eco - printing

Almost ten years ago
I did a felting workshop with the Australian felter
Pam de Groot
combined with eco-printing.
I loved Pam's work and didn't think too much
about the eco-printing.
It turned into a real flop, a failure
and it took quite some time
before I finished the little waistcoat I made there.
Later I tried on my own
but never had any great success with eco-printing.

Until this Stitch Club workshop of
Caroline Nixon
came along !

Wonderful thorough explanations
in her long video !
A LOT of preparations were needed before I could start.


preparing the second bundle
(with the first I was too busy to take pictures hahaha)


A big old pot from the thrift store

Unwrapping the first bundle later that night,
picture with and without leaves.

And the second one,

on two long strips next to each other.

Still wet (so darker) but definitely :
PRINTS !!!

When washed and dry
there will be some stitching on them !!!


But before I had time for that
there was first another bird to finish :
my colourful Jay !
I love that shy bird that visits the peanut garland
in our garden.
(and surprises us with new little oak trees
of forgotten acorns !)

(a little bit brighter, but why not !)

first month, last day

Ohhhhh yes :
time flies

Another month in lockdown
though daughter visits from time to time
(a good bait is the sauna we have in our home !)
She also took her latest knitting project with her :

A top-down jumper,
the main colour and the extra colours in the yoke
were specially dyed for her by a friend
(I limit it to just knitting socks nowadays !)

But today we were also counting birds
with help of the youngest grandson.
Fresh seed in the birdfeeder might have helped a bit :
there were lots of birds to count !!!

(and later, while mum was in the sauna,
we played some games too)

*

I realized that I totally forgot the fun object I made
for Richard McVetis' workshop,
not from a picture this time but from my own scribble.
I made three different ones 10 x 10 cm.

three pieces nearly finished

finished

Richard made cubes of woolen fabric that he embroidered,

but for a cube you need 6 squares
and I only had three
(and didn't want to make three more)
So
another hexahedron for me
a double three sided pyramid
like the ones I made out of paper
(like those by the Dong people in China)

The finished end result !

The upcoming STITCH CLUB workshop

is eco printing, by Caroline Nixon.
I hope this time I get some results with this technique that I like 
. . .

kantha with other bits

We have stormy days here.

Yesterday
(on this hopeful day in the US)
we had a birthday boy with hugs from far away,
today a dear friend's birthday, also with hugs from far away :
that's the way birthdays are right now !

After the kantha design was stitched
Stewart gave the new suggestion to also use bits of fabric.

So the first (discarded) design I now used for that.
Reds and pinks, why not


The bit of red silk was "secured"
with interfacing ironed on against fraying !

The original sketch

After this one I still thought that the other sketch
was better suited for it
so e new cut out and more bits of fabric

Bigger bits of fabric and different stitches used too.

It was fun to do in the end
but not really "my cup of tea"

kantha

January began with a Stitch Club workshop
of Stewart Kelly
From a drawing on A3 we took a part
selected by a viewfinder (11 x 11 cm)
Then that piece was transferred to cotton.
The lines of it and certain areas
were stitched in Kantha style. 

After some days there was the suggestion
to flip or mirror the design

to make an even bigger pattern.
Many did that on the computer/tablet/phone
but I decided to place my first part in such a way
that I could "flip it over" three-way
and stitch the whole pattern.

detail


There was even a follow up with bits of fabric
with the same and another design

birds

Ten days into the new "better, healthier" year
and no sign of relaxation of the Corona (Covid) measures
pffffft . . . so be it.

In the Stitch Club
we just go on stitching !

Mandy Pattullo's "bird-workshop" was loved by many !
In my head is still a to-do-list
of more birds.
(and I will be counting birds in the garden
for the national bird-count, two weekends from now !)

But there were two more birds already,
one of them my all time favorite wish-bird :
the kingfisher !
Years ago, when we just moved to this place,
I saw a bright blue flash on the other side of the water
that runs along our garden :
that could only mean one thing, a kingfisher.
(usually not a bird that's often seen here in the west,
more so in the east of our country near streams with high sandy banks)

On internet are lots and lots of wonderful pictures of birds,
easy enough to get a good look at them.
for this one I used a bigger size background than the robin(s)
and the crested tit,
20 x 30 cm (+seams)

sketches from photographs

Adding some lace and tulle to the background

Then came the fiddly bit of stitching
all the tiny snippets in place.

I took some good pictures in our garden !

So . . .
there will be more birds in the future

:-D

Another robin was already made !

1 - 1 - '21

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR !

 The first day of a fresh new year !
(may 2021 bring a lot better days that the strange 2020 !)

It was a very quiet New Year's Eve :
just the two of us (lockdown)
and almost no fireworks
(hoping for less casualties in the already overfilled hospitals)
and little to eat and drink
(because of stomach ache)

But to celebrate this fresh start
I post the last thing I stitched in 2020 :
another bird for Mandy Pattullo's workshop.

a crested tit

This is not a bird that we'll see in our garden
he belongs in more wooded areas.
But one summer holiday (some years back)
he visited the garden of the holiday house we then stayed

I first made a background
piecing random bits together, like Jude taught us,
and I only used the backside of the fabric
for more subdued colours.
(the pictures are bad because it was already rather dark when I took them)

working with little snippets
with another picture for guidance.

Planning more . . .