Makes on Monday: Candlewick Quilt

I learnt a new skill at the end of last year – candlewick embroidery. Quorn Country Crafts were running a workshop, and it was something I’d not come across before, so I signed up with a friend. At monthly sessions from September to December, we whiled away several hours learning embroidery stitches with a patient tutor in Sue, and dutifully completed our homework. I took my second-ever embroidery panel with me on holiday, and it was the start of many conversations, not least as I was a male doing embroidery. Here’s the final result, finished earlier this month:

Candlewick embroidery quilt made as a sofa throw, featuring raised knotwork panels in neutral tones
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Makes on Monday: Anniversary Travel Journal

A potential Studio guest wanted to see some handmade journals, so l dug out some that I have made over the years. In the process, I found a travel journal that I made back in 2018 following an amazing three-week holiday in Canada and Alaska in honour of our 25th wedding anniversary (and the cashing in of an endowment mortgage policy). I don’t appear to have featured it on the blog before, so here goes:

Handmade travel journal with painted cover, elastic closure, and engraved wooden faceplate
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Bible Journaling: Hope – illustrations using mixed media (BJ-35)

This month’s theme for five new illustrations to Bible journal is ‘hope’. I decided to start work in my new NIV Art Journalling Bible and there’s a little mini-review about it below. In part due to the planned review, I used five different media for my colouring-in just to see how the paper behaved. Conceptually, the illustrations were quite tricky as I didn’t want to repeat the same basic interpretation across all five verses. AI came to the rescue here, helping me develop some ideas for different emphases.

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Commission: new bedroom artwork

It was time for a bedroom refresh… The turquoise feature wall (read chimney breast) needed updating due to a change in bed linens and their warm grey no longer complemented the blue-green paint tones. I was given free rein to choose a replacement bedspread and create a new art piece above the bed. That didn’t quite work out (see below), so this was the final(ish) outcome:

A new commissioned artwork for a bedroom
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Pebble Painting: Christmas and Easter

It seems (on a quick search through my posts and pics) that I have been remiss and have failed to share a project I designed, completed and taught last year. I’ve created another version this month – hence this post. May I introduce my Christmas and Easter pebble painting…

Pebble painting - Christmas
Pebble painting - Easter
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Christmas Card 2023 – a ‘stained glass’ tag

Scrolling through my photos on my phone, I came across some I’d taken of the cards I made for Christmas (now last year). As they’ve all been sent, received and recycled, I can share them here. Featuring a ‘stained glass’ design, the tag is removable and designed to be kept and used year-to-year. Making notes follow…

Removable handcrafted 'stained glass' tag Christmas card
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Quilt No. 031: From Scratch

I’ve been planning this quilt since August 2021 – at least, that is the creation date of my design file. I’ve created this one from scratch, designing the pattern, working out the fabric requirements, editing it for different dimensions and then choosing the fabric. The quilt was finally commissioned as a sofa cover back in March 2023 and I completed it last week having worked on it on and off since the summer.

blue, grey and white geometric patterned quilt created from scratch
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Laser-cut: Five tealight holders

I’ve been playing on my Glowforge laser cutter during the lockdown and experimenting with designing tealight holders. The first, tall one, took inspiration from one I came across on Pinterest. Once I had all the settings dialled in for the circular design, I came up with the next two designs. One features mirror acrylic and is a little bit out there, but I hope the internal reflections will make it zing. After that came the next two faceted rounds using various repeating seamless patterns to fill the facets. All are made from 3mm birch plywood, treated with flame retardant and are available to purchase for £5 each (p&p extra).