Sewing and some culture.

At last some sewing to show. I've nearly finished my quilt for the doll quilt swap over on flickr.
I've hand appliqued a flower with each petal made from a different fabric and I'm in the process of hand quilting around each petal. I've used a fairly thick embroidery thread rather than a standard hand quilting thread. In the centre of the flower I've embroidered some french nots but I think it needs a few more.
The rest of the quilt will be machine quilted. Hopefully this will be one of the last quilts I machine quilt on my trusty old Janome as I'm off to order a new Bernina tomorrow. I'm so excited!

Months ago I explained that we'd started decorating our living room. Well it's been quite a big job and I'm not sure whether we started it at the best time as my husband has been very busy over the summer and progress has been slow. We need new cushion covers to go with the new decor and I've made the first one. It's in a log cabin design and uses a different fabric for each log. I'm pleased that I managed to insert a zip in the back and piped the edges with piping I covered myself. I plan to use the same fabrics for the next three but they'll all use a different patchwork design.

And now from some culture!
In my last post I showed a photograph of a lighthouse I took from a beach in Cornwall near St.Ives. I explained that I couldn't remember the name of the beach, well Carolyn of Love Stitching Red lives in St.Ives and recognised it. She kindly informed me that the beach is called Godrevy and she told me that it's the lighthouse that the major twentieth century author Virginia Woolf writes about in her novel "To The Lighthouse" (first published 1927). I've now learned that Woolf spent time as a child at Talland House which overlooks St.Ives bay and Godrevy lighthouse. Although it is the inspiration for the book the lighthouse in the book is set in Scotland. The house has now been turned into luxury holiday apartments.
I bought a copy of the book today but I must admit that it's not the kind of book I normally read, I've read a review that states that many readers find the novel strange and difficult but I'll see how it goes.

When I first saw the book cover I was somewhat disappointed as although the image was beautiful it appeared to be modern. It was in fact taken in 1913 by Lieutenant Colonel Mervyn O'Gorman and is called "Christina walking on the beach", Christina was his daughter and two more of his photos of her can be seen here and here. The photos are autochromes which were the first practicable colour photographs and to me they have a beautiful dream like quality and bring the past to life more than black and white photos.
Sorry about my photos, the light was poor.
Bye for now, Maria