The Making of a Chiffon Queen

My earliest memories of sewing began when I was around 5 years  old. I used to play for hours with my dolls and my doll's house.
My mother worked as a part time hairdresser in my home town of Eastbourne in Sussex.
My sister and I would be dropped of to Nanny and Granfa's house in the summer holidays, and most days on the way to school mum would pop in to see nanny.
One day in particular sticks in my memory...I must have been about 4 or 5 years old...so Josie, my sister,  was 13 months older than me...but we were ( in our own minds) twins.
Mum stopped of on the way to school as usual, she asked Josie and me. To stay in the car, mum had a lovely old Morris Minor in green. Well...I was desperate to see my dolls and my doll's house, which was kept for me to play with at nanny 's house. It was in her dining room, on what seemed to me a very high chest of drawers or side board.
I disobeyed my orders and sneaked into the house to play.
I got totally engrossed in dolly heaven,  and sometime later realised I could no longer hear the familiar chatter of Mummy and Nanny.
I ran into the garden...down the path to the bank opposite the Coopers Hill Farm. Right at the bottom of the South Downs.
No Car....they had left me behind....oh how I cried,  a neighbour who must of heard my cries, came to comfort me , I can still hear her Scottish accent saying,  " its okay,  they'll be back soon my dear".
What seemed like hours later my Mum's car pulled up at the bank, me standing there with nanny's neighbour.
Josie and I used to play a game in the car...one of us would get down behind the seat at the back of the car and pretend. That we weren't there! ...so this whole scenario had happened because of our own little world of 'twinness'

A slight case of crying 'Wolf'...nanny had put her hand behind her chair as usual to check...WERE. Both there.....somehow she had felt something....given mum the okay and driven all the way to town and discovered outside the school....that Josie had been telling the truth...I wasn't there!

New addition (Sheena the Siamese)

Sheena has been in the Chiffon Queen world for nearly a year now and is still the height of entertainment to us all!

This time last year our lovely Periwinkle (my inherited Siamese) sadly passed away,he was my Nanny's cat and was in a bad way when we first got him on 16th August 2009. He had a good couple of years with us, so there was a big gap when he had gone. So, about a month later I wasn't surprised when Mr B started looking at cats on the Internet!

Suddenly up popped a post on Gumtree with a photo of a Siamese cat that looked a bit like Periwinkle . She was an unwanted pet that lived with about 6 other cats and a rather shabby Collie dog. She definitely needed to come and join the Chiffon Queen household straight away!

A skinny loud sleek Siamese was placed in a cat basket and a name was chosen for her as we headed for home. Her previous owner had called her Ena... A most inappropriate name for such a regal animal,but cats know their name, (we were told she was 6 years old), so a name had to be choose that she would instantly recognize, Sheena it was.

Sheena was immediately greeted by our Staff cross, Milligan and they instantly became BBF's!

Our two other cats took a bit longer to come round to the new arrival. Mr.T, our big ginger boy was petrified,  as Sheena was of him,  and it took him a month to get used to the fact that the loud Siamese was here to stay!

Sheena made her home under the stairs for the first few weeks, and then gradually integrated to sleeping with us in our bed! There was barely room for us all as often a rather large dog and occasionally big ginger boy would also join in!

Funny girl Sheena it was soon discovered was more like a dog, she could fetch a small ball of wool and drop it at our feet, she was even more interested in a screwed up piece of paper, and the noise she makes carrying the paper is hilarious. 

Day at Charleston Farmhouse

Charleston Farmhouse



Last Tuesday was the perfect day for our visit to Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex. We had a choice of Emma Bridgewater
Cups for our coffe and home made biscuits.

Charleston Farmhouse Garden

We had a very interesting tour of the house and I had time in between a talk and lunch to look around the garden.

Quentin Bell's Levitating Lady by the pond

The Garden is a fantastic mix of plants and sculptures.

Roses From The Heart

One of the most unusual exhibits at the Festival of Quilts was the Roses From The Heart project.

As I discovered the display, I was amazed to see what looked like a sea of doilies...I then realised there were hundreds of embroidered Bonnets.

Each bonnet represents a convict woman sent to Australia in the 1800's.It was a very moving sight. I felt compelled to find out more and talking to the Australian women on the stand I decided to join in the project and adopt a convict woman.
I choose Charlotte Dwyer as she was from Dublin (My maternal Grandfathers birth place)and I got all the details to make her a memorial bonnet.
All the bonnets are made of plain calico or a white fabric, I embroidered Charlotte's name and the ship's name 'Soverign 1827' on the brim.I found some of my Great Grandmothers hand made lace to use for the ties. It is now off to join all the others in Tasmania!
http://www.christinahenri.com.au/index.php?/ongoing/roses-from-the-heart/

 

Festival of Quilts

Another fantastic trip to the NEC in Birmingham to see the Festival of Quilts with the patchwork group from Castle Coombe.
It was an amazing impact of imaculate Quilts from the first scan of the festival. I was in awe of all the work that had gone into creating these works of art.
Having just finished my first ever quilt I was soon taking in inspiration for my next quilt.
I had bought myself three lovely Liberty prints and took swatches of these to find some more fabrics from the hundreds of trade stands at the show.I found a wonderful supplier that had some perfect cotton lawn to go with my ideas for my next quilt.

On my last trip to the V&A took some pictures of this amazing tiled floor and decided this was going to be the inspiration for my next design.

Quilt inspiration

Festival of Quilts 2010

Surprise Arrives in Seaford

I Called my Mama this morning and all she said was "I can't believe it" about ten times! She absolutely loves THE QUILT OF THE YEAR.
I had a lovely chat to her about all the blocks and she loves the 'Somerset, folded star' (Block 4 on my quilt)

Folded Star

Each piece of fabric is folded into a triangle, a very fiddly technique I found.When the quilt was ready to be quilted I machined around the outside in rows and rows of spiral stitches.
Even my Pa was impressed and we had a chat about THE QUILT.
I am so happy it has gone to its new home with love and my parents can both enjoy it being on their bed.'Some magic to wake up to' I told them.


Another favorite block, ( although I know she loves them all), is the vintage Liberty Print 'Grandmothers flower garden'. I bid for these fabrics on Ebay and got carried away!
The little house hexagon is a favorite of some of the ladies at my Castle Coombe patchwork group.

Grandmothers flower garden

We had a quick chat on each block and my Mum recognised  many of the fabrics I had used, many of the vintage curtains were given to me by her. Also she knew the 1920's fabric that was my Grandmothers ( crazy patchwork block).

Stained Glass Window

My mum loves Kaffe Fasset and when I told her this 'Stained Glass Window' block was one of his prints she was surprised as she had only seen his knitted work and tapestry work.
The vibrant print works so well for this block as the window looks so real, and I loved the idea of having the rose print background as it looks as if the window has the roses growing around the window.

Here it is at Last! The Quilt of the Year!

It has taken me almost a Year to make, well at a rate of 2hours per week that is not too bad!It is technically a sample quilt,each block showing a different patchwork technique.
The first patchwork sample was the 'Tumbling Block'(Block 8 on my quilt) definitely one of my favorites. I hand pieced this one in linen and vintage curtain material.

My first quilt

It was such an eyeopener, being a Dressmaker for so many years to then discover the art of patchwork.
My Third block was my own design and I named it 'Peace Doves' for my sister (Block 12 on my quilt).
Another favorite of mine, and my teacher Ann's, is the Crazy Patchwork. I used linen, printed silk from 1920's ( this was from my Grandmothers collection of fabrics left from things she had made as a dressmaker in the 1920's -1930's)and Crushed velvet, the whole thing is finished off with feather stitch embroidery.

Tumbling Block

Peace Doves

The finished quilt has been lovingly finished in time to be posted to my Mum for her Birthday, she will have such a surprise.

Crazy Patchwork

It was a difficult decision to choose the fabric for the sashing ( the strips of fabric in between each block, most of the ladies at the Castle Coombe patchwork group had used a plain colour for this. I felt the urge to be different and had a strong feeling that I had to use a vintage print! These linen curtains were ideal ( although the loose weave proved difficult for the final leg of machine quilting).
More pictures to come soon and an update on my Mama's reaction when she opens her parcel on Saturday 14th August!