A Taste of the Orient - Chinese Coins

Heading towards the finish line with this piece for

the AHIQ first invitational.

There is a background story to this small quilt regarding my choice of colour

and of design, stick with me please for a moment whilst I explain.

Two books influenced both of the above,

one by M M Kaye and the one below bought in 2013, this is by

the author of Wild Swans.

Note the colours  Cixi wears, we have yellow, red and touches of green

in her magnificent robe. What about the fantastical head wear and those two long

finger nail accessories!

The idea for splitting the original oblong pieces of fabric came from the book by

M M Kaye in her autobiography. She spent some time

in China in the very early 20th century and

describes the house in Peking where they stayed which 

had belonged at one time,

so she thinks, to a member of the  Imperial Family. She tells us that the door of the Spirit Gate

was green lacquer, the uprights and roof ends were lacquer red and the tiles

were Imperial Yellow. 

I just had to use these three colours and needed to try

and find a way of creating the effect of Yellow tiles.

You won't see perfect matching seams as some of these pieces were

cut freehand, it is my take on Ad Hoc Improv!

I have lots of left-overs

perhaps these could become something else set this way

AHIQ is hosted by
Kaja and Ann
and I'm linking up with them now.

Linda and Julie
are hosting
Sew, Stitch, Snap, SHARE
and I'm linking up here also.

'Til next time - happy quilting!

Maureen

sew, stitch, snap, SHARE

I'm working on a very late New Year Resolution - finishing projects!

First off the block - my Teapots begun in RSC 2015, these two I appliqued

down today.

I've tried to get a reasonable match with the colour of thread

and the main teapot colour, not that easy with Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs 

fabric.

The three below were stitched down early last year,  when all 12 are finished
I can set them out in their allotted place in the row and

 add the sashing and border.

The eyes take quite a beating peering a few inches away from the

needle to make sure it hits just on the edge of the fabric to be

stitched down, two is all I can manage at one go.

Something new now

Linda at Koka Quilts
and
Julie at JulieLou

have joined forces to create a new link up
sew. stitch, snap, SHARE
I'm heading over  now to join the link and you can visit by going to their
blogs above.

Oh, and in the midst of this torrential rain we've been having here
in New Zealand this Vireya had opened up in the back garden
to brighten my day!