Flourish!

In 2010 I took an online class with Adam Chenevert on MQR, Wholecloth Design and Execution...the white quilt here in my blog header and background was my first wholecloth from that class.

I designed three wholecloths at that time and intended to quilt them in order but my number three quilt was insisting to be the second one quilted.  I designed this quilt on Easter Sunday 2010 and originally named it Easter Parade, you can read about it in this post.

So, after much planning and deciding that's what I've been up to....Lavender Silk Dupioni on top and a paler lilac for the back, Glide thread in the needle and Bottomline in the bobbin, double batting of Hobbs 80/20 and Quilters Dream Wool.....39 x 39 inches...12 bobbins....  even on a longarm this takes time and patience, 67&1/2 hours including marking and binding but not the design work and printing, (but I am slow, I like to enjoy the experience).

Here it is, 'Flourish'...... 

Finished size is 39 x 39 inches....

The Back....

With permanently fitted hanging sleeve...

There were three main motifs...

Definitely feathers with a 'Flourish'!

Edited to thank you all for the wonderful comments....I appreciate them all, 'Thank You'!

Off to Langholm...The muckle toon!

The Langholm Common Riding always takes place on the last Friday in July. It starts at 5am as the flute band parades the town and ends at 9.30pm as the Cornet hands back the flag in front of the town hall.

But we left home at 6.30 with picnic and horses and after a bit of a hicup with horse tack all went well.

One of the features of Langholm Common Riding is the quaint emblems which are carried in the procession:-

The Barley Banock

First there is the Barley Bannock and the salted herring fastened by a large nail - a "twal-penny nail" - to a wooden platter and flourished aloft on a pole. The bannock symbolises certain of the privileges of the Baron under the obligation of thirlage, while the fish may be symbolic of the Baron's right to the fisheries in the Esk or merely of the necessity of having some "kitchen" or relish to go with the decidedly dry fare of the bannock.
Next emblem is the Spade , the very epitome of the Common Riding, used as it is for cutting sods at different points of the Common and for clearing out the pits which originally marked the boundaries on the Common Moss up Whita Hill.

The giant Scottish Thistle and Crown (look close)

Third emblem is a gigantic Scottish thistle, a most picturesque accompaniment. The origin and purpose of the introduction of the thistle is very obscure. Being the national emblem of Scotland, it may have been adopted as such, or possibly on account of its 'jags' as a warning to anyone who contemplated interfering with the Fair.

The fourth emblem is the floral crown. It has no historical significance, and may have been adopted as a symbol of loyalty to the sovereign.

8.45am and the crowds were gathering....
 

 For the riders the highlight was a gallop through this narrow street.... here comes the Langholm Cornet with his Right and Left hand Men.....

And gallop up this steep narrow hill....

Here come Graham and Kyle...

I was taking my life in my hands getting some of these photos...the horses were coming thick and fast in places....

Must get a copy of this photo.....

It looks great in a frame.....

Next time we saw the horses they were coming over the river.....

And onto the race course for a proper gallop...

Kyle had his first try on a race course although they did go steady....  another good  day out enjoyed by all.

Decisions... decisions?

I went with the dark in the middle, I want to call it 'puse', I love that word 'puse'!
That's lavender coloured silk dupioni for the top and a paler silvery lilac for the back.

I marked half of the quilt with a blue pen and then as it was really drying I realised I was struggling to see the marks so swapped out to another darker pen (or six) and did it again ...it took me a whole day to mark with blue pen...next day it was on the frame but under the lights of my Millie I knew that I couldn't see the marks and had to draw in with a purple marker as I went along....bummer.

 

This is at the end of day one.

Because I used a blue water soluble marker I had to give the quilt a good soak in the bath tub, I didn't want to take any chances of setting the marks so no soap and only clean cold water ...I left it there for about twenty minutes just popping back to agitate a little.

No sqeezing or hanging, you don't want to distort the quilt.  I blocked it out right on the carpet in my studio with plenty of towels to catch all the water and plenty of pins to pull it into shape. I left it there for a couple of days.

I was aiming at a nice flat square quilt to hang on the wall.

I know I'm a terrible tease...lol...when it's all bound I'll let you see it!

Not the crown jewels...

I know, I'm conspicuous by my absence at the moment but I have been busy...a bit of quilting and a bit of piecing....I've nearly got the body of the 'jewel box' pieced...putting in that green border design threw me a bit, geeze I'm easily confused...lol...but I did get the knack eventually! The rows in the bottom half are stitched but the top half is still blocks so there's still a little room to manoeuvre. On to the pieced border next..it will be a big double!

In my next quilt related post I will let you know what I've been quilting, so watch this space.

You could bank on it!

It was a good guess...twelve bobbins.... but you always knew this would happen.....

For those of you who have missed my quilting...I will be posting about this quilt very soon...promise!

The way we were!

This is a photograph of a scanned image of a photograph taken at this time of year when there were hay stooks in the fields....I'm guessing about 60 years ago.....that's our white house on the left... looks a bit of a drieke kind of a day but it is an old photograph!

This is the same view taken this evening at 7.30pm...the little stone bothy is gone and there's a new hay shed, a cattle shed on the left, two big sheep sheds on the right and lots more trees for shelter belts...this can be a windy valley....silage bales are in the field these days....

I can't say 'all is safely gathered in' just yet but you have to take advantage of this good weather while you can!

Checking out the neighbours?

On Saturday we went up to Edinburgh to help our youngest Son move house.....at the new place we had a little difficulty parking...the police were trying to move us on....we had a 4x4 with a trailer attached....we actually had to unhitch the trailer and drive the 4x4 away.....we were lucky to get parked near the new place at all as at the 'round-a-bout' the road was blocked, only cars with VIP passes were allowed through so after we had unloaded all the boxes we had a walk along to see what was going on???

This is the entrance to Holyrood Park....a public park right in the middle of Edinburgh.

It's a beautiful park...the roads are usually closed on a weekend anyway as it's pedestrians only till 6 pm.....

This is the house at the far end of the road, this is one of the entrances to Holyrood Palace, a residence of the Queen.

Today the Queen was presenting the new 'colours' (flags) to the Regiments, the old colours were marched off to the tune of Auld Lang Sine and are retired.

This was one of those days when I wished I had brought my bigger camera for a video...my small camera just doesn't do good videos!

Of course there were some horses, that's the back of the palace in the background....

Bagpipes and ceremonial dress...

Here is the Queen arriving ...see the Royal Ensign on the car, don't know why she came half way through....she didn't have to come far?

Inspecting the troops in an open top....

What happens in your neighbours back yard????