More dyeing

I managed to do Lesson 2 of the Cotton Dyeing Basics class today - this one was about making secondary colours (green, orange and purple) and making mottled instead of solid fabrics. It turned out very well:



Green and purple are my favourite colours, so I'm very happy with these half yard pieces!

This Sunday we are going on holiday - camping at this site - so I probably won't be doing anymore dyeing this weekend. We'll be back next Saturday; maybe I can do some dyeing on Sunday.
I'm going to take my sketchbook and am sure I will find some inspiration for the 'stellar' quilt for ATWI20Q in the night sky while we're camping!

Birthday

Last Thursday, the 18th, was my birthday. As you may remember, I belong to a birthday block list in The Netherlands. I had asked for blocks for a playquilt for the boys, with houses, trees, boats etc. Unfortunately mail at the moment takes a very long time to arrive here (if it does arrive, that is) and so far I have only received 6 envelopes out of 12. The blocks that I got are very nice though:



I also belong to 2 Australian FQ lists. I asked for black and white fabrics on one list and for Japanese fabrics and Australiana on the other list (on that list you get 2 FQs). I did not receive all of these yet either, so the problem seems to be with Australia post...

Here are the black and white fabrics (8 out of 12 so far):



And here are the Japanese and Australian fabrics (5 out of 11 so far):




Today I received a fiber postcard from Marloes:



She is a fellow member of Around the world in 20 quilts and made this card with materials from the tree quilt. Thanks Marloes, it's lovely!

And last but not least, I finally got my Procion dyes last week and on Sunday, while DH minded the boys, I did the first lesson of the Cotton Dyeing Basics class. This lesson is about making solid colours. I felt like a witch brewing potions when I was stirring the dark liquids in the buckets! It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun, and my first samples turned out quite nicely:




The red is a bit pale, but the blue and yellow turned out very well (the yellow looks like lime here but really is yellow IRL!). The pale purple fabric is made with the leftover dyes and the multicoloured one is dipped into all of the dyes.

Cyber Fyber Postcard

Yesterday I received this postcard from Susan Lenz. In March I had traded an ATC with her as part of the Cyber Fyber Exhibition, now I joined Round 2 of the Postcard swap. I sent her this postcard (she had commented on my posting about the Australia-postcards, saying she liked them, so I made another one for her):

No show

I had thought I would be able to show you some of my first dyeing attempts today, but unfortunately I can't show anything, as I still haven't got any dyes! I ordered some online on September 1st, but at the wrong place... Twelve days later I still haven't received anything. (the order is now cancelled and I have reordered at another, more trustworthy place)

I am very disappointed (to put it very very mildly), because today the second lesson of my dyeing course is online and I still can't do anything :-(.

To end on a happier note, I did receive some more silk scarves (from another online store, obviously) and hope to do some more fabric painting tomorrow.

And because a posting without pictures is boring, here are some photos I took in the last few weeks, in New Farm Park and the Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens. Nature can be so inspiring!

Silk scarf and painted postcards

Remember the Playing with Paint class I did at Quilt University (QU)? It's finished now and the last thing we did was paint a silk scarf. I really enjoyed doing that and am very pleased with the result:



I scrunch-painted this scarf with pink Dye-Na-Flow paint first, then again with purple Setacolor. Then used a gold Paintstick to stencil the butterflies on it and traced the outlines with a gold gelpen.

I also made some postcards from painted fabric:



DH really liked the card with the butterfly, so we gave it to him today for Father's Day. The dinosaur card is for my oldest son, Hugo, on his next birthday - he loves dinosaurs. The other cards are for friends.

Hugo (he's 5 years old) painted this piece of fabric:



I think it looks very good and will make a postcard out of it as well.

I have now signed up for the Cotton Dyeing Basics class at QU, with Marjie McWilliams. Haven't got the dyes yet, but am looking forward to dying my own fabric!

Award

I have received an 'I Love Your Blog' award from Bethel of Bethania!
Thanks Bethel, I really appreciate it! I'm thrilled that you enjoy looking at my blog.

Here are the guidelines...
1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Link to the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate seven blogs you love to read
4. Link to those blogs
5. Let those bloggers know with a comment that they've been nominated.

Well... there are more than 70 blogs that I try to read and it's hard to choose only 7. I will not nominate the blogs of some famous quilters like Jenny Bowker and Lisa Walton, although I love to read them, as I know they are far too busy for this sort of thing.

I hope these 7 bloggers (in no particular order) are not:

1. Margeeth at Margeeth's quilt-blog - her blog was one of the first I followed.
2. Corryna at Corryna's blog - We 'met' in cyberspace years ago at a babyforum and a few months ago I discovered her quilting blog. Now she's a fellow member of ATWI20Q.
3. Kieny at The Dutchlady. I found her blog a while ago by accident. She actually is my aunt, although we have never met IRL... (long story, don't ask!)
4. Helen at From down the well, and her alter-ego Queen Helen at Quiltland Chronicle, for her well-written and thoroughly enjoyable postings.
5. Marjon at Marjon's Quilts (in Dutch, but with photos of beautiful quilts) - I only recently discovered this blog, but so far I like it very much!
6. Jill at Remote Ramblings -although she does not post very often, I love to read the stories about her life and work in a very remote part of Queensland.
7. Nicole at Nicole's Needles - she is an Aussie in Berlin, I am a Dutchie in Oz, and although we have never met I feel quite connected to her!

I hope you will enjoy taking a look at the blogs I have nominated, and for the nominees; I hope you will select some blogs you love - a good way to discover some new ones!

Around the world in 18 quilts

My online art quilt group, Around the world in 20 quilts, just finished its first challenge: Trees. Unfortunately this time there are only 18 quilts, as 2 members dropped out just before the deadline, but we have found 2 new members, so hopefully there will be 20 next time, on November 30th.
Do check out the gorgeous tree quilts on our blog!