Something Blue

Okay, not all in the post is blue, but I have been rock weaving or weaving on rocks. I can't wait to show them to you. Me and the rocks! You see whenever I travel I always gather rocks and until now I just had them in a container in the bathroom as decorations. I came across a photo on Pinterest showing weaving on an acorn. The penny dropped! I thought that I could do the same using my rocks. 

I also have some finished projects and some that I have just started to share with you. So here it is, my weekly posting with more than just something blue...

I made this one for a friend on Instagram. It's for a surprise gift. I hope she likes it. I haven't met this person, but because she left me such a lovely comment I thought I would make her one. What wonderful virtual friends we all have!

This was the first attempt at rock weaving that I did. I had this rock lying around my work station for a while. Then I got inspired by some photos on Pinterest. I just picked the first rock I could find and started weaving. I used a very fine twine I already had and made a length of cord as a necklace. 

It was fun weaving with rocks. I just love it that each one turns out differently. I have got a lot of twine from my basket weaving and now it comes in handy for rock weaving as well. I showed them to my Wednesday craft group and now they all want to learn to make them too. 

This year for Valentine's Day I managed to finish little heart quilt I started a while ago. I took a one-week workshop called LOVE Workshop with Tracy Bakkelokken. It was a good opportunity for me to finish this little quilt. Now I can bring it out every Valentine's Day. 

I also started a quilt for "Seabird" (the beach cottage). This is the second quilt I'm making for Seabird. Both quilts are made from vintage Japanese fabric. The fabric for this one comes from two cotton Yukatas. I have always wanted to make this block Arabic lattice. Having lived for over ten years in Arabic countries I would like to make a quilt to honor those places. I love to piece these blocks and they are going quite quickly together too. I might not have enough fabric for a whole quilt, but I've already got two more Yukatas to complete the single bed quilt. 

I made a few of these Hussefs (Housewife). When Jacky and I visited Maria Cook's exhibition Kimonos Journey I got all inspired by her Hussefs she had on display at the exhibition. I use the leftover pieces from my "Trip around the world" quilt I'm making for Seabird. These would be great for gifts for birthdays and Christmas. It was quite fun whipping them up. 

I can't let the opportunity pass without showing you more indigo dyeing that Jacky and I did last Sunday. We  were only supposed to meet to prepare our workshop, but we ended up dyeing a couple of pieces in the old vat. The photo above shows a piece of Itajime, a clamping method (result in the photo below). The piece of fabric was folded and clamped between two pieces of board and secured with clamps, dipped in the indigo vat for about 30-60 seconds and when first pulled out the color was yellow green. As soon as it touched the atmosphere it started to oxidize and turned blue. I dipped it a few more times to get the color blue I wanted.  

This is the result after I unfolded the Itajime piece above. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm planning to make a cushion cover with this piece. 

A few more Shibori pieces that Jacky made. They are lots of ways to do Shibori. The more I learn the more confused I get, but it is all fun getting different Shibori fabric to play with at the end. 

Our first indigo dyeing workshop is this Saturday. We are both looking forward to it. Thanks to our lovely friends who signed up to support us. With the indigo plants starting to flower now, at this rate we could be dyeing using our own indigo in the near future!!!

Until next time

Nat