Christmas 2006

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas, and a Peaceful New Year. Love from Lesley

Circa 1770 Polonaise

These are pictures of the latest outfit I completed recently.
This is the underwear, comprising a linen shift, boned corset, 'bum roll' and linen petticoat.

The underskirt is silk.



The back and front views of the finished article. The top is of sprigged cream cotton, trimmed with hand hemmed brown silk to match the underskirt. It is also boned, at the front, back and sides. I don't think those women were ever meant to bend!

New 'Baby'

This is Dad's and my new baby, though his 'half' is bigger than mine. After fourteen years, the old Honda went to the great scrap heap in the sky. I still miss it, but I'm finding this one much easier to get Dad around in. There is a hoist fitted to one side of the boot, that swings out. A cord can be let down at the touch of a button, and hooked around anything heavy. In this case it's the wheelchair, but it could just as easily be a sack of potatoes. I just press the 'up' button, then swing in the chair and hey presto. Heaven.

The gantry can be put down on the floor if it's in the way, but I don't seem to do that often. I am finding that Dad is willing to come out with me more, now that he can see that it isn't so much of an effort.



The wheel chair gets stowed away with plenty of room besides for any shopping we might want to put in it. they have even put mini 'aircraft' styhle overhead lockers in it. You can just see the ends of them in this phot, one on either side. The overhead door is also a great help, as it is good for keeping some of the rain off whilst I am organising the hoisting.

This is the bit that might make you giggle - how many people are there that get a brand new car with two odd wing mirrors.......

What is more, how long do you think it took me before I noticed? I'm ashamed to say that it was two and a half weeks - during the second wash. By that time eight people had been in it, and lots more had seen it. I'm still waiting for a replacement, but I'm told it's on its way.

Edwardian Walking Outfit

The outfit consisted of Linen Chemise, Linen Corset, Bum roll, and Silk Petticoat. The petticoat has a facing in Grey to avoid the silk showing where the top fastens. It also has a grey facing to the hem so that it is this grey that shows when the wearer walks and the splits in the hem move.

The skirt and top were made of fine grey wool, and the top has shaping in the front in the form of four radiating darts coming up from the centre waist.

The top fastened on the left shoulder with five self covered buttons, and down the left side seam with eleven more self covered buttons. When the front was folded back, then the lining was fastened with numerous hooks and eyes to stabilise the two sides. The high standing collar was stiffened with buckram, fastened with more hooks and eyes, and trimmed with hand made cording.

The top was longer in the front, with just a single split centre front, and the back of the top was split into several sections to accommodate the bum roll and give a smooth shape.

The splits on the skirt were treated the same way as on the top, all stiffened with buckram and weighted in each corner, then trimmed with hand made cording.

The completed outfit. It was commissioned and

has gone to Springhill, a National Trust

Property in Northern Ireland. They will be using it

as part of their handling collection - this is available

to school children as part of their education

programme.

One day workshop with Kurdish Families

I recently did a one day workshop with some Kurdish refugee familes. The mother with the carpet had hand knotted every tuft, and her son (left) had a go at spinning with my wheel, as mum had only ever used a drop spindle. When mum tried, she couldn't get the treadling at all, so we did a duet!

The three girls really enjoyed their attempts at hand quilting. The two on the left (Zhyan and Bayan) completed four squares each, and Zhian on the right finished six! When I wanted to take their photos, all three pairs of hands when straight to their scarves to make sure they were adjusted.

Update to latest work in progress

The assymetric borders have been added, and I completed the white trim on the train down to Dublin to see the Knitting and Stitching show.

I've also made a start on the narrower panel that I want to hang to the left of this one. work on that has been held up a little because I mislaid the green fabric for the tapes, and had to order more.

The tapes are now appliqued, along with the background colours. All I have to do now is to add borders, and then quilt the whole thing.

I am considering adding different sized borders, for an asymmetric look, with perhaps another tape design on the widest border. Watch this space for a further update.

Project Linus Exhibition in February, 06

After months of searching our quilting group finally found a suitable venue for this year's exhibition. Sadly, for the third year running, we were only able to have it for one day, which was a great shame, as a lot of work goes into setting it up, and taking it down again. This year, we restricted ourselves to all the quilts we had made for Project Linus. In all, we had 65 quilts on dislay, roughly half made by our group, and half made by the Octagon Quilters in Westport, County Mayo. We were able to make donations to the Neo Natal Unit at Sligo General Hospital, the Women's Refuge in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, and the Rainbow Group in Sligo. This last organisation helps children to come to terms with bereavement.

We found the whole process very rewarding, and had lovely reactions from the Recipients concerned, so much so that we have made a start on more quilts to repeat the process.

Latest work in progress

This is a celtic knotwork medallion that I designed a few weeks ago, and, as you can see, is still 'work in progress'

All of the coloured background areas have been tacked in place, and some of the bias tapes have been stitched to cover the raw edges.

When I planned the work, I intended to made a doube bed sized quilt with this piece as the centre medallion, surrounded by 12 smaller designs.

I think now that I will make it into a smaller wall hanging, as I have some UFO's (unfinished objects) pricking my conscience. I'll post another picture when this section is complete.

Square for display in Dublin

I made this little square (8") for the spinning group I belong to, (Connacht Spinners and Weavers) We were asked to provide squares that represented, in some way, our area.

I happened to have the Torchon bobbin lace, made of one-ply wool. I had abandoned it during the making, because so many of the threads had broken. I quilted the 'mountain', that is very reminiscent of Croagh Patrick, our local conical mountain near Westport. The peat workings below, I hand spun from natural black fleece, and appliqued single and two ply strands to represent the peat diggings. The rest is free machine embroidery done in a zig-zag stitch to represent winter trees.

This little square is off to be put on display at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Dublin in November.

Some of the other squares were variously made using techiniques such as weaving, feltmaking, knitting, crochet, and rugmaking.

WELCOME

Welcome to my new blog. A totally new venture for me, so this is a complete learning experience. I hope to be able to put all my news here, so that you can keep up with what is happening here at Cianda House.

As a bonus, I am also hoping that this will save me having to produce a Christmas newsletter.

Watch this space for some photos.