Green Quilts: I think I've Done Now.

'Lost in the Reeds

 Yesterday I finished my quilt on the theme of 'Green'  for International Threads  exhibiting group.  I think this  is the final piece in a fabric journey starting in 2003  with a weeks class in France at 'La Maison du Patchwork' near  Limoge with Alison Schwabe

It was a challenging  time for me - I'd just started on anti- depressants   and was finding it   difficult to adjust but being fed and watered in lovely surrounding with expert tuition from Alison was just what I needed. She taught  us a variety of piecing and design techniques - I still use her method of curved piecing and inserting strips  slightly adapted to incorporate those used by Charlotte Yde on a later workshop. I'd brought masses of green fabrics with the idea of making a double sized quilt and made  loads of blocks which I'd started to join together with Alison's help. I completed the top on my return  and layered it with wadding ready to quilt - then left it untouched until 2015!

 Grass Clippings at FoQ 2004

I did however get very excited and inspired by all the scraps left over from cutting down the blocks  and made 2  small quilts ' Grass Clippings' and 'Grass Cuttings'  . The first was accepted for   CQ  exhibition at the fabulous Nature in Art museum near Gloucester  and subsequently in a white gallery space at festival of quilts 2004( above) .  In 2006 it went on its travels to Japan when I went with Susan Briscoe along with 'Serifos Storm' my first indigo piece.

Grass Clippings in Japan 2006

Grass Cuttings  at work

When I changed desks at work and had space to display a quilt, I chose 'grass cuttings' as being appropriate - it was much admired and prompted conversations about what I was doing with textiles as well as plants.
When a colleague had his first child I had great fun making a baby quilt using the 'lego' piecing technique.  His second child arrived after I'd left Kew  last year and with most of my things in storage/packed up  as we were about to move  I wanted to do something that wouldn't require too much work. So  deciding that after 12 years I was unlikely to quilt my double green quilt, I   removed the wadding and backing ,  partially picked apart and reassembled a section of the top and quilted it - a suitable quilt for a botanists child!

Samuel's Quilt

I still had two-thirds of the quilt left and  for  Cwilt Cymru's  next exhibition 'Cynefin ' ( roughly translated as a sense of place, of belonging) I wanted to commemorate losing my wedding and engagement rings on Catfield Fen! Lots of cutting apart and reassembling  and insertion of strips of Jo Lovelocks dyed fabric as well as some photos printed on fabric of the Fen Orchid and its habitat.

Catfield Fen: Gifts to The Gods

For the theme 'Green' for International Threads, it seemed appropriate to use up what was left and try some slightly different ideas out for 'Lost in the Reeds' (below)

Besides using scraps for the Grass Cuttings/Clippings  quilts, I've made several Journal quilts /samples over the years

JQ  June 2003

JQ  September 2015

Gifts to the Gods Sample

Postcards

I've recently been posting postcards on Facebook 'sketchbooks and experiments for textiles 'group, zig-zagging together offcuts  when cutting  quilts down to size. I love playing with scraps! I still have a few bit left of blocks and trimmings  but I think I'm done with green now!

Replacement Rings

 

"I hear you had an exciting time" News of my adventures in the Fens have travelled far and wide both in  Kew and various conservation agencies. I'm pleased to say I now have replacement rings.  Initially I was going to  have my mum's  wedding ring resized  but it would have involved major alterations as the  difference was 6 ring sizes. A bit of research online on gold prices made me realise it was worth more as a trade-in as it was 5g of 22ct gold.  This and her engagement ring and a few bits of other jewellery  I sent in part exchange to Charles Hart  towards the purchase of a vintage white and yellow gold eternity ring with 7 diamonds. My engagement ring  was from the 1930's so I was interested in a 'preloved' replacement. Not only did my mum's jewellery cover the cost but I received a cheque  for £50 with which I bought  2 silver rings for wearing as 2nd best when out in the field, gardening, painting etc  

I really  didn't like being ring-less. While all this was being sorted out, Ian fished out an old wedding ring of his to wear while I was waiting. A perfect fit and I love the marks on it which complement the shape of  the eternity ring. A  happy outcome. 

Offerings to the Gods

One of the orchid conservation projects I've been involved with for a long time is  that for Liparis loeselii (Fen Orchid)  and it used to be a real treat to get out of the lab  once a year and visit the sites in the Norfolk Broads. Haven't done so for several years so I  seized the opportunity  to join  the team  from Cambridge University Botanic Garden  who had a licence to collect a few plants to establish in an experimental fen.
Had a very  early start to get to Cambridge for 7.30 then meeting others from Plantlife and Butterfly Conservation near the site. The outboard motor on the punt wasn't working so we made our way down the creek the traditional way with forked branches to push away from the banks. Peaceful and brimming with wildlife, a magical experience. We then moored at a point when we could climb up the bank, enter the fen and  fan out across the site looking for  Fen orchids.  These are found at the base of the reeds and sedges on mats of moss, quite a challenge to find as the vegetation is taller than I am! So I was well chuffed  to spot a nice clump of orchids , including one with a seed pod for my work and a nice specimen to take back to Cambridge.

Then I realised I was no longer wearing my wedding and engagement rings. They must have  come off whenpatiently parting vegetation looking for plants. Gutted and cross with myself for wearing them out in the field - I take them off for  gardening after 2 scares.
As a result, I probably  wasn't concentrating as well as I should have been when getting aboard the punt, missing my footing and falling spectacularly into the water, rucksack and all. Luckily  I'd a spare pair of trousers and socks etc as I'd come prepared after  a previous outing  when the water in the fens had been so deep it came over my wellies. No top though so I had to borrow a sweatshirt, changing in the Ladies at a local pub ( they didn't bat an eyelid when I walked in drenched).
In discussions over a  beer,  the subject of bronze age archaeology came up, the spectacular  finds at Flag Fen. Where the land dissolves into water  is a mystical place where you could talk with the gods and votive offerings of great value were made.
So much as I'm sad at the loss of my rings, it feels a symbolic place  to have done so, taking precious plants in exchange.  Perhaps some time in the far future, they will be found and wondered on.