Coastal Colour and QLD. Floods

Before I begin I would like to join many bloggers calling to give a hand to help the Queensland, Australia floods appeal. Click on the above button to visit Daisy Quilt and read more on how you can help QLD floods 2011. You can also help in other ways by clicking on the list below:

- Oz Comfort Quilts

- Make sewing kit

- Support an Auction or Raffle

- Bake Relief

I will try and make a sewing kit this weekend to send off. Thanks everyone for your emails about us here in Australia. 

Today I just want to share some photos from our Christmas and New Year holiday with you. It was a very low key holiday where Mr N and I spent some peaceful time together. We went to the coast near Seabird, our retirement property we purchased in 2010. We couldn't of cause stay at Seabird, it is only an empty plot of land at the moment, but we did stay close enough to be able to take a swim on our beach! I am so excited to say the word 'our beach'! In the not too distant future I will be swimming there everyday. 

Apart from relaxing and visiting many beautiful beaches in the area I was also looking out for any potential plants and flowers for dyeing. I was reading on kaite yarngarden a while ago about Coreopsis flowers so when I spotted them all over the road side I had to stop and gather some to try. Kaite also told me that sea water is mordant. The recipe for this eco dye batch is 2 bottles of sea water, 48 Coreopsis flowers boiled together for 30 mins. I drained the liquid into a jar and stored it in an ice box until we got home. The Coreopsis flowers also gave out a beautiful aroma while boiling. 

 

I was eager to try my concoctions when I got home. I wrapped some vintage silk around eucalyptus leaves and branches hoping to get some imprints on the fabric. I boiled the fabric  for about 30 mins. I threw one ball of pearl cotton in there for good measure. The result is as you see above. 

Beautiful day at Bawley Point Beach. With my newly acquired camera I was so happy snapping away at it. The upward view of eucalyptus trees with crisp blue sky above. Eucalyptus trees are a common sight everywhere in Australia. I have learned to love everything about the tree from its smell, the shapes of the leaves etc. You can use every part of the tree for dyeing. Eucalyptus trees are used in many famous Australian paintings. 

On the left hand side of the Bawley Point Beach is a beautiful rock structure you can climb and walk around it. From when I was young I loved walking on rocks and searching for interesting creatures or drift wood. I found this star flower caught in between rocks. Simple and peaceful place for it. 

Rocks that lie closer to the water's edge get washed over by waves. The algae covers and gives the rock a vibrant green colour. Bawley beach is a surf beach and you can spot some surfers waiting to catch the big waves at the top of the photos. 

Rock formations give patterns that I can transform into stitching. I was looking out for patterns and lines on rock that inspire me to create a sea cloth. More on that later. 

Well holidays would have to come to an end sometime. We are back and started work for another year. Stitching will have to fit in with my daily routine. Completing projects is getting harder. I am looking forward to my online workshop with Jude starting on Jan. 19th. 

Family Time and BORO Cloth

We had DGD and DIL with us this last week so not much blog visiting lately. Our DS and his family lives 8 hours drive away from us so we don't get to see them too often except on Skype. It was lovely to spend time with them. We went to the beach on Saturday which was a very nice day out together. Too cold for a swim but not too cold to dip your toes in the water. One day I took them to my favorite place, yes you guess right, Ziguzagu! It's never too early to introduce DGD to fabric!

I have finally completed the Sashiko motive on my BORO cloth. It looks great on the worn piece of indigo fabric. It's so satisfying giving a new life to an old cloth.  

An indigo piece I got from Glennis D0lce  is now stitched. A lot of stitching for a small piece but I really enjoyed it and it lifted the whole cloth so much with those tiny stitches. 

The moon is shining on BORO cloth! I decided to use blue and white threads on this piece. It's a lopsided moon because that was how it turned out in the dye bath.  

This is how my BORO cloth looks with more stitching on it. I just love working on this cloth. There is no quarter inch to worry about! What I love best is the freedom of stitches I can create as I move from one patch to the next. The true BORO cloth only has straight stitching, but that is no fun when you can just do curves and circles so I decided to do the latter. 

DIL and I had a few stitching sessions together in the evening after DGD went to bed. DIL got herself  some vintage kimono pieces at Ziguzagu to make her very own BORO cloth. She only found the green, red and white and the gray piece. The rest of her pieces were from my box and the indigo piece was from the indigo dyeing we did together one day. She wants this piece for her bedroom wall.

I have been dyeing using Procion dye powder in indigo shade. The purple/blue ones had been over dyed. It is silk thread and I wasn't happy with the dyeing the first time so I dipped it in indigo dye and I'm now happy with it. The white ball on the right is linen that I got from Camberwell market on Sunday and the dark tan spool is also linen. All of them are best for hand stitching on BORO cloth. 

Original BORO cloth hanging at Ziguzagu. It was a duvet cover. Very well used and loved. Lots of torn pieces and stitching. I forgot to see how old it is, but it cost $285. I didn't get it, but from what I have seen on the internet, $285 is a bargain.  

Some photos to share. DGD at Ziguzagu and the beach. She might be too small for some displays, but she had a ball getting into remnants tubs. She checked out indigo fabric and I think she likes them best, surprise surprise. The day at the beach was a treasure. Mr NJN takes the opportunity to have a cat nap!

Alternative Quilting Read On

Alternative quilting or sane quilting are types of creativity. I have been quilting since 1992, a long time right? I finished many quilts and started lots of UFOs. A lot of my quilts were in exhibitions and some have been published. That's not important here; the most important thing is I'm creating, learning and trying new skills. These days I'm creating alternative quilts using recycled fabric, vintage fabric and re-purposed fabric from used clothing. I am also dyeing my own fabric using Procion dye, eco and natural dyeing. This BORO quilt I'm making for my future blue and white studio at Seabird is taking shape. I have started putting 

some stitching on it now. 

Some pieces in the BORO quilt are thin and worn, so to strengthen it I stitched over it using sashiko design stitching. I love this pattern (I will get the name later) because it has two birds. The birds represent Mr Notjustnat and I who flew from different parts of the world to unite, hence I named our new property Seabird.  

Some more stitching on another part of the quilt. Criss cross stitching. A bit more to go yet. I'm trying to apply all different stitching in all patches. The quilt will be strong and decorative at the same time. 

Another part of the quilt with my hand dyed indigo moon. A few stitches are starting to immerse on the moon. I will add more stitches in cream on it later. 

I want to share this book I got from Ziguzagu a few weeks ago with you. It's a great book of modern BORO quilts. The thing is I didn't know the name of the book. It's in Japanese but I can understand the instructions. I was looking and looking and found in the smallest print the name of the author in English. I searched and searched on the internet and in the end I found it. This book is by: Junko Maeda and it's called "Days with stitching on cloth" I found it on Bemused blog. She has some photos on her blog too, so go and have a read. 

What else have I been creating? Well I have tried weaving! It was another one of Jude's influences. My very first weaving apart from basket weaving.  I have woven with my homemade loom. It was an old tapestry frame I got from an op-shop. I nailed brass nails on the longer ends and tied thick hand dyed strings firmly on them. It was only a trial run, but I'm happy with how they turned out. The left one uses strips of indigo fabric and the right one uses sari silk yarn.  

After trying traditional weaving it occurred to me that I can use the same weaving technique as basket weaving so that is what I did with the indigo and sari silk yarn. I can hear a voice in my head asking me what will I do with them? Well, I can either add them on to my slow cloth project or attach them onto Christmas parcels as tags...yes something different right? 

Now and then

I visited a friend last week and spotted this basket. The basket I had given her husband Dr Raphael Zimmerman as a gift for the opening of his exhibition 5 years ago. It sits on their kitchen bench with potatoes and onions in it. I am surprised how much it changed from when I first made it. The color of natural fibre has turned golden brown. Very beautiful actually. What a shame I can't have it back...!

I went to Quilts in the Barn this morning. It was wonderful and I took lots of photos. It will still be on tomorrow (Sunday), so it's not too late if you live locally to visit. You will see some gorgeous quilts here soon. 

Seabird

Seachange is a common practice these days, but for us seachange is a way of life. We have moved 10 times in 7 countries in the last 35 years. Apart from my birth country 6 years was the longest my family and I lived anywhere. Some people can't stand moving, but I can't seem to have enough of it. New places stimulate me. I learn a lot about a place by living there. There was no place I didn't like. I make it home wherever I go. I get settled, make friends, join a quilting guild and get involved and help with school activities, and in most places I worked too. 

Seachange is about to happen again, but this time it will be for our retirement. We just bought a block of land and will build a home. A place where both Mr Notjustnat and I can unpack and burn the boxes for good! I have mentioned blue and white studio! Yes that it, it will be at Seabird...!

What do you do when you are planning a move? You get yourself a journal. You collect information about the new place. You dream of the new place and you make a quilt for the new place. Yes that what I'm doing! Above is the handmade journal I just finished. It was Coptic bound using recycled dust jackets for the front and used bookcloth for the back cover. 

I got inspired from a book Blue and White Japan by Amy Katoh how to decorate my studio in blue and white. I found these blue and white pots at my local op-shop a while back. I didn't get them at first, but they keep talking to me every time I go there. So I decided to bring them both home. I made one into a pincushion and left the other one for my thread. The first couple of things for my blue and white studio. 

A quilt I'm planning to make is a BORO quilt. It will be made from vintage Kimono pieces and used fabric from vintage clothing. For the backing I found this old indigo kimono at Ziguzagu. It was fully lined so I unpicked and used the lining for the backing of this quilt. 

A true BORO quilt made from layers of cloths and stitched over using running stitches. Pieces for a BORO quilt are normally made up of square and rectangle shapes. I played around with all the pieces, arranging and moving and then rearranging them again. I have added some indigo moon pieces that I dyed. I will add some Sashiko stitching on some of the plain pieces too just to add texture on to the cloth. I'm looking forward to using my indigo dyed threads for this quilt. 

A close up of a piece of my indigo moon. It's a silk remnant that my student brought back for me from Japan. I need to get motivated to finish something so let's hope the blue and white studio will motivate me enough to be on track. 

I'm happy you are coming with me on the journey to Seabird. It won't happen immediately, but at least we have started.  One thing is for sure though, I can take my blog with me where ever I go. Comfortable thought...! 

Last week I received The Versatile Blogger Award from Ivory Spring. I'm so honored that Wendy has chosen me for one of the recipients. Thanks Wendy from the bottom of my heart. Now I am supposed to tell you something you don't know about me. I was a bell ringer (campanologist). I spent 4 years practicing 3 times a week and have rung in Tasmania, Sydney, Auckland, Hamilton and every tower in Victoria. I was quite good at the end. I rung quarter peals about half a dozen times in those 4 years. In bell ringing quite good is not good enough. It was a tough learning curve and I gave up quilting for it. After 4 years I decided that bell ringing is not for me, so I gave up and returned to quilting again. I must say it's much easier than bell ringing...!