March 2017!

2017 comes with wings! I can't believe how fast it flew by this year. After I got over Christmas and New Year holidays I went back in my treehouse studio to pick-up and work on some of my UFOs. I got the Yellow Crumb quilt top finished which was a relief. At the same time I was hand stitching the Indigo moons block for the Quilty 365 challenge which I started in 2016. I didn't get to 365 blocks, but with a clever setting, I might get enough to make a queen size quilt. 

We have had a sad event in our family. My beloved Mother-in-law passed away in late Feb. My family and I made a short trip to the funeral in Auckland, NZ. My MIL was a lovely and supporting lady for all of us. I know we will all miss her. 

My colleagues and friends at work gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers on my return, so I decided to use them in the dye bundles in memory of my MIL. I also did more dyeing using my usual eucalyptus leaves. There lot of photos here so please enjoy...

Desert Cactus flower from my garden

Sympathy flowers into bundle 

Eucalyptus leave dyed. 

More Eucalyptus dyed

First piece from the bouquet 

Second piece of the bouquet

I read somewhere in social media about the Asia Gallery Warehouse in Auckland. On my last day there I thought I would look it up and what I found was WOW! It was an amazing hidden gem of a warehouse. I got talking to one of the ladies there and found that her husband worked most of his life in Japan. Although retired, he keeps going back there and brings all the gorgeous textiles and vintage artefacts back to Auckland. It happened that he married a lovely Thai lady so he is now importing vintage textiles from northern Thailand as well. I spent a few good hours there enjoying all the displays. I imagined I was back in Japan and Thailand! Naturally, I bought some gorgeous fabric from there! 

BORO indigo Yukatas

Silk for dyeing and indigo fabric

The stash I brought home

The two lovely ladies I met there.

The Japanese wooden doll (Kokeshi doll)
to add to my collection.

Some quilts I'm working on recently: The Indigo Moon is the Quilty 365 block challenge in 2016. It started off very well. I kept it going for most of 2016.

I completed the Yellow Crumb quilt I started with my friend Myra when she visited in October. I got really motivated and got it done over the Christmas holidays. I have just sent it off to the machine quilter and I can't wait to get it back! Out of the blue I started another quilt in January. It's a quilt from the Cultural Fusion Quilts book by Sujata. My favourite thing about starting all these quilts is, I have all the fabric I need for all of them! I'm a true quilter in the sense that I thrive on reusing and re-purposing what I have. I even go as far as getting new clothes with fabric that can be use for quilting in the future!  

Setting I've chosen for Indigo Moon Quilt

Original setting, but it will need more blocks!

Yellow Crumb Quilt

Some blocks from the Cultural Fusion Quilts book

Lucky Find: I haven't posted lucky find for awhile because everything I find these days is a lucky find! But today I'd like to share with you my lucky, lucky find. A vintage Ralph Lauren, RL Polo bag. I found it at a cool vintage store in Bangkok. It's a perfect little bag to carry a wallet and a phone around. I love love using it!

Hope everyone in North America is coping well with the cold weather you have been getting lately. You are supposed to be getting into Spring aren't you? Please keep safe and warm. 

I don't have any overseas travel planned this year, but I'm planning a big trip to the Tokyo International Quilt Festival in Jan. 2018 so I am saving everything for that. You can't just go to Japan without seeing more of the country so we will fit in Kyoto and maybe the south which we have not ventured into. For 2017 we will make mini trips to the outback or a trip to Sydney later on in the year.

My lovely friend Janet Wright is complaining that I don't update my blog enough! Sorry Janet, but I really haven't done much to blog about! I can assure you that I have been physically active exercising most days. 

Until next time

Nat 

Getting Back to Normality!

Life is getting back to normality again here. This is my second week back at work and things are happening at work with the beginning of the library refurbishment. Also it's nice to get back to the daily routine. You go to bed and wake up at a more civilized time. You get dressed and there are places to go to each day! Does that make sense to you? I also made travel plans for the second half of 2015.

A few things happened this month that got me excited! I would normally feel down after Christmas, but with a few things to do I'm all energy and ready to face 2015. I've set a date for the Tree House warming party on the last day of January. I've been working on a guest book for the studio warming party. 

The book is finished.

Book cover in stitching process.

Speaking of the Tree House studio. I took down the Christmas quilts I put up for Christmas and replaced them with the collection of my small quilts. Some of them were quilts I made in my early quilting career. You can see that even then I couldn't just keep to one type of quilting!

Flamingo quilt stands out among the rest.

Books and baskets at the other
end of the room.

A few photos with a Japanese theme to follow. I met up with Jacky for lunch last week. It was lovely to catch up with her after a long time. After lunch we visited Ziguzagu for the after-Christmas sale. 

The tall Kokeshi doll is the new
acquisition from ZZ.

Small Japanese inspired quilt I made for a gift.

Robert Joyce the co-owner of Kazari/Ziguzagu 
has a brilliant way to transport furniture
around the shop. He told me he learnt it
in Bali when he was 18. 

Japanese garden at Japanese Language Centre at
my university.

I did more dyeing since DIL left after New Year. You know, one gets addicted to dyeing when one starts. I have so much dyed fabric that I swore I will have a break from dyeing for awhile, but that promise didn't last for long before I started dyeing again. Here are some results of the batch.

Bundles after steaming

Another piece dyed with rose leaves.

Dyed silk hanging out to dry.

Juvenile Eucalyptus leaves. 

Kangaroo paws and Eucalyptus leaves.

Mixed Eucalyptus leaves.

I know I haven't been posting regularly. I appreciate that you are still reading my blog, so thank you. My next post is going to be about the Tree House studio warming party. I hope I will have time to take photos on the day.  

Until next time

Nat