Quilting (of sorts)

Here's the final outworking of a process that took more than six months in the making.

We wanted to give a really unique wedding present to Mrs and Mrs Rutherford

So we decided to make a quilt, based on a photo that Malcolm took, of the side of an old boat, in Brittany, France.






All the fabric was second hand, bought at the glouster green market and at charity shops and at orinoco. we bought a lot of vintage thread too, and a new bamboo and cotton inner.

with no idea how to actually make a quilt, and no prior experience embarking on a creative project together we didn't realise quite what an undertaking it was going to be....





We soon found our we had quite different working styles. I am not a planner, or a measurer. Malcolm is. I have a definate creative vision that I am quite sure about, but also not entirely good at communicating. We eventually figure out it was best to discuss, and then designate, and go away and work on the quilt at seperate times. Malcolm did a lot of sewing while watching the winter olympics. It was even quite fun to see it progress from work that each other had done.





We made the biggest piece of nuno felting I think I'll ever make, using merino and silk.








We wanted it to have the feeling of the sea, of texture and roughness, but beauty at the same time. it had to look rugged like the side of the boat that inspired it. We sewd on glass beads to make it sparkle in places and put hundreds of little stitches on it. We were pretty happy with the end result, and I think Mr and Mrs Rutherford were too :-)