Friday 13 June 2014

A Trip Around The World

This is where I come every other week to my Patchwork group
with the wonderful Jane as our teacher and problem solver.
It is a collection of old barns which has been turned into
a collection of little shops housing all sorts of craft artisans such
as stained glass and pottery as well as a great patchwork shop
and workshops above. 
This photo was taken in the morning before the public 
where allowed in.





As well as the patchwork there are all sorts of other fabric
related workshops such as dyeing and free machine embroidery.

The class I did this week however was creating a quilt called
" A trip around the world"
I sure all you long time patchworkers are familiar with
this pattern but being fairly new to patchwork it
was new to me and I loved it.
We get a list of requirements before the day and in this case
the cutting instructions so some of the work was done before we
started.




It is made from 10 different fabrics which you cut into strips
stitch together then cut into strips across, it is very easy but you have to 
pay attention to make sure you get them in the right order.
An essential piece of equipment is a seam ripper.

The variety of fabrics and colours we had all chosen
was wonderful to see.  My friend Caroline went with
these wonderful zingy limes and lemons.



Next to her was a collection of marbled effect.


I went with blue and white, it's a colour combination
I have always loved and wanted to try it in a quilt top.


This was the first lady to finish


Closely followed by the marble effect fabrics.


I love this colour combination of turquoise  and white


and here is mine with just one strip left to put in
but I put it in up side down twice so decided I was
too jaded and left it there for the day.
I have finished the top now but need to layer and quilt it
I promise to show it to you when  finish.


Another thing I have had a go at this week is
natural dyes.  I started with onions skins which don't need a mordant 
to fix the colour. I have been reading  blogs about natural dyes
with incredibly talented ladies ( Here and Here) as well
as browsing pinterest to find out how to do it  and 
this was the general consensus of opinion. 
I have collected white onions skins for a while
and put them in a pan with water and boiled them for an hour.
then I drained the skins off making sure to keep the remaining dye fluid.
I'm one of those people who would have strained it over the sink
and then realised I had just thrown away the dye.

I then put some wet white linen, these were pieces of vintage
linen from my stash of damaged and stained tablecloths and napkins.
I left them in the dye for an hour and this was the result.
There are so many things you can use in natural dyeing.

I'm now saving red onions skins to try them.


The other thing I have done is turn this pretty pottery flower,
which was 50p from one of the open studios I went to,
into a pretty summer brooch.


Oh and I've signed up for a couple of swaps as well so a 
very crafty week.

Hope you have all had a good week and
have a great weekend.

 I'll see you all soon.

Gillxx


8 comments:

  1. I absolutely love your quilt. Those are my fav colours too. It's hard going getting all those little squares joined in straight lines. I used to do patchwork and quilting ages ago. Can't wait to see it finished. 'Knitsofacto' also dyes with natural things. You should check her blog out. I tried dyeing with eucalyptus leaves last year but boy,oh boy, the smell was awful - my whole house smelled like a chemistry lab!! I might give the red onion skins a go though. Love your little brooch too. My pal Betty is having a swap - details over at mine if you want to go for the hatrick! Have a great weekend, Gill.

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  2. Love your quilt! I made one a little while ago as a gift for a friend so now I'm making one for me too. It's a fun quilt to make isn't it? Looking forward to seeing a pic again when it's all done.
    Happy weekend xx

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  3. Fantastic quilt! I am hoping to have some sewing time when I break up for the summer, at the moment there is just so much to do that I don't get the time.

    Helenxx

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  4. The turquoise and blue quilt's are awesome! I didn't know you could dye things with onions though

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  5. Such pretty and delicate patchworks. Thanks for the link of my blog and glad to tried onion dyeing. You can also put the onion skills directly on fabrics, may be you peel it and put them petals shape on fabric to have the flowers look.

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  6. Is that Wroxham Barns, Gill? I used to teach there - Wacky Waistcoats, free-machine quilting, folk art quilts, if I remember rightly! Seems a while ago now. I rather like those Trip Round the World quilts and I love your blue and white colour scheme too. Lxxx

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  7. That's the thing I just love about quilting - one pattern but so many different interpretations. Yours is just gorgeous! Nice to read about your meeting with our Lynne - she's great isn't she. xCathy

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