Rustic Melon Basket Workshop

I was at the Rustic Melon Basket workshop at the weekend. I have been a member of Basketmakers of Victoria (BOV) ever since we moved to Melbourne 6 years ago. I haven't been very active lately, but I have taken many great workshops with talented local basket makers and overseas visiting teachers. This weekend the workshop was with Pat Dale. Pat is an author of Basket & Weaving with natural materials (a copy can be obtained through BOV). This is my second workshop with Pat. There were 10 of us in the workshop and we had so much fun creating our piece of art work hoping to get it finished within 2 days...! 

A close-up image of the weaving texture. Some stitches of indigo thread added afterward.  

I got my frame up and started weaving with the rustic natural fibre and hand dyed indigo strings. The handle is from our grapevine coiled to achieve the circle for a frame. This is another structure of a melon basket.   It's another piece to add to my blue and white studio. 

The workshop was held in a stable at Wattle Park. The BOV is so lucky to have the use of the old stable. It's heated in the winter and air-conditioned in the summer so we can use it all the year round for workshops. 

I had almost finished it when I left at the end of the workshop. My aim was to get it finished knowing that I won't have time to work at it after that. I'm pleased with how it turned out. The shape and the colour is what I was hoping for. You can see the whole of the handle on the photo below. It's the biggest basket I've ever made. I can see it standing on the studio floor filled with balls of string.                     

Full size basket: the width is 41 x 30cm and high from the tip of the handle is 61cm

Show and tell is always fun at the workshop. On my second day I took in the basket I made for a past exhibition. All exhibit pieces have to be for sale and I  didn't want to sell this piece so I decided not to enter. I'm happy to still have it. It's my pride and joy to keep for my blue and white studio. 

Sample of Pat Dale's baskets. Pat uses interesting natural branches for the handles of her baskets. Her designs are created by the shape of the handles. 

Pat Dale is talking us through the process of basket construction. There were quite a few first time basket weavers on the day. It was quite daunting making a basket out of a pile of grapevines, sticks and leaves. It's an amazing process. By the end of the two days we achieved quite a lot and went home with our very own basket creation...!

Indigo Blue

Do you get side tracked when you are doing something and the next moment something else totally takes over?  It happens to me all the time. I needed a scallop basket for a gift. It was going to be a plain basket using natural canes. Out of the blue I thought um, what if I dye the cane indigo blue? So there, off I went dyeing the cane with Ritt liquid dye in indigo blue. I was happily dyeing along then suddenly I thought why not dyeing some indigo moons? The end of that day I had indigo moons and indigo cane for the scallop basket. The thing is, this is not the basket I had in mind for a gift! Now I have to make another one for that gift...! 

A few weeks ago one of my students came back from Japan and he brought me back a bag of little pieces of silk offcuts. They were mostly in white and cream, but they are perfect to use in indigo moons. Above is the result of those little silk pieces indigo moons.

This is an Indigo basket. It is going to be my first piece of furniture for my future studio. With a trip to Japan earlier this year and my love of Japanese textiles plus my love of indigo blue influenced  by Jude Hill I decided that my new studio will be in indigo blue and white. I am planning a BORO quilt using vintage kimono fabric. You can see some of them in the basket ready for me to start. 

Back to the indigo basket. This style of basket is called scallop basket. I made 12 or so of them a few years ago. I gave them to my quilter friends and I called them quilter's baskets. It is a reproduction of an antique basket that was brought to Australia by the European migrants. A lady at Basketmakers of Victoria took an old and broken basket apart and rewrote the instructions for us to reproduce. Don't ask me why, but it is easy for me to make them. Above is the base of it. 

The spokes are woven for the rim and folded down to form the base.  I weave them together to form the stand.  I must tell you about the tool kit roll you see above. It was a gift from DIL who is a trained sculptor, making craft on the side while she is home looking after the family. 

The access spokes are trimmed and the body of the basket is now ready for the handle. When the cane is dry this basket is very sturdy and strong. It's great for car travel because it doesn't fall over on the bumpy rides. 

One of my friend's husband is an engineer and when he saw this basket he asked if I actually made it? When I told him I did, he turned it upside down looking in and out and said "It can't be, this basket is a totally impossible engineering structure!" Haha! I hope that was a compliment! 

Here is the complete basket with handle and all. What I need now is that studio to go with it LOL! I have more of these baskets to show you in my next post.

Tea Cosy Sisters and Sunshine Award

I'm on a roll with knitting! After I finished my first cosy I immediately started another one. I do this to most things I make except quilts because I don't get many of them finished haha! This time I had a reason to knit the second one. It is a gift to Valentina. I was waiting until she received it before I blog about it. I'm glad Valentina really likes it. I hope it will brighten up your cuppa tea every time you use it Valentina. 

Valentina's yellow cosy

Jane and I are still spending our lunch breaks knitting. We might have to find something else to do once Summer is here. Both Jane and I are knitting our third cosies at the moment. Jane is making them for Christmas presents and for my third I might use it for a Christmas givaway, I will see how it goes!

Jane's second cosy

This is Jane's second cosy. She used purple and blue for the flowers and the base was knitted in dark blue using ribs pattern. 

Here are the tea cosies sisters together before I posted it off to Valentina. It was the last time these two cosies would be together! Looking at them together I really like the yellow one. I'm glad Valentina has it though.   It suits her lovely and happy personality. 

I got the pattern for these from a book Really Wide Tea Cosies by Loani Prior. You can visit her blog and see more wide tea cosies that she has knitted. 

Woo hoo! I was given a Sunshine Award by Emily of Quiltdoodles. Emily is a newish blogger, but she is not a new quilter. You should see all her gorgeous quilts! Thanks Emily for my Sunshine Award, really appreciate it.  

Enjoy your week everyone! Can't believe how fast September has flown by. 

Memory of Ireland

We visited Ireland almost ten years ago. We took our children with us and I still have vivid memories of the place. We stayed in a place calls Schull in County Cork on the West Coast of Ireland. We took a lot of drives all around County Cork including the tip of  Ireland where the Titanic sailed passed on its fatal voyoge! Just for interest, when we returned from Ireland I made an Irish chain quilt in memory of Ireland. I had lot of Liberty prints at that time so I thought, English - Irish well, related right? Maybe not, but anyway I decided to used Liberty prints for this quilt. The little squares are 1" x 1".

I decided to make it looks scrappy and because I have a lots of Liberty prints I thought I would throw them all in. The result was quite pleasing. After I finished the top I thought it needs something else in the white center of the blocks. I thought of the shamlock leaves and as it happened I had a solid green Liberty fabric that was perfect for it. I got to work on that and it took ages to complete all the blocks and border.

I started hand quilting it using cross hatch design. Cross hatch quilting is my favorite hand quilting design. If all else fails cross hatch it! I have to try and work on it a bit more, but time is a big fector in my life at the moment. 

I do have many quilt projects on the go and I would love to get them finished one day. My idea and style preferences have changed over the years and what I thought I liked 5 years ago, I'm not so keen on any more. Luckily my quilts are kind of traditional and scrappy so they have not aged that much. I haven't started many projects lately; instead trying to finish the one I started. I actually stopped quilting for a few years just prior to started blogging. Blogging has been great to motivate me to get back into  quilting again. Thank you Mr Blogger! 

What Is Really Cooking?

What is really cooking in the kitchen? Well, these days I like making something quick and easy. When I have a bit of time I like to try eco dyeing. I started natural dyeing years ago with wool using eucalytus leaves. Then I started dyeing using synthetic dye with cotton fabric, silk and pearl threads. Recently I discovered eco dyeing from India Flint's book Eco colour. A few bloggers such as Kaite and Deanna are also getting into eco dyeing too. My first project was a piece of vintage kimono silk using onion skins. I was quite happy with it so I moved on to dyeing a silk and linen shirt I got from an op-shop. 

The steamer is going on the cook top for nearly an hour. I'm a totally non technical person so I won't go into too much detail except that every plant and flower I see translates into "what colour will it dye?" I used purple hibiscus flowers to dye this shirt. 

It didn't turned out all that well, but it's to be expected with the trial and error method (India Flint wears this sort of coloured clothing all the time!). Anyway, I can always over-dye it again. Can you see the silk scarf? It has the same greenish shade as the dye so I decided to incorporate the scarf into the shirt! The scarf also came from an op-shop. 

 

I started cutting into the lovely silk scarf using the Broderie Perse method. I already put in some stitches and I'm so very happy with how it feels. I will add more flowers as I go. I think that I will over dye the whole thing after I complete the stitching.

Here are more dyed pieces. All except one was dyed using the boiling method. The silk and cotton pieces on the left were dyed with clover flowers. The piece on the top right was dyed using eco-dye method with red onion skins and the bottom right two pieces were dyed with camellia flowers.

  

Okay, what is really cooking in the kitchen? I whipped this To Die For Blueberry Muffin  last Sunday for Father's Day. OMG it turned out so well that I made a second batch on Monday this time using mixed berries instead of blueberry. 

See how they look? The golden crunchy topping is mouth-watering yummy. You got to try it for yourself. I love baking even though I don't like sweets, but I must say I enjoyed these blueberry muffins with my cuppa tea!

So what really is cooking in your kitchen? We are off to our DS again this weekend and from there we are heading down the South Coast to see a possibility blocks of land to build our retirement home. We all have to start somewhere don't we...! 

Birthday Presents Show and Tell

Do you sometimes treat yourself on your birthday? I do, and this year I treated myself to a new Kimono jacket (Haori), a vintage Kimono fabric enough for a scarf and a Shibori book by Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada. I am so lucky to have wonderful friends to always remember my birthday. I do so treasure my friendship with all of you, thanks ever so much. Thank you also for the wonderful birthday wishes I received from my blogger friends. I feel so special being here with you guys. Below are all my birthday presents from family and friends. I won't bore you with too much reading....Enjoy!  

Vintage Kimono fabric on the left that I gave myself for a scarf, a Shibori book  and the fabric in front was a gift from Myra.

The Kimono Jacket I got for myself with the scarf to go with it. In the middle is a close up of the butterfly prints on the Kimono in the inset. This is a 100% silk vintage Kimono. I got it from Ziguzagu. I've already got one in a darker colour and I was looking for a lighter one.   I really love it. 

I met Dzintra and Jo Jo, last weekend when we visited DS's family, and Dzintra and Jo Jo gave me the owl tea cosy, the photo album and the covered buttons. Dzintra knows I like Japanese fabric! Thanks very much Dzintra and Jo Jo. 

Terry gave me this beautiful heart made from a re-purposed denim shirt and a tea towel with owls on it. I was called a night owl for staying up all hours of the night ha! Thanks Terry I just love my presents and always treasure our friendship.

DS and his family gave me PhotoView. A digital picture frame that I can view photos of DGD whizzing by while working. DIL gave me a handmade brooch and Japanese bracelets. She told me I may use the beads for something else.

This gorgeous Husfwife and the work bag Yasmin made from Jane Austen's Sewing Box book. Apart from that Yasmin gave me an embroidery thread winder and a pair of stork scissors.

Another one of my friends from Abu Dhabi, Debbie, is now living in Yorkshire, UK. Debbie knows I like playing with fibre and earthy stuff. Thanks Debbie, hope to see you next year. Fingers crossed!

Cynthia always gives me a bunch of goodies including Jewellery, a decorative item, a notepad, a piece of clothing, and a bag. Cynthia lives in Abu Dhabi and she has a cute blog called Moon Goddess. Her blog is about the Middle East, the desert, and camels.

Geo is a friend I met in Bathurst who I still keep in touch with. Geo knows I like baskets. I think this one is from New Guinea. She must have known I have been making lizards lately in Jude's patchwork beasts online workshop. Love it Geo!

DJ, my friend at work always gives me meaningful gifts. This one is something I can use at night at a romantic dinner. Candles, digital torch and miso paste (no photo). I promise to have that romantic dinner soon Jane.

Linda is another friend since Abu Dhabi of almost 10 years now. Linda is now living in MA. She always gives me creative gifts. This time a piggy coffee mug, paper napkins, clipboard and the gorgeous turquoise necklace

Last but not least, a gift from Mr Notjustnat! He surprised me by giving me a Pandora bead to add to my Pandora bead collection. It is the red and silver enamel piece in the centre. I love my Pandora bracelet. I rearrange them into colours and themes according to my mood. I only like to use one section of the chain. It is too heavy otherwise.  

That was quite a lot of presents for one birthday, but I love and treasure them all.  Thanks everyone for remembering my birthday even though it seems to come at a speedy rate these days...!

What Does Coffee have to do with it?

Every morning in the last 5 years I had a cup of latte around 10:30. It costs $2.60 a cup if I take my own environmental friendly cup. Without my own cup it's $2.80. This year the price of coffee went up to $2.90 with the cup and $3.10 without a cup. That is a 30 cents increased so with my environmental friendly attitude I decided that I would stopped going for my coffee. No, no I didn't say I would stopped having coffee, but only stopped going out for coffee. I started making my own using a plunger. It wasn't the 30 cents that worry me. I became bored with the coffee shop lately and I thought I could make a better use of that money. I decided to invest my money with KIVA, Loans that changes lives. KIVA 's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. I don't have to invest much; $25 - $50 is enough for each account. I will get my money back once the entrepreneurs started to make profit and repay back the loans. I can either get my money returned or re-invested with someone else. Being a stitcher I have chosen to invest in women starting up their own business with textile and clothing related small businesses.

So what does coffee have to do with it? I hope in this case coffee is leading me to support those who really need my help. I feel that by not spending $14.50 per week for coffee I can change someone's life with some of that money. If you are interested please visit KIVA to learn for yourself and become a lender like me...!