Revisiting

Another three weeks have whizzed by without blogging.   I must have
been a) enjoying myself, b) really busy, or c) refining my juggling skills.
A mixture of all three really.

My workshops for the year are now finished.   Two shibori/procion days
extremely colourful.    The final on kantha stitching very quiet and calm.

I will be taking a Shibori in Colour workshop
on 20th January 2013.   For details contact
Walford Mill  Wimborne, Dorset





End of year tidy up - all those files, samples and notes redefined.   They
multiply through the year!    I am finding I do have space in cupboards,
once the 'on longer required on journey' stuff is discarded.

Paperwork almost done, and I can see surfaces again.    

To maintain some sanity I had to have some stitching to hand.   Of course,
on the wall is Blue Moon, a quilt I finished on New Year's Eve, 2009! 
It is constructed from recycled white fabric, gathered over months.  Dyed,
mark making with soy wax and over dyed.    Lack of time required machine
quilting, which I always intended to hand quilt.  It's time has come!

hanging on the wall along with Nic's illustrations

for our family exhibition Raw Talent 

from this

to this

via this

I am so enjoying the result.   This might be my winter project!   There is a

lot of stitching yet to be done.

Nic is on tour with The Paper Cinema's production of the Odyssey until

the end of November.    It could be coming to a town near you!   

out of the vat

Today it is bright and sunny, but there is a nip in the air.  Frost on the cars 
first thing, brrrr.  Glad I took advantage of warm days last week for a couple of 
bucketfuls of indigo.

a little picture show of some of the fabric that emerged from the blue

thin stripes

brushstrokes

pole wrapping

bound

tied

mokumi

and, for fun, a hippie swirl
SOLD

there is also plain dye indigo, scrunched and clamped

plus fine cotton thread

my indigo cupboard does not look quite so empty now

This week I am, at last, setting up a website.   My store will be revamped and 

appearing on the site very soon,  as long as I can get my head round the 

technicalities!  A bit of a brain work out I think.

To start, I will offer indigo packs of 12 5" squares and scrap bags with lots of small 

but useful pieces.   Procion dyed thread packs, fabrics and embellishments.

If you can't wait for the website to open, or would like some larger pieces before

they get cut up, contact me!

Dandelions

shibori dandelions from my sample book

Gilli of http://textilecottagestudio.blogspot.com  has posted pix showing the wonderful
shibori pieces she created at Saturday's workshop.   All those little bundles that left the
house now revealed.   You might like to take a look.


Thank you Gilli.

Flag

or, rather, a detail of a flag folded sample

demonstrated at yesterday's Shibori Workshop

The thing is you never know exactly what will appear when

the cloth is opened out.   This piece reminds me of looking

through a kaleidoscope, and the colours of the spring

flowers appearing in the garden

Maria, Gilli, Liz and Lyn tied, stitched, wrapped and clamped

in a wild frenzy.   They each opened one piece, just to see,

at the end of the workshop. Fantastic results.   As ever, too busy 

to take photos!  

It was a good spring sun shiny day, full of fun, laughter and

colour - what more could you ask for?

itajime shibori

Or, back to the clamped piece!  It is

 just the size for a Journal Quilt, although

I had to trim the top and bottom a tad close  

to the circles.  Free machine stitching,

as the mood took me.

detail

Clamping

With some left over dyes and various lids, a little more playtime.

First of a 'flag fold', clamped with milk container tops.

The circles did not penetrate the whole of the

folded cloth.  However, briefly rinsed and left in

the bowl I discovered an interesting dye run -

if you like pastel!

At the other end of the cloth two evil eyes are

watching me.

That's a bit scary!

So now with metal lids, clamped really tightly.

Great - I think I can work on this idea.

Shibori in the Tent

Demonstrating shibori techniques in the tent on a perfect English summer weekend, made up for Wet Wednesday.

Thelma was impressed

Mokume shibori

Subtle blues/purples,, blues/turquoise, then I got a touch of the brights.

Even better, this one sold!

Bound shibori 

The sarong workshop was great fun.   As usual I don't get to see the end results, but Jill returned on Sunday to show and tell.   The border is really lovely with tied chickpea and the pattern resembles flowers.