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