Deer-Juliette

Thnak you dear Juliette for the sweet deer that arrived yesterday. The soft colors are lovely and lend a serene feel to the page. Nicely done! Hope you are recovering and getting back to normal. Thank you so much!

Amazing Page From Kath!!!

Oh KAth you ahve certainly outdone yourself, hurt left arm and all!!! I adore this beautiful depiction of this exquisite window. The detail here is amazing. This is a depiction of a window from teh church of St John Theologia in Kavousi, Rethymno Crete. KAth did all of the stitching and backed the piece on butter soft ultrasuede. Simply stunning!!!!

What a tresure my window collection is becoming ladies! Thank you all so very much for sending me bits of the wolrd that you live in to beautify my corner of the world!!!!

Thank You Ann!!!

I am so sorry to be so tardy with responding to your wonderful page Ann!!! We have just gotten our eldest child off to his first year of college and there has been alot of emotional upheaval and moving of stuff , going on!!! He is trying to find his way ans struggling and my Mommy heart hurts for him but he will come thru it all, I am sure
ANYWAY!!!! Thank you so much for the lovely quilted page. Ann depicted two cats sitting on a window looking out onto a beautifully quilted yard. I do have a very soft spot for a certain cat from my past. This particular Kitty got me thru some very rough teenage years and lived to the very old age of 18! i love the page Ann thank you!!!
I can't seem to find the page in all of the piles around the house so I am wondering if you might be able to post a picture. As I get things sorted I will find it and post a shot of it then!!
Big Hugs and Thanks, Ann!!!

Liz

Hi Liz, with apologies but your page will be in the post this week for sure, hopefully tomorrow!! So sorry for the delay, I hope you enjoy it at last. Here's a pic of some doors around Rethymno, our nearest town but the one I'm doing you is based on a church near our village.

Leaves that Fly

Well, these leaves don't fly under their own power, but I'm guessing they will hitch a ride on an airplane to get to India!  Which is a wordy way to say my page for Maya has been posted.  LOL!

Here is a little teaser while you wait, Maya. 

Gayle

Gayle The page you made me arrived on Wednesday. Thanks so much. Dreaming Quilts : ) Carmen

Scotty's Castle for Carmen

The Post Office tells me that this page has arrived at Carmen's house, so here are the pics. I have particularly enjoyed the pages depicting scenes and life around the world.

There are not many castles in California to inspire me! LOL But...I have always wanted to visit Scotty's Castle in the desert area called Death Valley. The story of the "castle" is that of an unlikely friendship between a reprobate prospector and a wealthy, religious busnessman from back East. This link tells the whole story:

www.nps.gov/deva/historyculture/scottys-bts-pag11.htm

The rocky sand was made with Texture Magic. Great stuff! The cactus is one variety of prickly pear. I have never eaten the fruit fresh, but have had jelly made from it. The young leaves or paddles can be skinned an eaten as a vegetable or side dish (nopales). Once in a home in Tijuana, I was served a breakfast of scrambled eggs and nopales with still warm tortillas fresh from the neighborhood tortilleria, Mmmmm!

Belated post - Mandy's Castle page for Carmen.

This is rather out of sequence, but here is the Castle page I made for Carmen back in April.



As my attached letter explains, the picture is based on a photograph I took of my daughters playing in the ruins of Beeston Castle.





This rather wonderful ruin is on the top of a steep hill with magnificent views of the surrounding Cheshire Plain. The site was chosen carefully for its strategic value. Built as it was many centuries ago, it was there to help protect the English from the marauding Welsh. With a cliff to three sides and a steep hill climbing to the remaining side, the castle managed to survive for centuries eventually falling during the English Civil War. It has the benefit of an amazingly deep well, which would have been life-saving for the inhabitants during a seige.
As a family, when my daughters were young we often visited this castle. We learnt a lot about the history surrounding it whilst playing amongst the ruins. There are still regular events, where various societies come to re-enact different periods from the Castles long history.
Thanks Carmen for allowing me to wander very happily down memory lane as I put this piece together.

Sneak Peak for Chris

Chris, your coastline page for August was completed today.  Here's a little peak. I'll be mailing it out either Saturday or Monday. Hope you like it!

Surf's Up! for Juliette

I'm a California gal, and you rarely go to the beach without seeing young people in the water on their surfboards. I just couldn't resist using this picture of my great grandson having his first surf lesson with his auntie. (Used with his mom's permission of course) He was quite impressed when I told him he was going to be famous, and people all over the world would see his picture.

It's a little hard to see in the picture, but I used cheesecloth for the foam with bits of beads etc for a little glitz.

Kath's Page From Elizabeth

Kath, here is your August page, or , I should say, a tiny snippet of it!!! It will be on it's journey to you in Greece tomorrow!! I had a wonderful time creating this page for you and I hope that it has enough "Flower Power" for you!!!!

LAte Page in The Mail for Mandy!!

Well, here is a bit of a snippett Mandy!! It is late but it is finally on it's way! I am now well into working on a Flowers page for Kath!!! Then I will be back on schedule!!!

Page for Juliette

Since Juliette received her seashore page (the second attempt as the first was lost in the mail), I thought I'd post some photos for everyone to see. I love the little sandpipers along the seashore and I had this lovely piece of rusted fabric that reminded me of the beach so I put the two together. The water is a hand dyed piece of fabric. The sandpiper was drawn with colored pencils and then painted with fabric medium. I then did a bit of machine stitching and quilting. I edged it with a raffia machined cord.

Here's a close up of the bird.

And the back. Glad you liked it Juliette and maybe sometime you'll get the first one too.

Pages arrived

Hi Ruth your page has just arrived safely today and it is lovely thank you so much, I like the rust fabric only done this once myself and it did not turn out as well as yours. I also received my page from Gayle so another thank you I love CP.and your stitching is so neat.Your page is in the post tomorrow.

Just to say thanks

Johoanna thank you so much for the lovely page which i recieved on Monday. I haven't been able to say before as i had a complete shut down on the computer and have had to invest in a new one and even that isn't easy is it? Any how ladies my page was lovely and Johoanna yours is on its way to you a little late but on its way. Luckily i had printed out your address before the crash and as i don't have any email addys as well i haven't been able to write to ask Ruth to email the lists across but i think i am doing fairy tales. Anyway i am so sorry to be a pain i will try and be better in the future. Love Chris

My page from Maya!

I was certainly excited to receive a package from India this week!  Maya made this wonderful door based on the homes in rural India.  It was so interesting to hear about the way people live in another part of the world.  Thank you so much, Maya.  I love it!

Thank you Liz

Hi, here is the lovely page from Liz with 'real' flowers growing up a trellis. Liz tells me the flowers are made from silk and paper and usually used for scrapbooking so a real find; I wouldn't have looked there myself. And the gorgeous back fabric is so colourful! Thank you for another great addition to my book.

Windows Preview

This month I made a window page for Elizabeth. First I thought my topic for August was doors. But nevertheless I started the window page. I had the idea and wonted to loose it. Looking at the table for the next topic I saw, that I can post it now. So here is a preview.

The page is not yet in the envelope. I think I will post it tomorrow.

Fron your errant member

Hi to everyone. Well this exchange has been more challenging than I expected. Do not give up on me though I have not forgotten you just way behind. I have received all my pages. Thanks so much to all of you for your great interpretations of my weird theme of castles. Dreaming Quilts : ) Carmen
Yes to Mandy Ann Johananna and Ruth

Windows for Elizabeth.

I was delighted to hear a short time ago, that my page for Elizabeth has just arrived.



The windows page was based on my photographs of this delightful little chapel on a bridge crossing the Great Ouse.



The picturesque town you can glimpse beside the waterfront is called St Ives. I can recommend an exploration of the area, since the town and it's small museum is well worth a visit. More photographs from my trip can be seen here.



It was great fun to interpret one of the glazed windows for Elizabeth. As you can see from the note I sent with the page, I used a number of techniques. The gessoed piece of canvas came from a damaged artists canvas I had taken to pieces. The frame will eventually be used for some screen printing experiments.........



I could not resist putting something behind the window frame.



So the window is hinged using beads, so that it can open to reveal............



Hence the title..............



The back is made using a piece of scrap silk and some mulberry paper.

More apologies

Hi there Elizabeth and Liz, I have already apologised to Elizabeth as I had a fall and trapped a nerve which means my embroidery is very slow as I get pins and needles after a short time. So - I have scrapped the first 'window' and am half way through another one but that will leave me late with my door for Liz. Aaaagh, I wish we bounced! But I shall get there with your patience; thank you

Castle for Carmen

This is the page I made for Carmen in May. Carmen has the topic castles. At first I thought about sewing a Loire castle. But I arranged the towers somewhat different.
I found the walls of the original castle a lot too gray - can you be happy, in boring gray walls? A good queen has to live in a colorful castle! ;-) My interpretation of the theme "castle" is colorful!
Perhaps there a party going on.