Indigo Dyeing

i have started doing experiments with natural dyes. I decided to use natural indigo and the 123 method of preparing a vat. I prepared a mini vat in a large bottle and dyed cotton pieces, silk pieces, watercolour paper and cotton threads. I was really happy with the result as I have not prepared this type of vat before.

I took a photo of my results using the various fibres.  I plan to use the pieces to make a Dye Journal and to do some boro type stitching.

cheers

Rebecca

St Paul's Quilt Show Ipswich Qld

I was very happy to be invited to display my contemporary and art quilts at the St Paul's Anglican Church Quilt Show in Ipswich Qld.

I chose quilts inspired by workshops with Nancy Crow, Gwen Marston and City and Guilds Assessment Pieces.  I also added art quilts which had been exhibited in New Zealand at various locations in the Wellington region.

Here are a couple of photographs.

The Show is on until Sunday 7 May.

I have had to stop doing the Weekly Art Challenge because I injured my right elbow and have been having physiotherapy on my arm.  It is still painful doing hand sewing and cutting out and I have to keep making sure I do not overuse it.  So may resume later.

cheers  Rebecca

My nine Palm Tree blocks - Weekly Art Project

As promised I took a photograph of all nine of my weekly Palm Trees (representing Weeks 5 to 13 of the Weekly Art Project 2017).  They look colourful together I think.  All improvisionally pieced.

I have not decided how I will present the finished images yet.  Still thinking!!!!

take care
Rebecca

Week 13 Weekly Art Project

Well I now have nine palm tree inspired quilts.  Week 13 of the Weekly Art Project sees me using indigo dyed fabric for the palm tree.

I will take a photo and of the nine palm tree blocks  and post later.

cheers Rebecca

Week 12 Weekly Art Challenge

Rain rain here in Brisbane aftereffects of Cyclone Debbie still more heavy heavy rain to come.
I continued to be inspired this week by my PalmTree so that makes eight on this theme now.
Still using my handprinted background and hand dyed and printed fabric scraps.

Stay safe
Rebecca

Weekly Art Challenge Week 11

Continuing on my theme of interpreting the Palm Tree I have chosen some fabric for the tree that I hand dyed and patterned and was left over from a new small Art Quilt I have made for a challenge called "Earth" in my 3Squared group in New Zealand.  The Reveal is next weekend so I will show the quilt I made after the meet up wish I was going along with my quilt.  I have posted mine this time.

cheers
Rebecca

Week 10 Weekly Art Challenge

I am catching up I am up to Week 10 now.  I used my hand patterned background fabric and a reddish hand dye with some patterning.

I am having a busy week catching up with friends and researching for my Course.  I am interested in natural dyeing too so pulling some material out to start having a further try.  Doing a little sun printing too just for fun.

cheers
Rebecca

Weekly Art Project Week 9

Thank you for the feedback from bloggers and friends on my little palm tree series.  I have decided to keep making versions of the Palm tree for awhile longer.  This is my Week 9 of the Weekly Art Project.

cheers
Rebecca

Weekly Art Project Week 8

Well I have made it Week 8 is based still on my palm tree photo.  I now have four pieces based on this theme all 8in by 8in.

I am wondering if I will continue making more of these or change the theme or approach to the theme.  Something for me to ponder.  I submitted my textile assignment which was all on yarn formation and creation I found it very interesting on Monday to UK.

This one is also based on my hand dyed and patterned fabric (Ironbark Arts with Ali George).  I have not quilted the last two pieces because I am pondering how I want to display them e.g. one quilt; individual pieces - I am not sure!

cheers
Rebecca

Week 7 Art Project 2017

I am still working on my OCA textile assignment but managed to piece another palm tree piece for Week 7.  I have not quilted it yet though!!  My hand dyed orange primatex cotton and hand patterned background.

cheers Rebecca

Week 6 Weekly Art Project 2017

I have decided to do another piece depicting the Palm Tree photograph from last week.  I have slightly changed the piecing and the colour.

cheers Rebecca

Week 5 Weekly Art Project 2017

Wow I had to make time to get to the Week 5 Art Project I found my inspiration last week and took photographs but have been trying to finish a textile assignment and could only finish the Project today.  Here is my inspiration a type of Palm Tree I saw in a park in West Brisbane.

I have decided for Weeks 5 to 8 to do 8 in by 8 in pieces still working on my tree inspiration.
The fabric in my work is my hand dyed and patterned and I have free hand cut the pieces (no paper piecing).

cheers Rebecca

A Year of Stitches 2017

I am also participating in the "A Year of Stitches 2017".  I have been posting my photographs of each week's progress on Instagram but thought I would show you now and then what I am doing.  I am using Ironbark Arts(Ali George and I) Handdyed and patterned fabric in turquoise with a light harem cloth behind.  I decided I wanted mine to be a Stitch Library and so I started with whipped running stitch in Week 1 followed by Arrow Stitch and Feather Stitch (Week 3) and Blanket Stitch (Week 4).

For Week 5 (days 29 to 35) I have done crossed chain stitch see below:

I am finding this fun and just do a row a night which fits in for me.  I have been doing a University Textile Assignment and am a little behind on my Weekly Art Challenge so blog post coming shortly.

take care

Rebecca

Week 4 Weekly Art Project 2017

This week(Week 4 for me) I was inspired by a tree in my Mum and Stepfather's forest garden.

 I liked the thick trunk on the tree.

I made a sketch of the outline of the tree and freehand cut the pieces for the little quilt.

The fabric used is one of Ironbark Arts hand dyed and patterned fabric(Ali and I) and I decided to machine piece and hand stitch the work.  The piece is 9in by 12 inches.

 cheers Rebecca

Weekly Art Project 2017 Week 3

I have finished Week 3 Art Project kindly organised by Brenda Gael Smith and I again based mine on trees.  I used Ironbark Arts (Ali George and my hand dyed and hand printed art fabrics) in the piece which is again 9 inches by 12 inches and I used hand stitching.

Here is my inspiration photo taken whilst I was walking the dog around the Lake near my house.

I machine pieced the small quilt and took a more abstract approach.

Ironbark r

On to next week now.
Rebecca

2017 Finish A Long

Hi I have decided to join the 2017 Finish A Long.

My two part finished quilts are a rail fence I have cut out of a single piece of my hand dyed material.

The second is a partial quilt top I made some time ago in a Nancy Crow workshop in New Zealand.

I am rushing to get these two quilts entered I will return and try to do the blog button.

Rebecca

Weekly Art Project 2017 Week 2

Well I managed to make my Week 2 Project.  It is based on the shape of a bottlebrush tree in our front yard.

I used my hand dyed patterned fabric and free cut and machine pieced.  It took me a while to decide how to quilt the piece but in the end I decided to do free form quilting.  The size is 9 inches by 12inches.

I am writing in my sketchbook my learnings from this Project. One point I have made so far is that the size is probably a little big to maintain on a weekly basis and I will review this aspect after Week 4.

cheers

Rebecca

Weekly Art Project Week One

Brenda Gael Smith has been undertaking a Weekly Art Project for about 16 weeks and she has been encouraging others to join in.  I have decided to join and make a mini quilt each week.  I am planning 9in by 12 inches. In thinking about my first piece I took a photo last week and posted on Instagram (I post as #oceanbluetextiles7)of a very large paperbark tree at the end of my street.

I also put up on my design wall a quilt top that I made in a Nancy Crow Workshop in New Zealand a few years ago and the technique I used also inspired me.

So I went to look in my hand dye scrap pieces (smaller than a quarter yard) and found a green fabric I had dyed and patterned and I also found some rust fabric I had done.  I then worked on my piece with a minimal drawing to guide me.  I am trying to use my sketchbook more!  I used valdani 12 ply to hand quilt the piece. I decided to bind the mini quilt this time but may become adventurous in the future and follow Brenda's tutorial on attaching to an art piece to a canvas.  So here is my first Challenge Piece.

Now to get busy on next week's piece!

Rebecca

Block Printing Paper

I had fun making block printed wrapping paper for Christmas.  I followed the blog post of Laura Kemshall on DesignMatters TV.  I learnt that there is acrylic paint and acrylic paint  - a medium thickness paint seemed to work most easily.  I have done some block printing before but this was really enjoyable so I am planning to continue with this printing technique.  Here is an example of the paper I made.

cheers Rebecca