Thursday 16 April 2009

Shibori play day

Yesterday was a dry day so off to the park I went with both boys (8 & 10). I took some hand sewing (for when I couldn't run any more). I need to make another shibori sample and took some washed cotton squares to stitch into. It was however very windy and eventually I sat in the wooden climbing frame to get out of the wind. Not very street cred I guess to have your mother hitch up her skirt to climb up in the first place.

As well as my day job I also teach some textile workshops and Shibori is one of my favourites (did you guess from the header?). I just love to see what students have done with the fabrics. I'm proud to say that my oldest lady has been 89.

My love of shibori is the reason I went from this




to this in 24 hours. It just needs to be quilted now.


Tuesday 14 April 2009

April Journal Quilt


This is the finished April journal quilt. The photo is not too great due to the organza. In the centre of each cluster of flowers are seed beads and knotted threads for the stamens. It doesn't look as effective as I had hoped but at least it is finished. I think that it might have benefited from slightly more quilting on the background as well.

Monday 13 April 2009

Journal Quilts

I had high hopes of quilting more of the dragon quilt today but the goats obviously had other ideas. I have two pygmy goats who like a bit of D.I.Y. This time the object of their skill (!?!) was the fence, they certainly made a good job at trashing it to the point that they could jump over it. After my trip to the local DIY store my DH started on the repairs.

Once everything was under control I went to finish my April Journal Quilt. I am in the Contemporary Group of the Quilters Guild and the challenge is to produce a journal quilt of 12" x 6" each month. April's is based around this photo of blossom in my garden.


I painted branches onto hand dyes fabric and just need to add the blossom (see below). The flowers will be cut from cotton, sheers and I have painted some lutradur. I will do this tomorrow and post the results.





By the way in case you wondered I came home from the car boot sale with nothing!!

Saturday 11 April 2009

Welcome to a quilters blog

Well I have finally given in to pressure and decided to dabble in the world of blogsphere. There is such a lot of creativity out there which I aim to become a part of.

I am childless this weekend, its still strange not to hear the constant call of "mum" though so aside from a pile of UFO's I have no excuse to start my blog. I am primarily a quilter but have a love of any stitched textiles. I am also getting pretty good at sock knitting!

This is the first UFO I am quilting. It was bought as a kit at Festival of Quilts about five (ish) years ago. I did piece the top about a month afterwards but then it found its way to the waiting to be finished pile. My DS found it last week hence it is now being finished.


It was machine appliqued and I am also machine quilting it. Hopefully I can show the finished quilt soon.

I am off to a car boot fair tomorrow with the aim of looking for buttons so I will let you know if I am successful.