A Piece From My Own Past

 One of my first wall hangings made many moons ago.

It has a story...don't they all!

New to quilting, I decided to accept the challenge of trying to get it accepted into our

 national quilt show.

As I stitched away on this tree of life, a very down to earth and grounded thing....

I learnt that the theme for Quilt Canada was going to be

"Heavenly Bodies".  

My solution was to stitch beads and stars all over the border..

and call the piece

"Crewel World in a Beaded Galaxy".

It worked and the piece was accepted.

Not only that, but it won the award for Workmanship in Appliqué!

It was of course based on an old crewel embroidery tree of life design.

There is more to the story.....

As I frantically worked to meet the show deadline,

the red cotton above bled into the cream background!

I tried everything to no avail....

then fearfully handed it over to Handy Hubby

asking him to try anything but to make my background cream again.

I dread to think what chemicals he tried!

but still nothing worked.

I finally took it back, soaked it in lemon juice,

laid it out on the grass on a sunny day.

By Jove.....it worked!

Looking at this handsome tree with a beautiful view

reminded me that

we interpret what we see but can never do it justice.