Dyeing and Quilting

As usual March is creeping up on us without any warning! Even though February has 29 days it didn't help much. Life is getting back to normality again for me. Apart from a slight dizziness when I get up in the morning and lie down in the evening, I feel much much better. I've returned to the gym after work, but I'm particularly careful not to fall. To my surprise I'm feeling okay, thanks goodness!

Even though I haven't spent much time in the Treehouse studio lately, I did get back into dyeing a bit. The Eucalyptus trees are now in full swing with the flower buds. I feel that the Eucalyptus is its best during the flowering season. The flower buds give beautiful impressions on fabric when dyeing. I love that intricate clutter of buds on silk fabric! 

I have some great images below to share with you. Don't forget to read the captions of each image.   

Beautiful Pink Flowering Gum

Bundles resting before unwrapping

My dyeing station is always inviting

Dye bundles after steaming

Imprint of flower seed buds

Something is going right here! 

Lino-cutting from a fun Sunday!

Apart from dyeing and lino-cutting I did fit in a bit of traditional quilting in the last couple of weeks. I started heart stitching since Valentines Day in Feb. I love the simplicity of the heart shape! I always added a heart shape in all my stitching projects. I continue to work on Indigo moons as part of Quilt 365 challenge I started earlier this year. I'm happy to say that I've caught up with the block to date! 

2016 Valentines Hearts

Indigo Moons up to date!

I'm looking forward to another textile trip at Easter. This time I'm going with my friend Mary Burgess who is a weaver. We are going to Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Chiang Mai, and while I'm in that part of the world I will stop to visit my family in Bangkok for the last few days. I'm looking forward to returning to Chiang Mai as well. The last time I was there I must have been in my 20s. 

So I will be off blogging until I return in the middle of April. Then you can read all about my textile trip adventures. You can always check out my daily photos on Instagram. 

Until next time

Nat

Indigo Moon and other Quilty Fun

I have been busy having fun making and stitching indigo moon blocks that I've had to do since I joined Quilty 365 a couple of weeks ago. I am supposed to make one block a day for 365 days. Because I was late joining I had a lot to catching up to do. So far, I have made about 40 blocks and have a few more blocks made up ready for stitching. 

I was excited when I laid them down to photograph them. It's nice to see them together. I'm liking it a lot! Excuse the red moon peeking in among its blue siblings. I think red is fitting in there perfectly; what do you think? 

On top of working on the indigo moon, I have finally finished a quilt I started 20 years ago. I thought it was time to get it done. It's exciting that I actually made an antique quilt! Another one nearly finished is the Twinkle Little Stars quilt I started in 2013 with Temecula Quilt Company. It looks gorgeous with the blocks together. This will be the next one I hope to finish! 

We had our first Stitching with friends for 2016 last Saturday. It's nice to make use of the Treehouse Studio for gathering and stitching. 

Indigo Moons all in the rows.

Looking at them from the side

Remember the Full Moon blocks?
They are coming along slowly too. 

Twinkle Little Stars Quilt. The blocks are together,
but not sewn!

Antique Quilt finished

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

An extra table was installed in the Treehouse Studio for more space. Even though there are only 3 of us in a group, with the show and tell, cups of tea and our stitching we need plenty of room to spread out our work.

Stitching with friends in session

My messy corner where I stitch indigo moons!

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Bojagi cloth, work in progress

A bit of Show and Tell for you. 2015 was my 7th year of blogging. Last year, I started printing my blog posts from 2009. I have caught up this year when I printed the 2015 posts. Blogging is a journal of my creativity, travels and life as it happens. I feel good to have them all in print!

Seven blog books since 2009

Seed pods gathering

I have been collecting seed pods for the Seed Pods Art Workshop with Sophie Munns in April. I love seed pods, but didn't know what to do with them. I thought after years of looking at leaves for dyeing I would also start looking at seed pods for whatever I will need them for! 

I was happy that my friend Jacky is starting the moon project with me. She and I have been shopping for indigo fabric at Ziguzagu for years. If the indigo moons inspire you. Click here to join-in.

Until next time

Nat

2016

2016 yes, it is here! I read so many online New Year resolutions and they have inspired me. Sadly I didn't make any myself! What will be will be! That how it is for me in 2016. Having had a busy and exciting year last year I must admit I'm a bit tired and want to take it easy this year. I can hear you think, that's not like you! 

Anyway, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and even better New Year! Whatever you did I hope it was safe, fun and healthy. 

Looking back to 2015 for me was busy, exciting and fun. I had the best time on our Around the world in 80 days trip. The planning now seemed easy, but to think how many countries and cities we visited. It is hard to believe we did it. Everything we planned turned out perfectly. We didn't have any cancellations, delays, missing flights or sickness! In a trip like that one you can't ask for more. The arrangement with families and friends along the way went very smoothly and better than we expected as well. We visited some places for the first time. The places that we had already been to turned out to be as enjoyable as we were hoping for. The accommodation we booked through Airbnb was better that we saw in the pictures. We loved each and everyone of them! Thank you Airbnb! If you haven't already read my posts about my trip please click back to older posts or click HERE.

Today I'm going to share with you some of my Christmas decorations and a some small finished pieces I did since I returned. I've also got a few inspirations that I hope to start soon. Enjoy!

Summer New Year banner to wish you a Happy New Year

Colourful hearts ornaments I have been making

The Treehouse Christmas

My favorite Dear Santa Quilt came out
to play at Christmas

The Trio. Angel, Santa and Snowman

Over sized Christmas Crazy quilt brooch

Complete this Peace for Paris
I started on the trip.

A long slow cloth for 2016 stitching project

A quilt I really like to make in 2016

Vintage cotton yukata at the Blue Alchemy
Exhibition at the NGV

That is it from me. I'm now back to work. It's a holiday period for my university. The only students around are there for summer school. My library is going through a major renovation at the moment. It is due for completion at the end of 2016. I'm excited to be working in the newly renovated library once it's finished. 

I would love to hear what everyone's New Year resolutions are. Please share.

Until next time.

Nat

Blogiversary Winners...

Thanks everyone for helping me celebrate my 5 years Blogiversary. People say I should keep a journal of what I do. This blog is my journal, a life journal. Do you read your old blog posts? It's fun to do that sometimes.

I decided to do the draw the old fashioned way. It took far longer than crunching the numbers in the number generator, but it's much more fun getting Mr Notjustnat to draw me 3 winners!

And the winners are:

Heart #1 goes to Ria from Treasure Quilts

Ria lives in the Netherlands. Ria is a quilter, a fantastic quilter. Her hand appliqué and hand quilting is out of this world. She is an amazing  quilter! I'm glad Ria won one of my heart.

Heart #2 goes to Judy Martin from Judy's Journal 

Judy lives in Canada. Judy is a textile artist. Judy's work inspires me in my stitching daily. I added red stitching in my heart series because of what Judy said about red stitching for protection and I remember that always. I'm glad one of my hearts goes to you Judy. 

Heart #3 goes to LeeAnn from Nifty Quilts

LeeAnn is from the US. LeeAnn is a terrific quilter and her quilts inspired me to start quilting outside the box. I have been following her blog for a long time. I'm glad one of my heart goes to you LeeAnne.

Ria, Judy and LeeAnn, I will contact you to get your addresses to post off the hearts to you. I want to do this before I leave on my textile trip in March. Thanks to everyone who entered my blogiversary.

This giveaway has inspired me to make some more hearts. Never have too many hearts right? I can use them as hostess gifts when visiting friends. I can use them as birthday presents etc. Most of all I just love making them!  

Until next time

Nat

February Fill Hearts

I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. I will leave that to the younger generation. But I do believe in love, sharing and caring. I love making hearts of any shape. I use hearts to decorate my Christmas tree. I use them as gifts. Talking about gift giving, if you haven't already entered my blogiversary on the previous post please do. The entry is open until Sunday 16/2/14. 

In this post I have a few hearts and a finished journal cover to show you. Enjoy!

Heart making is addictive. I started last year and I have been making them ever since. Each heart has it own unique design and embroidery on them. I pick up a piece of fabric and just start stitching. I like some more than others. I do love this one in the above photo. I like it just as it is!

Another heart I finished and stuffed a few days ago. I patched it with a piece of upholstery fabric. I only used dyed fabric on my first few hearts, but I thought I would add some other vintage fabric to some of them, and I love it. 

I found this I love you pop-up card template on Pinterest so I thought I would try to make one for February fill hearts. If you want to make it to give to that special someone, just click on the link here.

In preparing for my textile trip in March. My three friends told me that they will keep a journal on the trip. I already have a blank journal, but I want to make a cover for it. I set to work layering dyed silk fabric including one from a silk blouse. I appliqued a few hearts for good measure!

Lots of stitches and embroidery all over the piece.  I love stitching on my dyed silk. It feels so soft and lovely when I handle the journal. I will enjoy using it on my trip.

Have a peak inside my journal. I added a few pockets inside to store receipts, tickets and cards. I've also used Gesso on the pages before I started writing on them.

This is the underneath of the journal. I like using sheet-cloth for the base of my piece. This particular piece came from an Indian publisher. When we get the journals at my work they come in large and heavy parcels and this sheet-cloth was the outer layer on the parcel. It was perfectly hand stitched. I had to unstitch all those stitches carefully so as not to rip the cloth. A total of one yard of fabric was used for each parcel. We receive at least one of these parcels per month, so you can see how much fabric I saved each year. It is lovely to stitch with. 

Until next time.

Nat

Giving Away My Hearts - Giveaway is now closed!

During the Christmas holiday in 2008, you would think there might have been better things for me to do than starting this blog! It has changed my life, and knocked me head over heels in-love with blogging! It's like having a child; you will have it forever.  Does that sound right? 

I have been rambling here for over 5 years! I never thought anyone would be interested to read about my passion in creative textiles, quilting, stitching, travelling, natural dyeing and whatever else I ramble about. To celebrate 5 years of blogging I will give away 3 of my eco-hearts that I created, dyed, stitched and sewed into loving hearts. 

Three hearts from the picture below are to give away. One heart for each winner. Good luck and thank you for visiting...

To enter to win my hearts please leave me a comment and make sure your comment is not a no-reply comment because I need to get in touch with you if you win. You have until Sunday 16 Feb. 2014 to enter. I will announce the winners on Monday 17 Feb 2014. I will post internationally so please enter.

Thank you Mr Blogger/Google. You so generously provided me with a tool to express and share what I do through blogging. It's obvious that I haven't reached blog burn out yet! Thanks to my readers, friends and family to visit and leave comments to encourage me to keep blogging. 

Lucky find for good ending: This week's lucky find are these  Wabi Sabi sugar and milk set. How cute are they? Usually when I find something I like, but don't need! I would leave them where I found them until next time I go back. If they are still there and I still like/love them, I know it's time to take them home. These will be handy to use when serving tea or coffee in bed. Enjoy.

Until next time

Nat

WIP or UFO!

WIP or UFO whatever you like to call it. I have many of them to try and get them done this year. A year of finishing. I know it's a great last word, but since New Year I have finished and hand quilted a small quilt. I'm working on another hand quilting project and I am almost half way on that. I also finished piecing a quilt top I started last Christmas and I finished some small stitching eco-hearts. It's working well and I'm motivated to keep-up. 

I'm a quilter at heart. I started as a sane quilter, but after 10 years of quilting I started to branch out into other forms of textile creations. Having that basic quilting and stitching skill help me along nicely in every stitching project I have done. I haven't bought quilting fabric for many years now. The quilts that I made lately are made from fabric in my stash. I used Mr Notjustnat's business shirts when the trend of shirting fabric comes in. I have never been one to follow quilt patterns to the 'T'. I'm a quilter outside of that 1/4", but I'm enjoying it. These days the Gee's Bend quilts are drawing my attention. I like making do and improvising so "made fabric" really attracts my attention. Of course natural dyeing is my other love!

We make a lot of road trips to visit our grandkids that live 800 kilometers away. I get a lot of hand stitching done on those trips. Last year I randomly stitched some heart shapes. It was really fun not having any pre-planned patterns. The hearts are stuffed and ready for Valentine's Day this year. Another tick for the finished! 

I got inspired by a quilt in the American Patchwork and Quilting magazine issue ... 2012. I gathered the fabric and made a few blocks of the Candy Cane quilt early in 2013. It has been sitting on the sewing table starring at me ever since. It's a simple quilt, but unfortunately it doesn't make itself! Another tick for the finished. Big stitch quilting, I'm thinking!

  

Still had the shirting fabric left over from the Candy cane quilt when I saw LeeAnn from Nifty Quilts make the reproduction Courthouse steps quilt in Gee's Bend style. All LeeAnn quilts are very inspiring so I thought I would quickly whip one up. That wasn't a tick of finish, but a tick of start!

Lucky find: A full set of D.M.C. Library, cross stitch and hand embroidery pattern books in full colour. Printed in France in early 19th century. I already had one of them that my DMIL gave me 25 years ago. I was hoping that one day I would use some of the patterns from the book. Now I have a full set of them I really need to use them! I found them at my local op-shop. I like sharing my lucky finds with you so I will keep this section going at the end of a post.

Well, I can't end without wishing you all a Happy Chinese New Year [31 January]. It is the  year of the wooden horse in the Chinese calendar. I came across this interesting reading about the year of the horse here. If you were born in other animal year click here and choose the right animal for the year you were born in conjunction with the horse year. Each of the animal years is displayed with the western calendar year. The Chinese calendar cycle goes for 12 years.

Until next time

Nat