,

now thinking of how to quilt them,

nine members of the Lewis quilt group have been busy the last six months or so making a quilt in Harris tweed to represent Lewis in the (LLQS), group section of the Far and Away exhibit, a month ago the quilt was finally finished and photographed by the Stornoway Gazette photographer to be shown in that weeks issue of the Gazette, Thursday 12th April.

So at last I can revel on my blog the story and how I tell it, some of you may remember the post about sending 5 (now 6) quilts to , well someone said ‘wouldn’t it be nice to send a quilt made from Harris tweed’ several people responded ‘yes’ so in all nine of us set to the project, the criteria for the design as set by
‘Quilters are invited to create a work that takes inspiration from the splendour of the Scottish isles. Traditional block patchwork, pictorial quilts or contemporary interpretations, hand and/or standard or longarm machine techniques are all acceptable.’

Being a group quilt the design had to be one where each member of the group could put her design signature to it and the easiest way to achieve this is to use the traditional format of individual blocks, then each quilter could create her own blocks in her individual style, to add a twist to this lay out it was decided to assemble the blocks on point (diamond style) instead of the more common rectangular grid, so each block would sing out clear the decision was made to alternate these pictorial blocks with plaid blocks, a plaid was decided on and to keep continuity it was decided to use the individual colours of the plaid to create the slightly abstract pictorial blocks, now we all had to chose what part of beautiful Lewis we would centre our blocks on, I chose to do a Blackhouse and one of my favourite beaches Dail Mor.

I have been away for the last couple of weeks first to the LLQS and then a week on the Ross of Mull, so lots to catch up on and lots to post,

Here’s a photo of the finished harris tweed quilt, we didn’t win but we did get a highly commended which is nice, the winning group quilt is beautiful and I am quiet happy to have lost to the quilters that made it, I will post a photo of it soon,

The nine quilters who made the harris tweed quilt are, Ross Barton, Frances Caple, Catherine Dodd, Pam Lye, Lilian MacLennan, Roseann MacLeod, Christine McRae, Ishbal Scott and Anne Williamson,

the Tangle O’ the Isles by The Filanderers,
Mary Ennis, Cora Ham, Fiona Hamilton, Ann Paterson, Margaret Thomson and Jan Watson,
is the wining quilt for the .


I love this quilt, it is well made with some interesting textures, there are six panels each quilter making a panel, I think this is a lovely way to make a group quilt as they all go together to make a whole but each panel works on it’s own so they can each take their panel quilt home, I am sorry I didn’t get time to copy out the statement but as I remember it, they started with some same basic fabric in a background design then each member quilted, embroidered and embellished as she decided, so the panels are all very individual, the idea for the design is taken from all the islands, hence the word ‘tangle’ in the title, congratulations Filanderers.