St Ives Quilt

 It's been the brightest and sunniest bank holiday monday ever here today......and here i am at last to share more pictures of my st ives quilt......

 ............st ives is filled with magical memories for me....from childhood times, family times, to romance and a love of art and history st ives has always had a special place in my heart and my imagination.....so i decided after our visit in 2016 to begin a quilt to capture the feeling and memories for me..........(in the picture below the little heart was made by the ceramics designer maggi gooding).....

 ..............i was inspired by antique quilts but with a modern touch.....i'd been planning to make a quilt inspired by the quilts i saw at the V&A 2010 exhibition and had looked at the book i brought back with me many times as i chose design elements that i wanted to use one day.....when i was an art student in the 70's we studied historic textiles and i've always had a love of old as well as new designs.....

 ...........i made a medallion for the centre like many old english quilts had.....

 ...........and i added 8 inch square blocks around the centre, each with an applique design....birds, boats, cottages, stars, fish, anchors and some geometric motifs from the old quilts.....all the colours were kept soft and neutral as i wanted it to feel older and less bright than a lot of my work is .......

 .........i did add some subtle reds to give the design a bit of zest though.....

 ...........i had some lovely number printed fabric by tim holz that i wanted to use...my husband sails as a hobby so i put his boat number onto the quilt, and then his previous boat number....and then i liked the numbers very much so added a few more....

 .......in the collage above is one of the inspiring antique quilts from the 2010 exhibition book....the star from my quilt centre.....postcards from st ives......and the sweet banner from a quilt show held in the church at zennor (close to st ives) that we saw in 2016.........my family used to stay in zennor in a lovely old cottage every year and it was there that i sewed my first hexagon patchwork one summer in my teens.....

 ............here is the bedroom of this year's little house in st ives (i showed you a different view of it in my last post)........i love staying in different houses and taking pictures of the interiors (especially with my quilts in them), looking out at the views and enjoying different atmospheres...........

 ...........lots of tiny stars twinkle around the border of my quilt.................the clamshell design was so beautifully quilted for me by debbie holland of longarm quilting.......

 ...........my quilt is all done now and i am happy it has captured lots of memories for us.....here is a print called the st ives typographic heart which you can find here and below another little view of the harbour..........

 ...........one last picture of the waves at porthmeor beach.........

............thank you for dropping by dear readers, and thank you for the lovely comments you leave me...it is such a pleasure to hear from you........wishing you a happy week filled with crafty inspirations................back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx