Rag Rugging, Eco Dyeing Fun & Embroidery Books

  Recently, I  did a workshop at Toowoomba Quilters club with a local lady, Kathy Adams from KoolKat Quilting.  Kathy showed us how to do a rag rug (or bowls, or placemats or another myriad of things) using a ‘toothbrush’ tool.  It was a lot of fun.

 

Mine is quite misshapen at the moment – it is meant to be oval  LOL and will eventually be a placemat.  Think I have to work on the increasing technique

…………….Kathy with the little blue tool.

When Shirley and I went to the recent Embroiderer’s Guild Open Day we found some fantastic books for just $2!!!

Shirley couldn’t resist buying me this one because I have for a long time drooled over her copy.

This book is so inspirational and it never fails to give you an idea for a creative embroidery which is a passion of both Shirley’s and mine.

I also picked up the following 2 books which are proving to be wonderful.  So many fabulous ideas.

After the visit to the ATASDA display right here in our fair city, Shirley and I were motivated to do some ‘eco dyeing’. 

I was boiling up all sorts of things (much to my husband’s amusement).  Some of them worked – some didn’t.  We need to buy some alum to help set the natural dyes but have yet to find a good source for it at a reasonable price.

Lavender boiling up

Fabric cooking in blueberry juice

 

Fabric soaking in red wine vinegar

Jacaranda seed pods ready for stewing.

 

Here are some of my dyeings.

Blueberries – tied and pleated.

Turmeric – very bright

Turmeric over fabric stamped with large bubble wrap.

Alas I cannot show you the lavender experiment – it is too pale and insipid.  It would have been a lovely golden yellow brown if I had alum to treat the fabric with first.  The fabric just did not absorb the colour.

The jacaranda pod dye was the most beautiful russet colour but, once again, it didn’t absorb into the fabric.

Instead it got ‘the treatment’ and ended up all rusty

The background is quite grey in real life.

There is more…. but … another time.

Dianne

Collaging, Sewing, Inspirations, Spring Fever and more…..

It is a while since I blogged but I have been busy behind the scenes.  Plenty of socializing and outings and a bit of creative sewing and of course the ordinary mundane stuff everyone has to do when they would rather be creating!!!
A funny type of Spring Fever has hit me in the way of a head cold.  It has been so very hot, and having a head cold in the heat is no fun, let me tell you.
 
This is one of our magnificent star jasmine plants.  I wish we had smell-a-blog so you could share the scent with me.  The smell reminds me that Melbourne Cup day is coming soon and that summer is fast approaching.

SEWING:

I made this block keeper for my dear friend, Shirley, to store her embroidery pieces in while they are awaiting to be put into her amazing embroidery book. 
The pattern is one I have used before, and is a tutorial my the lovely and delightful Teresa from All Things Vintage.  Pop over and see Teresa’s blog and be inspired to craft more.  She really gets things done!!  Thank you for your wonderful tutorial, Teresa.
COLLAGING:
In the past week I signed up for a fabric collage workshop with Deborah Boschert, “Branches, Buds and Blossoms”.  Things were going swimmingly until the sound jack decided not to work on my computer inside the house.  I have soldiered on and this is the piece so far – just fabric placement at this stage.  It is so much fun!  I can’t wait to embellish it and do some hand stitching on it.
 
The final layout before embellishing.

The feature fabric.

SOCIALIZING:
The Toowoomba Quilter’s retreat was held on Oct 11-13 and it was fabulous, as usual.  We don’t have to lift a finger, just sit, chat, sew and eat (in any order)… all in a bushland setting. 

L-R Debbie, Vicki, Sally and Dianne – yes, me.
The quilt group also ran a bus to the Queensland Quilt show in Brisbane. 

This quilt by Olive Claydon won the Viewer’s choice award and well deserved.  All tiny hexagons!!!!  Well done, Olive.  isn’t it amazing???
You can see more of the winners HERE on the Qld Quilters website.
I bought a few goodies but most of it is just card crafting and textile art stuff.  No fabric was purchased (for a change). 
‘
These really cool stencils.  A couple of them by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer whose journal work I love.

Hemp thread, Acrylic glazes, gold rubbing stuff, acrylic ink sprays, cog wheels stamp and a watercolour pad.  I just wanna PLAY.
In the past week, Shirley and I also visited a display by the local Toowoomba Embroiderer’s Guild and a display by ATASDA (Australian Textile and Surface Design Association). Both very inspiring.
After our visit to the ATASDA display, Shirley and I were inspired to do some botanical dyeing.
More on that later………………Until next time.........Dianne

While the Cat’s Away

When my hubby went away to Sydney for the football finals,  I got quite a bit done in the sewing room and on UFO’s.  He doesn’t mind me going off to the sewing room when he is around,  but he tends to hi-jack me and drag me off to do other things!!  Don’t get me wrong – I miss him when he is away and always look forward to his return.
 
At the recent quilt show I was demonstrating the olfa circle cutter.  It is a great little tool and you always get an accurate circle.  It took a little bit of mastering, but well worth it if you are going to be cutting a lot of circles for a project.
Me showing how it’s done!
For instance, by just doing an edge stitching around your circle and cutting it into quarters or triangles you can do all the variations of Drunkard’s Path without doing curved seams.  I know - cheating!!

“Playing with Circles”  Quilt made by Fay Suley                  Fay – demonstrating Kaleidoscopes at show

There are so many modern and stunning quilts you can make with circles.  The circle cutter demonstration was very popular and now I have a whole heap of random circles and some very holy fabric to play with!! 

Shirley  was showing her embroidery skills and it was creating a lot of interest. (That is her stunning underwater reef embroidery on the steps behind her).
I took my iron and portable ironing board along to the show and set it up.  Unfortunately, one of the ladies accidentally ironed some fusible material and it got stuck all over the iron and made a terrible mess of both the iron and ironing board.

I have tried everything I know of to get the black spots and marks off the sole plate of the iron to no avail!
As for the ironing board, I whipped up a new cover using a tutorial from here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/iheartstitching
It was easy and I just used a bit of charity fabric this time, but next time I could really jazz it up with something funky.

Recently I purchased some polyester batting from a large craft supermarket.  I chose a polyester ‘cheapy’ because the project I wanted it for was a quilt that was going to be washed a lot.  If you see this one – my advice – don’t waste your money.  I am going to chop it up and use it for stuffing.  It stretches everything out of shape and you can’t get it to sit flat at all.
I have purposely blurred out the name but you get the idea?

I went back to the brand I love and I purchased the fusible one from a local distributor, Pauline Rogers from ‘Quilters World’.  The fusible one was brilliant for the small project I was using it for and it remained well fused as I quilted it. 

Pauline has all manner of items you may need for quilting and patchwork, and another tool I really love is the Charisma marking pencil.  When you purchase it, she gives you both white and black leads, refills, and an instruction sheet which is important to read.   I am rapt in mine and use it all the time now for marking.
Are you getting the message that I may be a bit of a quilting gadget geek???
Until next time………Dianne

Visits–Quilts 1700–1945, 80th Birthday & My Sewing Room

It has been a busy couple of weeks.

While I was in Brisbane on 5 Sept I went along to the Qld Art Gallery and saw the fantastic exhibition of historical Quilts from the Victoria & Albert Museum.  As I walked around the quilts and articles I wondered at the workmanship and attention to detail the makers managed to achieve in challenging times. It was one of the best displays I have ever seen at our wonderful art gallery.
If you would like to view some of the amazing quilts go to the QAGA site HERE and click on the videos to watch them.  Some of the stories behind the quilts are inspirational.

(View across the river to the City)
Last Sunday we drove to “Serenity” for a friend’s 80th birthday.  Serenity is what they call the property and it is easy to see why.  Surrounded by rolling green hills and friendly wallabies it is indeed peaceful.

Here is the birthday boy with his giant pavlova birthday cake.  He got an OBE presented to him which hangs around his neck.  No, not an Order of the British Empire – an Over Bloody Eighty award. 

Yesterday I visited the sewing room for a clean out of the project boxes. In my present decluttering state of mind, I decided ‘enough is enough’.  Some of the unfinished (and not even started) items went to either the op shop box, the trash, our local community quilting group or repurposed.  It was quite liberating!! 
Project Box 2 no longer exists!!  Hooray! They have been amalgamated into one. Of course, I would be lying if I said these were the only unfinished items in the sewing room.  There are some lurking in other places

In 2009 some friends and I went to ‘Stitchers Day Out’ at Highfields and I completed this little stitchery which I re-discovered in my clean out.  So I was momentarily distracted from my decluttering duties and went ahead and made the book cover for which it was intended.
The stitchery is an Ella & Skysie design and I coloured it with prismacolour pencils.

Book Cover outer                                                Book Cover Lining.
The fabrics bought on the day were just perfect for the stitcheries.

The finished book!  I am going to give it to my gorgeous Goddaughter, Gabrielle as part of her 21st birthday present.
  Gabrielle
The next couple of weekends are going to be busy with Gabrielle’s 21st party next weekend and her sister, Angela getting married the following weekend. 

Iris in my garden.  Did I tell you how much I love Spring time??