Friday Flaunt

Quilting Down Under, which is one of the Internet groups I belong to, has a "Friday Flaunt" where members who have blogs post examples of work they have accomplished during the week.

I think I need to flaunt something and this is really the only bit of textile stuff that I have finished all week. This was a challenge for the meeting of the Husqvarna Club last Tuesday - seminole patchwork constructed with an overlocker. I made 2 pieces and used them to border hand towels.


The piece of woollen blanket which I dyed with lavender and an iron cog looks great. It has come out in shades of dark olive green/khaki. I think I may dye another piece or maybe two - I have a couple of blankets in different colours and I would like to see how the lavender takes on them.

Another Tree Trunk

I have been taking photos of tree trunks for years - I just love the textures and the colours.

Yesterday we went to Perth to look at a new laptop computer for Helen. The shop was opposite Russell Square which is bordered with huge ficus trees. I just had to take a photo of this one's tortured limbs.



Today I have been dyeing a woollen blanket with lavender leaves and a large iron cog. It is still sitting in the pot, but looks quite yummy.

WAFTA Naturally and Linda's Workshop

The opening of WAFTA Naturally on Friday night was well patronised. The committee did a great organisational job and the pieces all looked fabulous. Photos are not allowed, except of your own piece, but I might just take a gallery view when I am invigilating on Thursday morning.

Saturday was Designing Women and we had a workshop by Linda on disperse dyeing. It was really good, but I did not accomplish much.

I WAS a trifle distracted - I had volunteered to replace a member who was unable to do her catering stint. I am Treasurer and I was collecting money for the Retreat next month, plus no other member of the Executive was there. The Secretary and President were both ill, while the VP had a family involvement. This meant I needed to chair the meeting as well. It is a miracle I managed to do anything at all! I did, but I haven't taken any pics.

Thanks, Linda! I am in awe of the pieces you have done.

The best laid plans

don't always turn eventuate. I had planned a full-on textile day.

Tomorrow is Husqvarna Club day and I wanted to make an apron - the project from last month. I also planned to get my panel organised for the meeting tomorrow afternoon of those Designing Women who are involved in its construction for the WAFTA exhibition. I was also going to check out some fabrics I have rust dyeing and remove the bits from the pomegranate pot.

I emptied the dye pot, checked the rusty bits and began a search for suitable fabric for the apron.

Then the doorbell rang. We had visitors. The worst of it was that they were actually invited - but both of us had forgotten! So the morning was basically lost, though the gathering was very pleasant. I even had some cake to offer, which is NOT the usual thing in this house.

I managed to make my apron in the afternoon and to partially organise my panel. I rang Juliet to offer her a lift to the meeting and discovered that I had the wrong date. It's next Tuesday. So the pressure is off for that.

But there are a couple of deadlines looming still. My entry for the Melville Art Award is due Friday afternoon. I need to finish a piece for the 40th Anniversary of the Embroiderer's Guild. This has to be handed in on Saturday. I have a dentist's appointment on Wednesday.

I keep telling myself I work best under pressure.

A Day to Dye

It was a lovely sunny day so I got out the necessary bits and did some sun dyeing. This was the most successful piece.


Even the reverse is pretty good.


I decided the bit of fabric that I had sitting in the tray rusting away had probably had enough, so I pulled it out and washed and dried it. I am very pleased with it.

My last effort was to attempt to dye some bits of fabric using pomegranates from the garden. I suspect it will not be very successful. The liquor looks very pale and the fabrics don't seem to have picked up much colour. The splashes of raw juice that I got on my Tshirt as I split the fruits open are quite bright though, so I may try again, this time without cooking the fruits.

And the naysayers won on Saturday, damn it. No daylight saving next summer. Bummer!

Discharge

I have been playing with bleach and two new stamps that I have made on a piece of fabric I dyed with Procion some time ago. The first stamp is a lino cut.



The second stamp is foam mounted on template plastic with double sided carpet tape.



I bought a print roller at the Craft Fair the other weekend. I think I may try this with bleach on the same piece of fabric as well.

This is definitely a play piece - no project in mind as yet.

Dyeing wool

I was given a pile of Earth Palette wool dyes (thanks, Teena) some time ago and finally decided to try them out. The dyes are in a granulated format and have to be mixed with hot water. You then soak the wool (fleece, yarn or fabric) in the dye mix, wrap in plastic for 24 hours or until the liquor you squeeze out of the dyed matter runs clear. Easy.

On Wednesday I mixed up yellow, blue and brilliant red and tried the dyes on some commercial yarns which I wound into skeins. One yarn was pure wool, the other (the one with bobbles) was an unknown fibre or fibre mix. I unwrapped them this morning.


I wanted a space dyed effect so did one batch with blue and red, and one with blue and yellow. I think the latter is more successful. I am not happy with the red - I think it is too pink.

I also think these dyes are not really suitable for spacedyeing. You have to squeeze the dye into the yarn. If you don't, it just sits on top, unlike Procion dyes which move into the material to be dyed. However, if you want to dye just one colour, I think they would work well, and they are certainly very easy to use.

A Productive Day

Yesterday I tidied up the sewing room and put away lots of stuff. Today I have spent the day playing with my 4D software and sewing. Nothing very complicated. I made two foundation pieced Christmas postcards, using a design supplied by Pam at Bestway. I designed the label and stitched it out as the back. I will probably add some crystals to the fronts.



When I was tidying up I found some silk I had dyed. One piece is organza, the other is some kind of slub. The dye has taken up differently on each fabric. The organza is very strong colours, while the slub is more muted.

I have decided to make a scarf using both fabrics. The organza will be the body of the scarf. I have finished the hemming of that. The slub will be made into bagged rectangles to be the end pieces. They will be joined to the organza with Spanish Hemstitching (aka faggotting). I will post a picture when finished.

Fungi no go

The silk didn't work either. The outside is stained a dirty brown, but the colour didn't penetrate at all.

I will attempt to wash out as much of the stain as I can, then this square will go into the pile of fabric bits that I am planning to dye with lavender (which I know will work) or pomegranate fruits (which I hope will work).

And Helen didn't get the unit, so she is very disappointed.

A mostly wasted day

Had to go down to Orelia this morning to take Martin food shopping - he has messed up again and has no money. Then I took him to a doctor's appointment in Nedlands - about 45 minutes by car, an hour and a half plus by bus. He would never have made it if I hadn't. I waited for him and amused myself very well looking at books in the newsagent. Nearly bought one but decided I didn't need it - is this a first?

When I came home I removed the mushroom bits from the pot and boiled up some silk that I wrapped in a doughnut. I also unwrapped the wool I attempted to dye yesterday. Though there is some colour the resist is not very distinct, so I think I can say that these particular mushrooms do not dye wool. Still need to see the results on silk. I will leave it in the pot overnight.

This afternoon we went with Helen to look at a unit in East Fremantle. While it has definitely suffered under its previous bachelor tenants it should clean up OK and it is a much better unit than the previous one she made an attempt to rent. Should be - it is quite a bit more expensive, but Helen is working out an arrangement with her co-tenants that won't cost her much more than her present rent. I hope she gets it.

An attempt at dyeing with fungi

While we were walking at Manning Lake this morning we saw lots of fungi we had never seen before, growing under the huge Rottnest Island pines. Because the colour was so intense I decided to collect some and attempt some dyeing.


For my first effort I broke up the caps and boiled them in an old aluminium stockpot along with a bit of cream coloured blanket.


After three hours the fungi had gone to mush and the blanket had turned a dirty yellow. Not a success. I emptied the pot and boiled up another lot of the caps, this time without fabric. I am planning to drain off the liquor tomorrow and try dyeing some silk in that.