dye

Last Saturday daughter and I visited the "Handwerkbeurs" in Rotterdam

(a crafts fair)

Daughter bought some lovely yarns for new knitting projects,

I, a book with patterns for tiny "Waldorf " dolls,

some beautiful variegated DMC,

some fat quarters of quilt fabric

and I collected a bag with stuff for Procion dyeing

that I had ordered in advance.

Today I had ( another ) fun day dyeing

with my friend W

( long ago she learned me a few bits and tricks about quilting )

On the first day we mixed the procion dye

with the thick gel, prepared screens with it

and let them dry for a couple of weeks.

Today came the second part : the actual printing on fabric

... on a well protected table !

The "break down" printing was fun !

The fresh gel dissolves by and by the dried dye on the screens

and gives prints that become gradually weaker as you go  

 After the screens were totally "worn out" we cleaned them

and also tried

printing with paper resists. 

Later on we have to steam iron the fabric

and wash out the excess dye.

( first mission accomplished ! ! )

a bit of this, a bit of that

We're enjoying lovely autumn days

quiet sunny weather, no storm in sight ( yet ! )

Otherwise these beautiful colours

would be gone in a day

*

The new box with colourpencils is coming to good use by Man !

 They work really nice on the heavy paper

( I checked them out too .....  ;-)  ! )

*

I took some bits and pieces of an old UFO

and added some more :

among others, a piece of a silk man's tie

( from the thrift store )

and this will become part of one of the new inhabitants

on the big ikat cloth

Although I have only a vague idea of what will come next .....

a wonderful day !

The 26th of October

was a wonderful sunny day

44 years ago

just as sunny as it was today !

Well ... how would I know that so accurately ?

that's easy :

we had a wonderful sunny wedding day !

.....

And today :

a bit older, a bit wiser (sometimes) and still lots of sunshine !

Sunshine

(inside or out)

brightens up your life !

 May you all have lots of days with sunshine

*

Earlier today, when man was away to his Italian class,

I was knitting on my last (so far) pair of socks

with my favourite Kaffe Fassett yarn from Regia.

Ofcourse I finished them later today !

The other pair of a more turquoise KF colour ( and slightly too big )

went to a dear friend who visited us in spring and had terribly cold feet ...

However : these are definately not too big !

blue and white

Blue and white

or white and blue ?

I think I have enough nine patch stars now.

Yesterday I spread out the big ikat cloth with the moon

and while I was stitching the nine patches

there was someone waiting patiently

till I had time for some TLC

( his sister is not as demanding for attention as he is ...

dear house guests again for a few days )

After I had all the "nines" I wanted ( for now )

there were still little squares left

I just couldn't resist :

what this may be ???

.....

A biscornu in the making !

two nine patches sewn together :

the point of one, to the middle of the side of the other

What if ... I use only two little ones        turning with a clever forceps ...

top and bottom              or              bottom and top

an old and two new ones

( It always surprises me how much batting you can stuff in such small things )

When you go over to Eva Nerling's blog
( that's where I dicovered the biscornus )
you'll even find a tutorial
for the beautiful embroidered ones she makes !

lucky girl !

That's me !

in more ways than one I would say

but I'm not telling you all of them, that would take ages !!!

But this one I'd like to share with you :

some time ago I got this e-mail from one

of my blogging-world stitching friends : Jacky

who lives in Australia.

She asked if I would like some scraps of fabric from her.

Well, what do you think ?

Ofcourse I said yes to this lovely suggestion

I was honoured by it.

Today I recieved an envelope from far away "Down Under"

Along with the stash was a lovely card with some sweet words on it ...

and look at that !

All those wonderful pieces of fabric !!!
A real treasure

They will easliy find their way into my little or bigger quilts.

I'm a VERY lucky girl, I think

THANK YOU

JACKY

*

Because I almost ran out of little blue squares

I started cutting and ironing again ...

( the folded size is 2,5 cm / 1" square )

so I could sew new "star" nine patches together.

some sunny days

The last few days have been really sunny autumn days

with a bright blue sky.

The days were also bright in the events they brought :

...

some good news

...

man's quiet but joyful birthday

with presents for new creativity

...

a very nice and very crowded Stitch'n Bitch coming together

...

the very last stitches on the "Feathered Star"

(only the sleeve on the back is still missing)

...

and the follow-up on the stitching plan for a big cloth

I'm using up the little already folded squares,

that were planned for something completely different

that never got any further than pinning them on this piece of plastic.

I'm first making nine patches,

which I think look like stars,

then add bigger squares in between

I want to use them on the red brown ikat fabric

on which I stitched the big moon.

( but that big cloth needs some REAL good thinking

about how to continue ... )

mandala wednesday

The second mandala with the "Tzolkin"

as inspiration.

12 October 2011

is day 6 in the wave of the Blue hand

and the seal of Yellow man.

( For me this October day 

was also about

breast cancer awareness )

Themes were

openness and transformation

balance and equality

and

the power of free choice

I also had a lovely day with my dear friend M

( she's doing fine )

moon

Full moon today

or rather tonight, though there is nothing to be seen here

because a thick layer of clouds is hiding it all !

What a pity.

That's why I thought today was an appropriate time

do to some moon stitching.

A very light "colour blanket" done all by hand

( as I do most pieces lately, thanks to Jude )

This will be the moon in the new cloth I wanted to start

for some time now, and finally did.

Just checking if there was enough "moon" already

 with a pizza form

( great template for felting too ) 

and then cutting it out.

The next step will be to "needle turn" it

on the beautiful red brown heavy cotton ikat fabric

When I saw this fabric I immediately thought of a big cloth

 I will baste on the moon first and wait a bit with other stitches

... just looking and thinking what will come next ...

a day well spent

Sometimes days are rushing by

 no matter how lazy or busy you are.

But yesterday I can tell you, was a day spent well

amongst some lovely people

a lot of wool, soap and warm water

We felted a pair of slippers

( yes : "winter" is coming nearer )

... laying out fibres, you see that lovely blue ... ?

that turned out to be a disaster : would not felt at all !!!

Luckily it could be peeled of

and another layer of the "right stuff" was added.

In the end all was well, only not the intended colour ...

I tried some spirals, a bit like my Kaffe Fassett clutch

( I made them "inside out" )

After a lovely creative day we went home late, but happy

each one with a fine pair of slippers.

Today I finished the last bit of rolling,

throwing and kneading,

washed out the soap and rinsed them in vinegar

Winter : here I come !



painting on windows

Yesterday and today I was painting.

Not on paper, not on a canvas

but

on a window !

When I worked as a schoolteacher

in Primary School with the youngest children

I often made illustrations to a theme we were working on,

on the classroom windows.

After some time they were removed

and replaced with something else.

For me that was great fun, because I like to draw

and the children liked it as well.

Later, some collegues asked if I could also do that for them.

I was "happy" when they decided to leave the drawings

for the entire year, or even longer.

Now that I'm retired

( and having so much of my own to do on my hands )

I'm no longer asked and that's fine with me.

Untill recently,

I was asked to paint again something on the windows ...

I have kept a lot of full size drawings

for "you never know when"

One was picked and I started yesterday

( by taping it on the outside : that's easier than sketching all over again ! )

This morning ( while it was raining, HA ) I could start inside ...

... and was done before lunch !

( teacher and children satisfied, ... one more to go ... later )

( The one I did next to the front door two years ago
is still okay : no sun comes there ...)

( p.s. : my Fiberrainbow - heart for Mo'a is on it's way to the USA )

we have a winner ....

Yes !

Late last night I wrote all the names that

answered before midnight October 2nd on little cards

and this morning I let my RNG

in the form of an origami die, decide for all of you ...

and the winner is :

Mo'a

( sorry for all the others ... next time better ! )

Please Mo'a send me an e-mail with your address

and this little fiberrainbow-heart will fly over to you !

*

In all the hurry of stitching my giveaway I totally forgot

to post about my wonderful swap !

Some time ago I suggested a swop with my dear blogging friend Sus

and she agreed to that :

one of my mandalas against one of her daily drawings.

She got my "Snake" ( on black paper ) and I safely got her

  "Snow goggles"

I'm very glad it worked out well !