Late August 2017

I've managed to put in a second blog post in August, that's a first this year! August has been a busy month for me so far. Sometimes it just happens without pre-planning. It's like a good surprise when it happens! 

Four weeks ago I received a request from a long time follower to create a scarf/shawl using my eco-dyed fabric. I told her that most of my dyed fabric comes in small pieces and if it is okay with her, I would use more than one piece of fabric to make a scarf. She told me to go ahead and create what I think is suitable. I have been thinking of making scarves by joining many pieces of eco-dyed fabric. This was a good opportunity to put my idea into practice. I was excited and got started straightaway. I'm now putting the last few stitches on before I post it off to her in Austria! 

Last weekend I attended an indigo seminar and mini workshop at the Monash Gallery of Art. I haven't done indigo dyeing for ages, so it was a lot of fun and inspired me to get back to it again! Also last weekend I went to a woodblock printing workshop hosted by Kazari-Ziguzagu and taught by Terry McKenna. The woodblock printing process was very interesting. Kazari-Ziguzagu often puts on exhibitions, workshops and talks on all Japanese Art, Crafts and cultural activities.

Scroll down to read and view related photos: 

Turning an old linen napkin into
a cool Shibori table runner

Indigo in the Water seminar/workshop

Workshop samples

A happy participant

Blue hands rinsing indigo

My indigo piece while it was still wet

Embroidery on the old linen napkin

Terry McKenna is a master of woodblock printing. He exhibit and teaches all over Australia. He spend years study the craft of woodblock printing in Japan.

My little print that I did in the workshop

Terry showing a class participant
the printing technique

BORO pieces displayed at Kazari-Ziguzagu

Wall of Kimonos and Houri jacket

Japanese Kokeshi collection in the shop

A sneak peek of the commissioned scarf/shawl that is now completed. I will try and get a photo of the whole piece this weekend. It is all hand pieced using French seams. I've added stitches over in some places. I didn't want to put too many stitches because it will make the scarf stiff. 

Scarf/Shawl

Stitches over the seams

More stitching

Stitched Eucalyptus leaves pattern

I signed up for another 12 Weeks Challenge at my gym Pinnacle Health Clubs. The 12WC will start at the beginning of September. This is my second 12WC that I'm doing. I got a lot out of it the last time. It was a fun way to work-out "Better Together".

12 Week Challenge poster

That's all for me folks. I have packed too much in these last couple of weeks! How is everyone out there? Another thing I've started doing is brewing homemade Kombucha. It's a Probiotic drink that has been around for more than a thousand years! I've started making Kombucha over a month ago. And you know since then I have seen and read so much about Kombucha! I even bought one from a shop just to see what it tastes like. No, it wasn't as good as my homemade Kombucha, that's for sure!

Until next time
Nat

Machine Made Cord Tutorial and Indigo Moon Projects

As promised on my Instagram feed last week I wrote a simple tutorial on how to make cord by sewing machine. Here is how it goes:

You will need: 

• A sewing machine with zig-zag feature.
• At least 4 different types of scrap yarns. For example, wool, knitting cotton, thin ribbon or thinly cut fabric. 
• Sewing threads (the colour of your choice!)

The choice of yarns is huge. Chance is that you already have them in your stash! I always need red cords to use in my craft projects so I've chosen mainly red yarns and thread for this project. This is easy, fun and fast to do. 

Five meters of cord ready to go!

Gathered yarns of your choice. The more variety the better. I already have them in my stash so I just randomly chose 4 different types of yarn. 

I threaded my sewing machine using red sewing thread for both top and bottom threads. I set my machine to normal zig-zag stitch. Set the width at 7.0 and length at 2.5. I have a Janome sewing machine, but I'm sure any sewing machine with zig-zag stitches will be fine.

Begin by knotting the ends of the yarns together as in the above photo. You can drop the rest of the yarns on the floor or if you have a basket you can drop them in the basket by your feet.

Place the group of yarns under the sewing machine foot below the knot. Twist the yarns together as in the above photo. Start stitching over the yarns. Twist the yarns as you stitch.  

You can make quite a lot in one go. It's very handy to have cord ready whenever you need it! At Christmas I made more than a dozen sewing rolls for gifts, and this cord was perfect to wrap around them.

I was reading Peggy's blog womanwithwings on her moon stitch ritual project. I love moon stitching and moon dyeing. So I started one too. I sorted through the stash of both hand dyed and vintage indigo fabric for the moons. For the background I'm using mixed Yukata fabric. I thought I would use pieced background for these. They look very nice together! Yes, I'm happy with that!

The idea of this moon stitching is to stitch one block per day for 365 days - the whole year. I don't think I can keep to the rule! So I'm going to make as many as my interest holds up and stop when I'm bored with them, I know I will be!

The first few blocks I started

Some moons are in 2 colours because I treasure every
little bit of vintage indigo fabric.

After Each circle is stitched down, I carefully cut out the background fabric from behind the applique. Now I have these perfect and beautiful inner circles to play with! 

You know how it is, one thing leads to another. I now have another project going side by side with the indigo moon project, but I will call this new project Full Moon!

Sorting through the stash I realised that I have an amazing stash of  indigo fabric. Some of them I dyed myself and some I bought on my visits to Japan, and of course some from Zigu Zagu. If you want to join-in just visit Quilty Folk for the original post.

Only a month into 2016 and I'm already working on 2 awesome projects! I am also working on some UFOs. I will show them to you when I get closer to finishing. 

Until next time

Nat

Textiles Books and Historic Tree

Not many creations in the last couple of weeks. The shorter winter days make me feel like snuggling in and get comfy in the evenings instead of being active. I have a few projects on the go that I should get on with! Ha, but I'm just too lazy! 

I did make a trip to Kazari Ziguzagu last week to check out for some vintage indigo fabric that my friend asked me to get for her. It was a lovely visit as always. I found some great textile pieces that I took photos of (not bought!). 

While I was looking for vintage indigo fabric for a friend I found some for ME (naturally) from an online shop KimoYes as well. 

I did put some stitching on my swirling cloth I'm making into a blog book cover. The problem with working without pattern is that I sometimes get stitcher's block so I have to leave it for a while. Does that happen to you too? Anyway, read the captions on each photo to see what else I did. 

Leaping bunny on Noren, indigo Katazome

Vintage Japanese textiles from KimoYes

A hemp Yukata is ready to be de-constructed, Kazari Ziguzagu

Swirly weaving with added stitching

Naturally dyed samples pieced into Bojagi cloth

Ayako's crochet blanket displayed by Cobie Lee.
Wednesday craft

Another Coptic binding book

Books and friends. Dot Christian, Ro Bruhn and Jacky Williams

Colourful Eucalyptus leaves found on a windy day

Lucky find 

I'm excited to share my lucky find with you! It's not like any lucky find I've shown you before. This time it is an historic Eucalyptus tree (Eucalyptus Camaldulensis). It is approximately 400-500 years old so it predates European settlements in Australia. River Red Gums can live up to 700 years or more. I discovered it on the campus where I work. When standing next to it, I feel like standing next to those movable trees in 'Lord of the Ring'!  

After 10 years of working here I thought I had discovered all the gardens and trees on this campus, but when I found this grand old tree I couldn't help but get excited. I have organised to take my colleagues to view the tree next Monday. A real treat for us all. 

Until next time.

Nat

Mid of March 2015

You all know without me saying how fast time is flying by this year! Mid March already? It has been a good year for me so far! I have been busy doing everything from work stuff, creative stuff, physical stuff, planning stuff and all the life stuff! Life is beautiful (some of us says booful)! 

So with the colourful expression in my life at the moment. I'm going to post something lively and colourful for you here! 

My colourful stuff!

Colourful vintage Japanese silk I have stashed away.

A bit of creative blue stuff I have been working on lately is this Furoshiki cloth for my bag. I posted about here. It's not much closer to being finished, but I do pick it up and add a few stitches every so often. I've also bound a handmade book for a colleague who's leaving us this week. During the week Mr Notjustnat and I went to see Richard Thomson in concert at the Recital Centre in Melbourne.

Three red hearts and indigo moon for
Furoshiki cloth.

Stash of vintage indigo cotton. 

Coptic stitch binding.

Recycled book covers and cords.

Melbourne city

Also this week I finished another Scallop basket. I used the canes I dyed with coffee that I posted in February.

I finished it with a coat of vanish. 

Attaching the handle 

Last Saturday I helped my friends moving house. I didn't have to do much except driving back and forth between the old and the new house 6 times! He is a collector of vinyl records and he had so many of them to be moved. For a treat we had a lovely coffee at Market Lane Coffee, Prahran Market, Melbourne. 

Single estate Costa Rican 'rapadura' sugar
is best for coffee

The end of the move treat was green tea and cake

I found a wild fig growing at my Campus. It has plenty of figs if you get there before the birds. I was lucky to walk past it when the figs were just ready to pick. I got enough for a batch of jam.

Chopped, soaked in sugar and sat overnight

Next day boiled and bottled

An interesting ending for this post is this handsome vintage vehicle. Don't ask me what make it is. I stopped at the traffic next to this gorgeous looking red truck. I had my camera right by me so I took a shot of it. The driver was so happy that I took notice of his vehicle.

I have been working on many projects, but none is finished enough to blog about yet. I even got inspired lately by The Civil War Quilts newsletter that I subscribe to. The result was that I dug out the Civil War blocks I did many years ago and posted here. I hope to finish and put together a quilt top before we leave on our trip. I wanted to get it machine quilted in New Zealand by Donna while I'm away and to collect it on my way back. It's exciting to think that I will get a new quilt in 2015! I always need an incentive to complete a project! 

Until next time

Nat