Shibori Techniques

This week my kids FINALLY went back to school!!!  I love my kids but 10 weeks of school holidays puts a bit of a damper on any kind of creative expression.....Anyway back to it!!!

This week I am trying out some other shibori techniques, I have been watching you tube videos of how the masters do it in Japan.  If only my fingers were that nimble and quick!

Here a 1/4 metre was folded in half then machine sewn with large basting stitches.  The stitches were then pulled tight.

 This is a fat quarter which has been pleated then machine basted.

 This fat quarter was folded in four and hand basting in a wavy pattern.  The stitches were then gathered.  I have attached a chopstick to one side so that the threads wouldn't come undone and it gave me tension to pull the fabric tight. (sadly one of the rows came undone when the thread broke)  Its not a mistake - just a redesign!

With this piece I have marked two inch by two inch dots, add a bead under each dot and secure with thread.  I am sure the Japanese masters could have this finished in a matter of minutes but I have to be patient and it will take me a while.  I do find it relaxing though.

I hope to do some with clamps as well before I do the dyeing next week. I will post the results next week.

This week I also met the sister of one of my quilting friends and she has just been on a course on natural dyeing.  This is something I have been thinking about as I wonder how environmentally friendly the procion dyes are on the environment.  I would love to hear your thoughts about this.....

Happy Quilting!

Challenge quilt finished - Opposites attract

Well yesterday was reveal day for the http://aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com.  The challenge was Opposites attract.

Here is my piece:

"Opposites Attract"

detail of quilting

detail

detail red embroidery

I have always loved zentangles and it seemed like the perfect "opposite".  This piece was designed by my daughter Celine (15).  It is machine embroidered, machine quilted, 100%cotton front and back with peltex inner.  No black and white is complete without a dash of red (hand embroidered).

AND it was finished 3 whole days before the deadline!

 Loved making this piece - now onto the next challenge - "the road less travelled".

Today I am doing some more fabric dyeing for my friend Jesse (http://whatshequilts.com) who is making this amazing rainbow colour quilt with some of my hand dyes!

This would explain the yellow and blue fingers today!

Back to work!!!

The last few weeks have been busy as I have had visitors since the end of May for my daughters high school graduation.
Now that calm has been restored, its time to get back to work and do some dyeing!

Devore cut silk rayon scarf

Shibori - Turquiose and Fushia

jokamamotextiles.etsy.com

I also converted the bedroom back into a sewing room and reorganised it with a lot of help from my friend Jesse:

Thanks Jesse!!!  I hope I can keep it looking this good!!!!

I have been doing more sewing lessons over the holidays and have some really lovely students, sadly one of them is moving back to Australia.  I will miss her and I  hope she will continue sewing.

Well that's it from me - time for ANZA Quilt group.....

New Shibori fabrics - water backgrounds

Have just added some of my new Shirbori fabrics to my Webshop:

Shibori Blue/Green2

Shibori Blue/Green 1

Shibori Blue/Green 1 detail

These would be perfect for water backgrounds for pictorial quilts!

These are all metric fat quarters (slighty larger than standards US size) 

and are hand dyed by me on 100% Cotton Pimatex.

This is a lovely soft tightweave cotton which is perfect for applique.

Happy Quilting!

Ice dyeing

This week was the Chinese Lunar New Year and so we had a couple of days off. This was a much needed break in our house as we have had sick kids all of last week!  Thankfully they are all well again and are off to school today.

This weekend I finally started cutting up the 400+ yards of fabric that I got in January and got stuck into some dyeing.

First up - Ice dyeing

I love the textures in these - they would be great for applique, backgrounds or piecing.

Most people do these with snow during winter but living in Singapore means you just have to adapt and use ice cubes instead.  At least I don't have to wait long for the ice to melt!

Next up:  12 meters of fabric dyed into 12 dark muted colours.  Today's job is ironing and cutting them into fat quarters.

Thankfully it was not so hot yesterday and with the fan on I managed to keep the temperature in the kitchen to a balmy 28 deg. celsius!  Great for the weight loss!

so dyeing 60 fat quarters in a weekend.....not too shabby!

Happy Quilting

What to do with 409 yards of fabric?!

Today I received the 409 yards of PFD Fabric that I ordered from Robert Kaufman....yes 409 yards!

It seems like ages ago that I did anything creative or productive and I can't wait to get some dyeing done!

Not that I haven't been doing anything....

Christmas season is always busy with visitors and I also spent some time in New Zealand with my family.  My sister that lives in Mexico came to visit and I haven't seen her in 5 years so this was a good time to go home and catch up.

It was great to go home and experience summer in NZ - considerably cooler to the 32 degs celcius that we are used to in Singapore.....

My next post will be my 200th post so watch this space for something special!!!!

Happy Quilting

Marianne

Dyeing is contagious!

On Saturday my daughter Brooke sat her SAT exam.

When she got home from her exam she spied the left over dye from my dyeing session last week and decided that throwing about a bit of dye is the perfect stress reliever! Funny how contagious this dyeing thing is!!!!

Liquid dye on ice

Close up of Liquid dye on ice

Then I dyed a couple more of the Onsies

Today I was busy making a block for a friend  who loves Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  I think I quite like this mosiac style block! I hope she likes it!

Happy Quilting!

Fabric, fabric and more fabric

My fabric arrived this week from Hancocks of Paducah and I am excited about starting  new quilt/s.

40 fat 1/4's Mod Century by Jenn Ski

Yesterday it was time to break out the dyes and fill some of the back orders from the British Club.

2 sets of clear brights

2 shibori dyes

Also I had done some bleaching earlier in the week and these were overdyed.

overdyed with red and purple

Needs to be redyed as I wanted it to be more green

3 x Onsies were also on the dyeing list:

All this dyeing was made much easier by the fan that I got for my birthday last week.  The kitchen was only a balmy 29 degrees instead of the usual 40 degrees.  Very pleasant!

Also for my birthday was a book by Pokey Bolton:

Oh what a great week!

Happy Quilting!

Birthday blocks!

My last post was about the British Club Challenge - and for those that would like to see photos of the quilts, check out the ANZA Quilters.

This Sunday it is my birthday and the ladies from the ANZA Quilt group surprised me on Tuesday with Birthday blocks that they had made in my favourite colours.

LOVE the black white and red!

Thank you all for the lovely blocks - can't wait to put them together!

Last Saturday we had our school carnival and my friend Jesse made this gorgeous quilt for the raffles.....

and Guess Who won the raffle!!!!!!!

Isn't this fabulous!

The last couple of weeks I had been trying to do some more fabric bleaching with a clorox bleach pen without much success.  I have done this before and it worked great but this time the bleach just dried on the fabric and nothing else.

I went and bought a new bleach pen and it worked wonderfully.  Maybe the bleach was just too old?

I will do a few more and then overdye them next time I do some dyeing.

Happy Quilting!

Yesterdays dyeing results

Here are the results for yesterdays dyeing session:

LOVE the boldness of these!

This one has black added to the colours

Fushia gradient

Turquoise gradient

Pity the change from light to dark was not a bit more subtle

Good even colour but needs to be brighter - I might redye

All in all I was quite happy with the results.  Dyeing is not an exact art and I learn something new everytime or how I would do something different next time.

My new fabric is on its way so hopefully I can get some more dyeing done in a couple of weeks.

Today I am off to ANZA Quilt Group!

Happy Quilting

The last of the fabric dyeing

Today I used up some of the dye that was left over from the dyeing session last week with my friend Jesse.

It seemed a good time to try some "dip" dyeing as this is something I have not done yet.

Set up 3 dye baths, Turquiose, Fushia and Lemon Yellow

Dip one end of a piece of fabric into the Turquiose ( about 2/5th of the way up the fabric)

Then dip the same end into the Fushia ( about 1/5th of the way up the fabric)

Dip the other end into the Fushia  ( about 2/5th of the way up the fabric)

Lastly dip the middle into the yellow covering some of the Turquiose and the Fushia.

You should end up with 6 colours:

Purple,Turquiose, Green, Yellow,Orange and Fushia

Lay flat to dry (I also added some black to the dyes for the last one to give muddier colours)

I also did some gradient (light to dark) with the Turquiose and the Fushia

Can't wait to see how these look when they are dry.  

Sadly that is the last of the fabric - I have to wait for new stock to arrive.

I REALLY wish I could get this PFD Pimatex here.  It is made in Malaysia (right next door) but I end up having to buy it via the USA and pay for lots of shipping.  Somehow, that just seems wrong !

Happy Quilting!