'One Man's Trash is another Man's Treasure' 2

'Majani'

Majani is Kiswahili for tea leaves. I saved old tea bags and quilted them onto a piece of cotton dyed in strong tea. My husband returned from up country with a goat leg wrapped in gold embossed cellophane. The gold had come off on to the meat. After much trial and error I managed to emboss my tea bags using the same cellophane. Then came the cup and saucer and the tea plant.

My four Treasures

I was undergoing a rather difficult period of my life when I had to empty my parents' house in early summer. I had expected to find plenty of precious or not so precious memories, but the reality surpassed any imagination.
My mother, who had lived in the house alone for about twenty years, had never, it seems, dumped anything unless it would stink in the long run. Even when things were torn, worn, shattered, broken, etc. she continued to keep them, all nicely washed, wrapped, boxed, categorised and labelled. I had found literally everything that I remember from my childhood and young adult years, including plenty of things from my grandparents from her side.
These treasures inspired my four pieces in 2016: Worn Shoes, Dislocated Knives, Shattered Glasses, and Broken Vases. They were all made with a sew-cut-resew-cut-etc. technique, using a "parfait-dyed" background.

"Memento Mori-Stampi"

And finally the fourth quilt this year and challenge completed!
So this one is a little different to the others, in so much as the others where natural forms, shells and daisies. This one is made from "postage stamps" or more importantly stamps from my own collection.
I think it was probably one of the first collections I started as a child, I loved the colours and patterns of the stamps. I was given my pocket money and spent it all on little packets of stamps from different countries. I loved trying to find out where the countries were in the atlas and can remember having particular trouble locating Yemen. I still have them all in five folders, very dusty but lovely to look at!

So here is number four:

"Momento Mori-Stampi"

Background is hand dyed cotton. The skull is photo transferred images of some of the Irish Stamps    (for the year that's in it, centenary of the 1916 Rising, very big event in Irish History) from my old collection.

"Memento Mori- Bellis Perennis"

Daisies of all shapes and sizes but particularly the small kind found in gardens with the pretty pink edges on the petals have always been my favourite flowers.

Flower symbolism associated with the daisy is purity, innocence, loyal love, beauty, patience and simplicity! Daisies are often depicted in meadows in medieval pantings and are believed to be over 4,000 years old.

I can remember sitting as a child and making daisy chains and creating necklaces and crowns many times. I still love the flower and once picked a bunch of Dog Daisies and didn't realise until the following morning where the name came. I walked into my kitchen to the smell of smelly wet dog, needless to say they haven't appeared inside again!

Had a bit of a fascination with Ladybugs as a child too, used to love to let them walk across my hands until one pooped on me!

So here's number three:

"Momento Mori- Bellis Perennis"

Porto

Porto 1
Here are my 4 Voyage Quilts, although I may change the last one, and do a different one.
Porto is a UNESCO World Heritage Site so a "Treasure". I place I have been to a couple of times and am going back again to later this year
I love the waterfront area, most of the houses have either painted or tiled facades, and most have washing hanging out of the windows.
This one was fun to make, and I tried a free approach - just cutting random shapes for the windows etc - not trying to be too careful.

Porto 2

This time I focused in a little showing more of the washing on the lines, with more embroidery and painting

Porto 3

For the next one I focused in a bit more and put traditional costume on the washing line, with a tiled background. The apron (or rather my interpretation of an apron) has a story, as it is one I bought in a charity shop in the UK, and until recently had no idea that it had been made in Portugal. 

Porto 4

I think to complete the series correctly I should make a piece that focuses on the stitching on the traditional costume, and maybe I will later in the year, but for now this is my 4th piece. It is inspired by the rows of sardines in the shops in Porto

Gillian

"Memento Mori- She Sells Sea Shells 2"

As usual when I start preparing materials for a quilt I get a bit carried away and end up with enough fabrics for ten quilts!! I had such fun choosing and preparing the shells for the first piece that I still have loads left over. 

Anyhows shells have also been a part of my adult life and I have wonderful memories or collecting shells on a beach in Kerry year after year with my kids when they were tiny tots. My daughter Isobel  made a big mosaic mirror for her room with them and there's still at least two buckets of them sitting in my studio, somewhere!

So here's number two:

"Momento Mori- She Sells Sea Shells 2"

The background fabric is hand dyed cotton. The shells were put onto fabric using a photo transfer method. The skull was assembled and stitched to a black background first, then cut out and appliquéd to the background fabric. Machine quilted using a YLI variegated thread.

This is my fourth nd last of the series for 'Treasures' 2016 called 'REEF'

all pieces are based on Australia and its 'Treasures'  in abstract form.

Background fabrics on all four pieces are from my 'Ice Dyed' collection.

by Sandra Sullivan - Australia

This is my third of four pieces for 'Treasures' 2016 called 'RAINFOREST'

all pieces are based on Australia and its 'Treasures'  in abstract form.

by Sandra Sullivan - Australia

This is my second of four pieces for 'Treasures' 2016 called 'DESERT'

all pieces are based on Australia and its 'Treasures'  in abstract form.

by Sandra Sullivan - Australia

This is my first of four pieces for 'Treasures' 2016 called 'RED CENTRE'

all pieces are based on Australia and its 'Treasures'  in abstract form.

by Sandra Sullivan - Australia