Easter week

I haven't really done much sewing this last week - and considering I've been on leave you might think I was rather disappointed with that. But I've had a really nice week. And that's in spite of the weather. It's gone from one extreme (as you can see from Flo in the snow at 6.30 on Good Friday) to glorious sunshine. I've pottered about at home and tided up and thrown lots out, started my book alteration project for my class with Bren, been to the Bramble Patch ( see to our class exhibition) and gone to the gym to lots of classes. And we even managed to get lots of those jobs done that you never seem to get round too - like taking the books to the charity shop.

Did any of you go to the Bramble Patch exhibition? I went with a friend from our quilting group - she was very impressed with the variety of the work and I thought the Bramble Patch did a great job displaying all of the work.

Next Sunday I'm off to Trentham - to see what our quilts look like - I think as a group we've entered about 7. Please let me know if you;re going on the Sunday. It's a good show - not too large and plenty of places (across the car park) to have lunch.

I hope you've all had a good week.

Dyeing results...

As promised here are the results of my dyeing class at the Bramble Patch. I felt very unprepared for the class - entirely my own fault as I'd been away with work quite frequently between classes. However - considering how unprepared I was I'm really pleased with the results. I', also looking forward to over dyeing them in the next class and screen printing too (you know how I love screen printing).

I've also had my letter from Malvern to confirm 'The Water Tower' is entered for the exhibition. I've no idea how it will compare with other entries - so we'll just have to wait and see in May.

So here are my results... (lots of photos)

Microwave dyed - calico. Just placed in the bag.

Microwave dyed calico - folded and placed in the bag.

Microwave dyed manufactured white cotton - and no it's not a dish cloth...

Microwave dyed manufactured white cotton - folded.

Tray dyed - scrunched cotton.

Tray dyed - silk noile.

Microwave dyed - silk dupion.

Microwave dyed - silk noile. This was folded and placed in the bag.

Tray dyed calico- the Chelsea bun style of dying.

Tray dyed calico- folded in the tray.

Poly bag dyed - pinched in the centre and placed in the bag - a more subtle result than the other methods.

Poly bag dyed - white manufactured cotton - close up below.

Poly bag dyed - calico folded into strips and then rolled.

My conclusions about the different methods and fabrics are:

• Silk fabrics take the dyes really well.
• Calico (a good quality) works well.
• Poly bag dying produces subtle results.
• Microwave dyeing is quick and produces intense colours
• Tray dyeing allows you to control the dye placement and allows you to dye larger pieces of fabric.

I'd love to hear if any of you have tried dyeing fabrics and if you feel my conclusion are the same as yours.

Hope you've all had a great Easter.

Dyeing to tell you all about...

What a great day we all had yesterday at The Bramble Patch in Brenda's class.

So - here we are - lots of photos.

The first one is tray dying - with the calico twisted like a Chelsea bun.

And here is my poly bag dyeing - this is still sitting around. I'm going to leave it for a week.

And this tray had a variety of items, calico, scrunched cotton and silk cocoons. Most of the fabric was folded.

At least, for part of the morning, it was dry enough to dry outside. As usual we all got very different results.

The microwave dyeing was fantastic. Very quick and bright. On the left the silk dupion was scrunched up and then a thread wrapped around it. The silk noile was folded and stitched. The colours are just great.

Here are some of the tray dyeing bits, wrung out and waiting to go home to dry.

These are another set of microwave dyed fabric. I used some manufactured fabric here - white with a white image on them so the dye would take differently.
I've still got to iron these and finish off the poly bag dyeing - so the next post I promise will include more photos of the finished fabric.

Easter Exhibition

Hi. As you can all see I've added an item to the right hand side of my blog. It the exhibition our Saturday class at The Bramble Patch. It would be great if any of you could pop along and see our work. For those who can't I'll take photos and post them after the event. There is a small entry fee (I think it's £2.00) which goes to charity.
I'll be posting again after my class on Saturday.

BQL March bag challenge

Guess what I've been doing this weekend?

Almost March already

I managed to finish work in London a little early on Monday and went along to the V&A. I wanted to have a look at their Japanese things - as you can see from the photo they have a really good collection.

And just look at this in the main foyer - wow. It's huge. And amazing to see.

On Tuesday evening I dragged a colleague along to Liberty's. I just love that shop. I treated myself to a couple of bars of posh soap - they smell great. We treated ourselves to a cup of tea in the cafe - tea leaves and a mini tea strainer. It was lovely. The only problem I had was I fell up the stairs at Oxford Circus - I've now got a great collection of bruises of varying colours.

My class at the Bramble Patch went really well and it was great to see what everyone had been up to. They have a new range on fabric in called 'In the beginning'. It's really different to any others I've seen - very contemporary. Please do take a moment to have a look at the collections Floragraphix 1 and Cho Cho no Sanpomichi.

I bought a bag pattern from the shop that uses one of these fabrics. I promise I'll post a photo of it when it's made.
I finished and bound my piece for the Easter exhibition. It managed to shrink by 2 inches so it's only 50 inches long and not 52 as it should be. I've also sent my entry form for Malvern for the same piece - so some of you will see it in the flesh.

Well I plan to have an easy weekend and do lots of sewing - hopefully my BQL March bag too.

Have a good weekend.

BQL February bag challenge

Hello to you BQL people out there - I know you've been sneaking a peak. Hope you're all well and can see I've joined into the spirit of the BQL bag challenge and completed the February one and I've been a good girl and I've posted my photo in the album. I'm looking forward to the March one now.

As you can see I've been concentrating on this bag this week - so I haven't done much else apart from my creative thing each day (and sometimes that's been the bag). I am know in our group as a bit of a bag lady - in a nice way (I hope).

Tomorrow I'm off to the Bramble Patch for another class with Brenda - I've got to crack on and sort out my binding for my exhibition piece for their Easter show and I've also got to decide whether to enter it for Malvern.

I'll leave it there for now. Hope you all have a great weekend.

What I'm up to...

For those of you who are a member of the BQL Yahoo group you'll be able to see the component parts of the February Bag Challenge. I've only recently got back into the habit of looking at this site so I completely missed the bag challenge. However Kandy has very kindly let me join, but I need to pull my finger out and get this completed. I think I've done most of the hard bits now and the rest 'looks' quite straightforward.

I also need to get ready this week for my class at The Bramble Patch on Saturday. If any of you are going to be there do let me know and I'm sure the rest of the class would be more than happy for you to have a look at what we're up to.

Had a worrying Friday evening as Flo disappeared. Neither of us had seen her all day. So I kept going out in the evening each hour - shaking the cat biscuit box outside - it was really cold. I knew I'd end up having to walk up and down the street shouting her at some point.

Well - when I did there was this very loud MEOWWWWWW from a garage over the road. Luckily there were in and I hope she's learnt her lesson now. She's too curious for her own good.

Have a good week.

Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung here. This weekend the weather has been amazing - bright and sunny. And the plants are starting to get going now. As you'll see in the next few photos, narcisii, snowdrop (next to Buddha) and a crocus. They're looking a bit lonely at the mo but I'm sure lots of other things will start appearing very soon.

And here are some of my attempts at the creativity thing. The idea is that you change the scale of the shapes you've cut out and see how they work in a realtionship. As DH often says I'm so happy with some pictures, a glue stick and a sketchbook.

And finally here is another little look at part of my Bosworth Water Tower piece. I think I've finished the quilting now - but I might change my mind at the next class... LOL

I've alos sent in my entry form for Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent - so has the rest of the group. So now we're all committed - if you know what I mean.

Hope you've all had a great weekend. Hopefully England are winning at Rugby and then we're off to the pub for a coffee.

PS -please excuse my spelling - the spellchecker on Blogger seems to have given up. Is anyone else having the same problem?

It's February already

I can't believe it's February already - it only seems that it was Christmas and the New Year last week. Must be a sign of old age.

I had a lovely day yesterday - another day quilting in the village hall with other members of the Market Bosworth Quilters. Not many of us - more qulaity than quantity LOL.

I think I've just about finished my piece for Brenda's class - all the quilting is done - just the binding now and perhaps a bit or surface embellishement. Oh and I mustn't forget the hanging sleeve.

As you can see from the photo above I'll be starting another quilt soon - rather pink I think you'll notice. I promise to keep you posted on the progress of this one.

And just a few photos of Flo looking cute and sleepy. I get on with her fine but her and DH do seem to have a few issues - she bites him...

Hope you've all had a good weekend.

I'm off to have my dinner and then spend a lazy night quilting.

Photos at last

Sorry for the last lot of photoless postings - I think a photo really helps on blogs.

So here are my latest magazines - Selvedge:

And this morning my new Quilting Arts magazine arrived - I can't wait to sit down after dinner and have a good look at it:
I also bought some fabric - here's a little bundle:
I did buy a pile from the sale at Kisko - but it needs washing and ironing still - so I'll let you see that in dribs and drabs.

And now the class from last week:
Some of you may recognise these two. Part of the class was for us to critique an artists work - and here are two of our class doing a Ant and Dec style presentation.

I also took my work in for some constructive comments - I already had an idea what I needed to do - but it's reassuring when others agree. So it was a very quick bit of screen printing -

in brown:
And black.

When I got the pieces if calico back home I tea dyed them, cut them up and added them to the final piece.

And here we are - with the words tacked on.

I'm much happier with the result now. There's still quite a bit of work to do - but I can see the end in sight. I'm just pulling together all my entry forms tonight to see about deadlines and exhibition dates. Yes I know - I'm a control freak...

I hope you've noticed I'm doing quite well (so far) with doing something towards my creativity everyday. How are you all getting on?

Hope you all have a nice weekend.