My Amish Quilt (UFO)

In 2017, my best mate (AKA my husband) and I went on a holiday to the Northern Hemisphere, taking in a cruise along the way. The cruise was from New York City to Quebec, Canada; and while in North America, we took a detour to visit friends from our Egypt days, who were then living in Cleveland, Ohio. While in Cleveland, they offered to take us to an Amish community nearby. I jumped at the opportunity, not even realising that the Amish lived in Ohio - how ignorant was I???

Being a quilter, I knew all about the Amish and their quilts. Their reputation is global. I could hardly wait. The drive took only about an hour and I spent ages in one shop in particular, chatting with the staff about all sorts of things and in the mix the conversation included patchwork and quilting. I bought a panel of Amish-related pictues (if that’s the right word for it); and then pondered on what to do with said panel.

Eventually, I decided to leave the pictures as they were but I would embroider just ONE part of each picture. And then what? More thinking time ensued until I decided on what you see below.

As can be seen, this is still a flimsy (not yet made into a quilt). I may yet add some borders to it - it's there awaiting my next spurt of energy. I have not embroidered the pictures, except for one piece, maybe a fence, or a roof line but I wanted to leave the Amish blocks as I bought them.

Wall Hangings

From time to time, I've made some wall hangings - usually they are small - sometimes really small. Here are some which I've made:

The Ten Commandments

At our Quilt Club, one of the Challenges that I entered into was to make a wall hanging depicting a movie title. You can see what I chose (it's about an A4 size):

Flying Geese
This wall hanging was made for an English cousin, as a thank you for having us stay with them in 2015. Gladly, she loves it!

Beach Hut
I recently made this for a friend who loves the beach - and I mean she LOVES the beach - it's her happy place! I was thrilled that she just loved this small wall hanging I made.

Reflections of Egypt Quilt

My husband and I spent several years living in Egypt and this quilt has been inspired by our time there. It is not going to be finished overnight - or even this month; and most likely not even this year but you are welcome to journey with me, as it unfolds...

These 12 crosses will form part of the border. They are each 4" square, on calico which is currently 7" square but will be cut down to a 6" square, closer to the time. The crosses are taken from photos we took as we travelled about the country.

This too, is a pattern taken from one of our photos and is one of 6 or 7 such scenes of Coptic Egypt that will eventually make up the quilt. It's a typical scene of Coptic Churches which are dotted throughout Egypt.

This is the 2nd embroidery piece that I've finished. The picture depicts an inner sanctuary of the Church compound.

And this is the 3rd piece finished thus far. It depicts a village built into the hillside away from the Nile, with crops growing along the banks of the river. For those who haven't been to rural Egypt, houses are built away from the fertile land and in many villages, each house is painted a different colour than its neighbour - which gives a happy look to an otherwise mono-tone landscape.

And that's it for now - I'm busy drawing the next picture from one of our photos but you'll have to wait and see what it is... However, I can tell you that if it works, it's some challenge I've set myself...

The next picture in thread will be one of the many market corners in Cairo but as one can see, it's only half finished - but I thought I'd upload it, so you can continue to journey with me, as I finish more of it.

I've been busy with other projects and so haven't done much hand stitching of late, but it'll still be there when next I pick up my needle and thread...

You will notice that none of the edges have been stitched or finished off - that's because I want to do them all the same and until I have more of them finished, I won't know what colour to use - see!!! - there's an answer for every occasion or in this case, for every question!

And finally, I've started planning for the quilt itself - here's a template I've made as an idea for the background patchwork.

Egyptian Applique, Embroidery & Crosses

And "no" I didn't make these - we bought them from Tentmaker Street in Cairo, when we lived there.

 This is our shepherd with his sheep.

 And our cameleer with his camel out at the pyramids.

I love donkeys and so when we saw this one, we knew we had to have it.

 This is village embroidery - it was a part of our farewell gift from our friends and was made by women in a particular village who are well-known for their embroidery - the scene depicts life in their village and when you look at it, you can see they have covered just about every aspect of every-day life... it's simply beautiful.

These are embroideries done by another group of people, who make small gifts to sell. Amongst other things they make are recycled paper from which they make cards, boxes and a whole array of other stuff. They also weave rugs from old clothes and linen, which are specially treated and torn into strips before being woven.

And finally, a selection of crosses which we bought from various churches and monasteries around Egypt.