Landscape Series

 These fabric landscapes were made as a wedding gift and the theme was burnt orange. It was my first commission (embarrassed blush). I think I am still rather overwhelmed by the fact that people like and want my work hanging on their walls.

The bridal couple own a lodge on the northern coast of Mozambique (I think) and are passionate about the Mozambique coast hence the inspiration was the Mozambique coast. Fortunately I have been to Mozambique twice on holiday now so had many photos to work from.

All the fabric in this photo were hand dyed by me - my first forays into the wonderful world of dyeing my own fabric

In the third photo I used a combination of my own dyed fabric with some Shweshwe (the bright orange) and some other hand dyed fabric I have.

Red and Indigo Shweshwe Rag Quilt

Rag quilts are fast becoming one of my favorite quilt designs. I love their soft and cuddly look..... I had some log cabin blocks left over from from a log cabin quilt that I am trying to finish. This is the result... I love it....

Fabric Dyeing again

As I have mentioned before, fabric dyeing is a wonderful excursion into the world of semi-unpredictable creativity. Well, maybe it shouldn't be so unpredictable but it is such fun. I needed some backing fabric to finish off a couple of quilts. Mmmm, when do I find the time to rush off to the shop to buy some backing fabric...wait a moment, I can dye some fabric. Here are the results...

Dark plum fabric for the back of a purple Trip Round the World quilt was first up on the to do list. I had a sample of premixed purple dye. So.... on with the dyeing process.....One thing I learnt is that if you don't mix dye powder properly you get spots of the primary colours that are used to make up the secondary colour - not necessarily a bad thing. The results are a bit like snow dyeing- I love the results.

 

The next photo shows the blue fabric I dyed. I needed backing for one of my stash busting cot quilts so.. I started with a medium blue and then decided that it was too light so I over-dyed it with a navy blue. This piece of fabric will now serve 2 purposes....backing for the cot quilt as well as a stormy sky for a fabric landscape that was commissioned - that is another story for another day

The last photo is an attempt at dyeing a piece of burnt orange fabric  - not a success. It came out too brown. I used 4 parts yellow dye, 4 parts red dye and 1 part black dye powder. Any ideas on how to improve the colour?

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Stash Busting

It's stash busting time!!! I had some fabric left over from when I made a blue cot quilt for a friend... So.. I have put together 2 cot quilt tops from this fabric. The question now is... do I hand dye some backing fabric using Low Immersion Water Dyeing and hope I match the colours or do I go and buy some commercially printed fabric for the backing fabric? Any ideas?

Beginnings of the fruit study

I have spoken before of my attempts at completing the City and Guilds quilting course. Well, it is taking longer than expected......One of the exercises I had to do was to do a fruit study - first paint a fruit with acrylic paint and then take interpret it using fabric. Well, my painting was a total disaster so I found a photo that my painting was supposed look like and used it as a base for my fabric interpretation. The recommendation was to fray the fabric squares - to make them look softer. What I found is that fraying the fabric also changes the perceived colour of the squares. Obviously the colour did not really change but still.... it was a fascinating experience. I look forward to more challenges along a similar vein.