Cornish Holiday Journal 4

Day 12: Pendennis Castle (3 inches by 3.5 inches)

We had actually already visited Pendennis earlier in the holiday but there was a Knights’ Academy event on and my girls were desperate for some knightly training!  Wandering round the keep again I was struck by the shapes of the windows.

They made me think of cutwork. So I dug out a scrap of random dyed batik cotton and some hand dyed Stef Francis silk threads…

…to create an imaginary view through the windows and out onto the Fal Estuary beyond. You might recognise the very useful hand dyed cotton flannel (the last piece left, which is why the sky is wonky) for the sky and the dark blue crinkled dress fabric from Day 2 for the sea.

Day 13: The Minack Theatre (4.5 inches by 3 inches)

I fell completely in love with this place. It’s location; the story of Rowena Cade who almost singlehandedly built it; everything. And I loved the patterns impressed into the concrete.

 I knew I wanted to do something quilted with them.

Trapunto possibly, but looking at my dwindling stock of fabric I didn’t have anything that was remotely suitable for the stone-like background. So I made notes in my sketchbook and deferred this one until I got home.

By the time I got home I changed my mind and went for a straightforward machined design (using the Frister and Rossmann of course!) in a variegated Madeira thread with hand embroidered lettering. I’m very pleased at how evenly I managed to draw the knot. 😮

Day 14: Coverack, on the Lizard.

We love beachcombing on this beach, looking for pieces of Serpentine. I actually prefer holed limpet shells to intact ones and was very pleased to find a piece of pinky red sari ribbon too! So it had to be a rock pool, incorporating the holed limpet shells and some brown net ribbon I bought at a little craft shop in Mullion earlier that day.

The starfish in the centre was another experimental printed and embossed motif like the moon I used for the compass rose. I filled it with long and short stitch in yellow silk and edged it with gold beads.

It was sewn down onto a scrap of turquoise and gold patterned print and chain stitch seaweed added.

Then I cut all my remaining brown and gold pieces into rock shapes and pinned them round the edge of the rock pool before covering the whole lot in scrunched up net ribbon and using running stitch in a variety of toning threads to stitch them to the calico backing.

Holed limpet shells were stitched down with Maderia variegated metallic thread. Over the pool I laid a piece of shot blue and gold organza and stitched it down at the edges so I could cut away the excess. Finally I used fine gold thread to seed the surface with little ermine stitches to look like glints of sunlight.