Quilts In The Barn 2013

Quilts in the Barn 2013 is an annual event put together by Linda This year it featured Chintz and Dutch style quilts. I was there once before a few years ago. I should go every year because as my GPS tells me it's only 21 kilometers from our house. There were reproduction and antique quilts on display. Some quilts could not be photographed. It's interesting looking at the photos I took and the photos Carole took. It shows our preference of the kind of quilts we like or want to make. I will only add captions to some of them so enjoy!

 

Below are the antique blocks I bought from Mary and Joe Koval.

 

Four blocks and a single flower block plus a piece of vintage Chintz that I was told was from 1830! I also got a large piece of the Turkey red fabric from Quilted Crow. You can never have too much red! 

A better look at the Chintz piece. I will have to think carefully before I cut into it!

 

Here is a close up of the applique blocks. The stitching is really tiny. I love the fabric she used on the block as well. If you are asking what I plan to do with them, then I am asking myself the same question. Thanks Linda for bringing wonderful quilts to share with us. Your hard work is greatly appreciated. 

I had a great time at QITB, but only stayed long enough to see the quilts and a bit of shopping. Mr Notjustnat came with me so I didn't want him to have to wait too long. I took a picnic so we went off to have our picnic lunch by a running stream near by. Just as we packed up the sky opened and it poured. So we came back early for me the do my weekly cleaning! Someone has to do it!

Until next time

Nat

Needles, Shuttles and Dye

It finally hit me. What do needles, shuttles and dye have in common? You dye, you stitch and then weave! Weaving has completed the process of my love of textile and dyeing! Not that I don't like quilting anymore, but I know there are other textile crafts that I love to explore. For as long as I remember, I love all kind of yarns. I use yarns in my basket weaving, in knitting, and now weaving.

Once upon a time the only image of weaving I knew was of old lady hunched over an old loom. I had no idea that those old ladies who weave are clever, smart, creative and talented. You have to have all of the above to be able to weave. I'm nowhere near as smart as the ladies I met in my weaving workshop including my teacher Ilka White. All the skills I acquired from spinning, sewing, stitching, quilting, dyeing and designing come in handy in weaving. I'm glad I started learning how to weave! 

Remember this images of  weaving "Rose-path" I showed a few times here, on FB and Instagram? It's now finished and off the loom! I finally cut the warp and removed it from the loom in the workshop last Saturday. I wove like crazy to get it finished in order to start a new project. 

Here it is, still hairy, in need of fringing, trimming and washing. Everyone was so supportive of me because from a simple Rose-path pattern I have included the variation of patterns into the piece. It was a lot of fun!  

Crazy colour I know, but I love it! The result is so pleasing indeed. I will do it again in blues yes, I think indigo blue with just a small amount of white and that same grey warp will look great!

No time to waste!  So here is the next project I prepared the warp ready to go on the loom as soon as the other one came off. This is a simple design of Hounds-tooth pattern with only three colours. The pink cloth is a header to be removed at the end. 

I'm so happy I can get to use the blue woolen indigo dyed yarns and the cream hand spun yarns I have had for ages. I added a tint of red throughout the piece. I thought it needs red, don't you? It's coming along quite fast. I'm working overtime to get this one finished by next Saturday!

When I feel the need for stitching between weaving, I go back to this slow-cloth again. I really need to finish it by November for our exhibition. I have put the last outer row on last night. The outer edge needed turning. 

I posted about this cloth here almost a year ago . Slow-cloth is a good name for it. I wanted to use the piece of dyed moon for the center. I added thin strips around the moon. The strips got bigger and bigger as I went around the moon. Some of the fabric for the outer strips I only dyed recently, so it was really a slow-cloth! 

So much stitching so few hearts! I must have started stitching these hearts after last Christmas. Most of these hearts were stitched on the road trips. I think I will put them in the exhibition too. 

I gathered some oak leaves in the park in Canberra and it's now soaking ready for dyeing. I bundled these up the other night and they are now soaking in the oak bath. Will steam them this weekend. 

Quilts in the Barn is happening this weekend. Quilts in the Barn is only less than an hour's drive from where we live. I visited a few years ago, but this year is a must for anyone who can go. The exhibition showcases Chintz Dutch quilts. I love both Chintz fabric and Dutch quilts. So thanks Linda for bringing the show to us! 

Until next time

Nat

Family Visiting Weekend

Last week we went to visit our son and his family in Canberra. We hadn't seen them since they returned from their cycling trip to Hokkaido, Japan. Canberra is 8 hours' drive away. We are used to making the trip. We like the drive. The road is good with lovely views on both sides. This time of year the scenery is gorgeous and green with lots of spring flowers. We made a few stops on our drive. I prepared a picnic basket with tea, coffee, cake and sandwiches. I make sure we left bright and early to get out of the city to avoid the local traffic. I usually take stitching to do while Mr Notjustnat is driving. Much of the time I just enjoy the scenery, but at least I know I have the option to stitch if I feel like it.   

I took a shot of our Wisteria before we left. Wisteria is one of my favourite flowers. I first saw an old Wisteria vine at an old monastery in Greece and I fell in love with it. This is the first time I have had my own vine. People says the vine is invasive, but I do love it. Recently I read that I can use wisteria for dyeing as well. You can find the link about it here

It was a perfect drive. It was lovely and cool. The countryside is not always this green, but with the wet weather we have had lately the rains have benefited farmers. We saw many spring lambs on our way as well. The yellow patches are plots of Canola. 

Floriade is Australia's biggest cerebration of spring and we were lucky to be there on the opening day in Canberra. I have always wanted to visit Floriade, but never got the chance until now. The display of poppies, tulips and other spring flowers went as far as the eyes could see. It was a gorgeous day as well. Our DGC were very well behaved. They are delightful children to take out!  

We stopped at the fairy wheel to let the parents and children have a ride. Off they went queuing for the tickets and more queuing to board the ride. What a handsome family I have got! 

One of the highlights for me was taking DGD to her preschool. Her preschool is close enough for her to ride her bike there and back. She has only started riding without training wheels since they returned from their bike trip in Japan. It was great to see her growing up as a confident little girl. It was sad to say good bye to her because we left for home after that. 

I did some dyeing with DIL while I was there. I showed her what I've learned recently in dyeing. My grandchildren love dyeing as well. I made sure to take some fabric for them to play with as well!  In the above photos are two vintage kimono wool pieces I took for DIL. I know she loves wool.

We found some purple carrots at a farmer's market that morning. We cooked them up with red cabbage. We made the house smell a bit boiling that! We bundled up all sorts of eucalyptus leaves. The bright red imprints above were made with fresh eucalyptus leaves I took from Melbourne. Wool fabric always dyes well!

I got to share a bit of my sewing using dyed fabric. Earlier in autumn I did natural dyeing on cotton that I want to use for quilting. I was inspired to make a quilt using ecodyed silk and cotton. I started these few star blocks last week.

I hope to piece one block each evening, but I have already missed one because I came down with the flu and sewing was the last thing I felt like doing. So yesterday I pieced together 3 blocks all at once to catch up. I discovered that natural dyed fabric goes together  beautifully whatever colour I use. I need 25 large, and 20 smaller blocks to make up the quilt. 

Until next time.

Nat

Shearer's Delight

You might think that it's strange for me to call this post Shearer's Delight! Let me tell you how I came up with the name. A few Sundays ago I went to Camberwell Sunday market. I hadn't been there for ages. I normally go there when I have visitors. It's an interesting market to entertain visitors from out of town. Anyway, at the market I found these gorgeous rusty shearer clippers! The store keeper was very apologetic that he didn't get around to cleaning the rust. I told him I wanted them to be rusty to use with the dye. I explained the dyeing process to him and he was delighted! 

The images are somewhat out of order here, but I think you get the picture!  

In the above photo there are bits and pieces I used for dyeing. A rusty tin can, a small pair of rusty scissors, well used strings and plenty of leaves! I like the look of the leaves after they come out of the dye process. I keep them on the coffee table until I'm bored with them.

The clippers are not the easiest object to bundle. They keep wanting to spring back to their normal position. I would have love to get an imprint of them on fabric, but well it isn't meant to be!

The bundle opening process starts with removing the strings. I carefully examined the prints and appearance of the bundle as I removed each layer. It's looking good so far! How exciting!

The result is as I expected. It has a rich colour from the red cabbage and purple carrot solution. The rusty clippers added the dark lines all and around the leaf imprints. 

A close up of the piece. I'm loving it already! I can see the potential with lots and lots of stitching all over it. The piece of silk is not as wide as I normally use, but it's a perfect size to go around the clippers. 

I hung the piece over the railing on my back deck. You see why I'm excited! The colour and pattern is to die for. I wish all my dye pieces turn out this good every time. I can imagine stitching using my hand dyed threads all over this piece. Yes, I will do that. 

I hope you are not bored with my dye posts. I drafted this post when I first opened the bundles a couple of weeks ago. It's good to write a draft post when the result is fresh in my mind. 

This coming weekend we are going to visit our son and his family. I prepared the binding on my Star Fish quilt to stitch on the drive. It means that Mr Notjustnat will have to do most of the driving. Luckily we both love road travels. 

Until next time

Nat

Birthday, Weaving and Stuff

My birthday came and went. Yes, another year went by in a flash! Having such a busy year and didn't notice how fast time flies by. Something special happened on my birthday this year. You know those Google Doodles? When I signed in to Google that morning to my surprise the darling Mr Google made me a birthday doodle. How cool was that? It was only for me, and it stayed until midnight that day woo hoo!

I managed to capture the Google doodle here to share with you. Thanks Mr Google, you made my day!

My weaving workshop is in progress. I'm really enjoying it. I can tell you that it's not easy and very challenging. My first piece was double weave. It didn't do anything for me, but I did it as part of the lesson. My second piece is going to be a scarf. I have a big roll of fine woolen yarn I got from Ziguzagu, so I'm using it for the warp thread for all my projects. I got my loom threaded and weaved a few rows with waste rage (pink yarns) ready for my lesson.

I'm weaving Rosepath variation patterns. At the beginning I did 1/2" of tabby rows. I did the hemming stitches on the first edge and I'm now ready to weave the pattern. 

The pattern started to appear after a few rows of weaving. I wasn't sure what colour I should use so I decided to just throw it all the colour. I quite like it actually. It gives me that "old time" look.

Can't have a post without dyeing, no I can't! I opened all those bundles I talked about in the last couple of posts. This one was the one I did last Friday evening. The weather was nice so I bundled up a few bundles and steamed them while there was no wind. 

  

I left the bundles to sit for only two days. Sunday was Father's Day and I was home doing housework. I tried with all my strength not to get distracted from the housework, but it didn't work of course. I gave up, and I thought let's just open one bundle and then go back to finish the housework!

The result of the dye was great. It gave me the colour I was hoping for. The colour and texture was so striking. It made me very happy, so I went back to finish the housework!

Spring is well and truly here this week. At the weekend the temperature was up to 25C. Today I think it is around the same again. I walk past this plum tree all year round, but today I think the blossoms are fully open. What a spectacular sight it is! I had to stop for a photo to share with you. Enjoy!

Until next time

Nat