Indigo Heaven

Over the past few days I have had plenty of time to stitch and I have been working on a boro style table runner.

I gathered a selection of indigo and woad dyed pieces of fabric, including new and vintage, dyed by me and by others and the lovely kantha designs on woad dyed fabric from Angela Daymond.

I also bought this lovely book to enjoy when my fingers got sore from stitching.  Some of those fabrics are pretty tough.

The backing of the runner is a lightweight yukata fabric bought in Japan and the "wadding" is simple cotton.

This is half of the runner.  I am stitching as the mood takes me or the fabric directs me, using an Italian 100% cotton perlé thread that I found in a charity shop.  Often I find I have stitched in a similar way to the shibori stitching that would have been used to create the dye resist patterns.

And on the blue and white theme, I found this beautiful feather from a Jay in the garden.

I'm feeling blue, in a good way.

As Promised...

... here are pictures of what was in my parcel from Japan. Three silk haori, all with shibori dyeing. The turquoise one was listed as being "mis-dyed" and I suppose that's what the odd coloured patches are. I bought it thinking I could at least use most of the fabric but I love it as it is, the blotches are part of its story, and will keep it whole and wear it. 

I must get some better hangers for showing off my Japanese garments. Secondly, a lovely summery shade but with a chrysanthemum design.

Finally, a lovely black haori with shibori and a little goldwork embroidery. 

Several blogs I follow are showing off red at the moment, here are my contributions:

http://onesmallstitch.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/more-red/

http://blueandwhitetokyo.com/2014/05/30/and-something-red/

I've Got Mail

An exciting package arrived from Ichiroya in Japan. Proper photos of these three haori will follow. 

Keep warm and dry - where did the sunshine go?

An Almost Finish and Blue Books

I haven't quite finished it - just the binding and label to do - but I wanted to show you the small quilt I made with the pieces of fabric I dyed in indigo at Fenland Textile Studio last weekend.  I don't like having piles of sample pieces around, I would rather make something with them and so I stitched them together and then hand quilted them.  Angela showed us a quilt she had made which was my inspiration, although hers was properly planned and executed and she used a stunning red fabric to contrast with the indigo.  I kept to the blues and used the lace I dyed, plus threads and buttons I dyed to add to the textures.

I'm nursing a sore throat this week but it's okay because I have a good book on the go and these arrived this morning so I won't be laid up with nothing to read. 

I'm currently reading "Footprints in the Snow" by Kenjiro Tokutomi and last night read this lovely paragraph that took me back to the teaching and ethos of life at the Best Exotic Indigo Hotel:

"Then there were the silkworms.  When I came to stay they had just finished with the summer batch.  The droppings had been collected for manure, the remains of the mulberry branches they had been feeding on swept up and tied into bundles for firewood, and the egg-cards for the second hatching hung from the ceiling in an airy room in the house; all day long you could hear the creaking of the reeling-machine in the newly built silkworm shed."

No silkworms here but I do have these wonderful pure white gladioli :-)

Wishing you a good weekend.  It's very autumnal here, it was a chilly 5C last night apparently, brr, time to get out the woolly socks I think.

Blue Sky, Blue Dye

What a wonderful day I had yesterday, in the Lincolnshire countryside, in the sunshine, in the indigo vat.  Wow, as soon as I caught the aroma of the vat I was transported right back to Japan, to dipping in the vat with my Indigo Sisters.
I was fortunate to get a last minute place on Angela Daymond's Indigo Blues workshop at her Fenland Textile Studio near Spalding.  Situated in old farm buildings at Unique Cottage Studios it was an inspiring place to be.  Coincidentally, there was an exhibition of student work on during the afternoon and so we were joined by many people, some of whom sneaked a dip in the vat and were inspired to sign up for workshops.

The main focus of Angela's workshop was to enable us to have the confidence to make our own indigo vats, using a very straightforward recipe.  Once the vats were ready we got quite carried away with dyeing cloth, lace, wool and with trying various folding and tying, "shibori" resist techniques (Angela teaches a specific workshop on that).  Our dyeing dried quickly in the September sunshine (it was 27C at lunchtime) and don't they look wonderful against that old brick wall?

We also experimented with dyeing non-fabric items, I was pleased with the success I had with buttons and shells:

At the end of the day we had time to look at the exhibition, a lovely collection of textiles, ceramics and glass.

And can you see that little bowl on the left of the picture above?  I couldn't resist it, it looked quite Japanese to me and being blue and white it was a lovely item to bring home from the day.

I also brought home my very own mini indigo vat -and yes, Angela, it survived the journey home :-)  This was a great idea of Angela's, to send us home with a way to continue indigo dyeing easily and to give us all the information we needed to rejuvenate our vat as required.  It may not be an enormous Japanese indigo vat, in a stunning ceramic jar, or set into the ground, but it does have the same evocative aroma, the same effect and it is rather more manageable in my little cottage in Lincolnshire.

Today I shall sort out and press all the pieces I dyed yesterday and then photograph them and share them with you in a separate post.  In the meantime, have a look at Angela's website and her blog post about yesterday's workshop and make a note that her next Indigo workshop will be on 20th April 2013 - I'd book now if I were you. 

BritQuilt Swap Arrived Today

I had a wonderful parcel in the post today, a quilt from my secret partner in the BritQuilt Swap.  Wow, thank you Ethne, I am absolutely over the moon with the gorgeous quilt you made for me and all the lovely goodies you included in the parcel.  During the swap we have been posting "work in progress" pictures on Flickr and I have to admit to coveting this quilt but I never dared to expect that it would be for me.  When Ethne posted a picture of the quilt all finished I commented,
"This is absolutely gorgeous and I have just the right place for it in my little house, I wish! Beautiful stitching and such a great palette and design, all yummy."

Here is "Tranquillity" already hanging in my house, it's in my guest bedroom which has a Japanese theme so it fits in beautifully.
I've taken some close up pictures so that you can appreciate the wonderful quilting that Ethne has done, in fact DH was with me when I opened the parcel and he immediately exclaimed, "Now that's what you call quilting".  Ethne has painted with the thread to create wonderful texture and movement in the picture, clever girl.

 Here's the lovely label that Ethne printed for the quilt:

Here are the extras that Ethne so kindly included with the quilt, chocolate, mmmm gorgeous (but DH saw it in the parcel so I will have to share) and these wonderful fabrics that she dyed including the shibori piece.  I am planning to do something very special with that.

I am delighted with my side of this swap and I've just read on Judith's blog that she has received the quilt I made for her and is also pleased, phew!  Many thanks to all the organisers.  If you're a Brit quilter why not join the Flickr group now and be ready for the next swap?  Thanks to Teresa for getting me into this.  Have a great weekend everybody.

An Exciting Day

Today has been an exciting day.  Firstly I saw this:

Yes, it's a baby camel enjoying a drink from her/his mum.  We have an over-wintering circus near us and these are some of their animals.  Cute eh?
Then I had two lovely arrivals in the post.  A parcel I was expecting, which was this gorgeous selection of indigo-dyed fabrics from Glennis at Shibori Girl
To quote from her site the packs contain

a selection of indigo dyed fabric fragments - bits and pieces of vintage and collected textiles. These pieces range in colour from light to dark, cotton to silk, solids to shibori. No two collections are identical although some may be similar. Current collections include some solids, shibori bits include itajime,bomaki,arashi, and indigo derangements. Fabrics include cotton, linen, various silks, chenille, jacquards and more
Fabric sizes range (approximately) from 3" to 24"

Doesn't it look an inspirational mix of fabrics?
The other parcel was a complete surprise.  I entered the 200th issue of Patchwork and Quilting magazine giveaway competition and today received a signed copy of -

so that's my reading sorted out for this evening.  Although it is an introductory book a quick flip through revealed some interesting tips.  I think there's always more to learn anyway.
I've been working on a quilt for my daughter, Sara, today.  It's been quite a well dragged-out project but she has told me she'll be re-decorating her sitting room to match it in the very near future...  Just as well it's been so cold today, just ideal for sitting by the fire and stitching.  What have you been working on?

Festival of Quilts 2010 - Quilts to Inspire and Delight

These are some of the quilts I admired at Festival of Quilts last week.  I have taken the notes from the Twisted Thread Catalogue of Competition Entries.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did and I congratulate all the entrants for their wonderful and inspiring work.

This is "A Moment In Time" by Sue Rhodes of Heathfield, The fabric was hand dyed and screen printed cotton sateen, pieced bargello-style, with machine trapunto and free machine quilting.  A sea-lily falls onto an ancient sea bed, breaks, and becomes enclosed forever, trapped within fossilised bands of rock strata.

Below is "The Snow"  by Sue Hunt of Solihull, and a detail of the quilt,  Hand printed, pieced, hand and machine quilted.  I took photographs of my garden in the snow, also Edward Elgar's piece "The Snow" words by Alice Cooper.

Next I admired the Winner of the Quilters' Guild Challenge the theme of which was "Summer In The City".  This is by Cherry Vernon-Harcourt of Saffron Walden, A whole cloth quilt, Procion dyed fabric.  Screen printed and scraped with discharge paste and procion dye.  City coastal lands are the inspiration for this quilt.

Birgitta Debenham of Dorchester appealed to my love of Japanese textile style with this wonderful piece, "Seven Stars", Whole cloth shibori: stitched resist, pole warpped and painted with metallic fabric paint, machine quilted.  Applied beads and pailettes.  Cotton/polyester batting.

Detail of "Seven Stars":

Coats Crafts sponsored a showcase of quilt "Diversity in Europe" and I liked this piece by Svava K Egilsson of Iceland called "Magic-Bridge".

 

My next quilt to share is rather an unusual choice for me but I thought it was wonderful in detail, softness and concept.  It is Jennifer Hollingdale's "Button Up", linens and cotton shirting, recycled pieces of clothing, vintage button cards, buttons and tape - scree printed images of buttons, cut-up, reassembled, machine pieced, hand quilted and applied, buttoned together using rouleaux loops, 118 x 118 cm.

Here is a little closer look:

Finally, a quilt that was of special interest and a particular source of inspiration for me as I will be visiting Marrakech later this year. If only I am able to create something as wonderful as Pauline Barnes of Sutton Coldfield's "Marrakech", Hand dyed fabric, Thermolam, various fabric incl. sheers, matallics, silk etc.  Print, apint; applique, quilting, and stitching all by machine.  The buildings are covered - inside and out - with tiles, plaster work, filigree, mosaics.  An abstract look at this 'busy' architecture.