Using and unfinished piece

 Today is 26/9/26 - can't believe how fast time flies.

I wanted to put a piece in the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria (Australia) Annual Members Exhibition. 

I looked at quite a few patterns for quilts - couldn't think of anything particularly creative so decided to try a quilt. The theme is Colour Rhapsody, which I haven't really found inspirational. 

I decided to try a Modern Quilting idea and spent quite a lot of time going through various colours of fabric that I already have. I was finally working up a colour scheme - but no real idea of what sort of quilt I wanted to make. Then I came across an unfinished quilt top that I had done a while ago. I haven't been inspired to finish it up - until now! It is from the Ricky Timms book of Convergence Quilts. 

Seeing I didn't have to make any decisions about colour, I decided to put on a few appliqué musical symbols. The fabric I chose wasn't a great choice- I used Vleisofix but it didn't do a good job and the fabric is also rather easily shredded. So I did a bit of free motion zigzag on top to make it stick. It's not great but I am going to persevere. 

I have put on the binding and have yet to sew on a hanging sleeve - the exhibition isn't till October 17th, so I have time to do that - but I'm not going to leave it till the last minute. Things happen and plans go awry. 

                                     

Here it is - I took the picture before I ironed it! And the image is quite dark, don't know why. You'll have to come to the exhibition to see it properly!

Next interesting date - 20/6/26

 I suppose there will be another one soon - 26/6/26. I'll try to have done something interesting for then. 

I have done a little more natural dyeing with the hollyhock flowers - got some lovely deep purple but in certain light it looks like a lovely purplish grey, rather dark really - so the flowers can still give quite strong colour. 

I used the leftover fabric from my last lot of mordanting. I have some leftover dye and some more of the mess of flowers that still seem to have colour! I thought that it would definitely be used up in the last lot of dyeing but there is still colour there. 

Waste not, want not - I'll give it a go. 

I'll have to mordant some more pieces of silk - not old clothing this time, some pieces that I bought years ago when I was more into silk painting and natural dyeing. They are all white so I expect the results will be different - hopefully the dye bath will be strong enough to do a good job. 

In the meantime, the soggy flowers are starting to develop mould! Not good. But now that we are finally having some wintry weather I might put the jar outside and hope that the mould slows down. 

I'm hoping to do some mordanting tomorrow and then put it all away till my next small burst of enthusiasm. 

Then I will have to decide what on earth I will use the fabric for! 

Yes, it's 2/6/26

 I haven't been doing the dates all that well but today is an exception.

So ... I decided to use a couple of the pieces I have mordanted (that is so hard to say!) and I have put the hollyhock sludge on top of a piece of silk. I am expecting that the dyeing will not be even - which doesn't bother me at all. 

And ... I used some tea that I decided to save, weeks ago, with another piece. I have no idea why I decided to keep the leftover tea but I did - perhaps I had an inkling of my resurgent interest in dyeing - which is still not that resurgent.  Luckily, we drink a fair bit of tea here and there was plenty of liquid, relatively speaking - I only used one old chemise. 

I have used a brownish piece of silk, so it might not make that much difference. 

I have not really done any research to see if it will be good - I just like to play. 

So, in a couple of days, I'll have a look to see what is happening. I am not putting them near heat, etc. It is early winter here, the weather has just cooled down remarkably and I can't be bothered worrying about warm and cool spots.

Sewing off the edge

 This is our current challenge for our monthly meeting at the EGV. I'm not sure what it means, exactly- but if I have interpreted it correctly, I'm not sure why anyone would bother!

I found an old piece of experimentation that I had done in the past - it was a circle full of fairly heavy free motion sewing. I decided to try that again. 

Unfortunately, two of the pieces I did had fabric tucked under the hoop and I sewed it without noticing! But two others were done more correctly. 

I drew a circle on some cotton - then decided that I could just sew the shape, it doesn't matter if it is not an exact circle.

After I cut them off the fabric I then tried sewing off the edge - the only thing that seemed to happen was that the white fabric at the edge got covered - not a bad outcome but I'm nor sure if that was the aim. 

One other thing was that I used the automatic speed and sewing, no use of the foot pedal. When I tried doing it without the automatic aspect the thread kept breaking on the top. 

I left a little bit where I didn't sew over the edge and you can see the white fabric edge. That one didn't have the mistake of folded over fabric on the back! 

What I did notice is that the heavier sewing made the 'flower' more 3D.

I'll know more when I go to our group meeting next Sunday.  

Still experimenting

I had quite a few old chemises that are made of silk so I decided to actually use them! I have kept them because the silk is lovely. 

I also still have some of the hollyhock dye bath left. 

So today I looked up yet another site on how to naturally dye silk and have just done more mordanting of the fabric. I have done it slightly differently because I went to a different site - so many sites with good advice!  Because the chemises had colour I am not sure how things will turn out - but I really don't care!

I'm hoping to collect some more fabrics, not necessarily silk, and dye them and see if they 'speak to me' about how to use them. 

If not, I'll have yet more pieces of dyed silk and other fabrics.

 The leftover flowers that I used have turned into some sort of sludge but I am willing to try one or two pieces of silk to see what happens. I'll try to be more creative with the rest, see if I can make different colours. I still have a LOT of dried and frozen hollyhocks to I am anticipating lots of purples and, possibly, pinks. 

If I do use the sludge, I don't think the dye will be even but that doesn't bother me either. I am just aiming to have fun. 

As I have only prepared silk, I think that I won't get the greens and browns I got with the wool. - they were also old chemises. 

Our garden is being overtaken by oxalis - not a good thing. But I am hoping some may survive (if we don't work our how to actually get rid or it) and I will cut the yellow flowers and try them. I have a faint recollection of using the leaves too but they will only give green, easily obtained from other sources. It would actually be good to get rid of the oxalis, so I may not get to see the beautiful flowers. 

oops again!

 I used some dried hollyhocks to try some more dyeing. 

I have finished the mordanting and the dye baths. But ... I found some dried hollyhock flowers and decided to use them too. 

They have been lying around for weeks. I put them into a pot and used the recently mordanted fabric to see what would eventuate. 

                                 

 

I didn't want to wait for the dye bath so I put some fabric that had been mordanted into the dyebath that still had dried flowers in it. There were quite a lot, so it is now a full pot of flowers and warm water, 

                                  

 I overfilled the pot, so some of the dye bath spilt onto the stove - very promising in terms of colour. 

I then decided that the yellowish fabrics from the leaves of the lilly pilly were rather ordinary and have put in some of the overflow from the hollyhocks. 

The pot is now not simmering and I will check the fabrics in the morning. Hopefully there will be some stronger colours. 

I'm still not sure what I will use the fabric for but I am pleased that I have been experimenting after all this time. 

Oops!

 Seeing that I am just playing around with my dyeing (as usual, not very scientific) I didn't put enough water in with the bundle and it started to burn!! Fortunately someone noticed and turned it off before too much damage was done!

There is a small hole in the silk but I don't actually have anything in mind for using the fabrics so not to worry!

The fabric has a faint pink tone, especially the silk, with mostly brown for the wool - with some small areas of pink. 

As I said, I have no project in mind for the fabric and am, therefore, just experimenting with small pieces. 

I have decided to use the leaves of the lilly pilly. I have cut them up and put them in a pot to do their thing. So far, the water (dye bath) looks clear. 

Later - not much later. I have now put the mordanted fabric into the dye bath (and taken out the leaves to the compost heap). The fabric is looking yellowish, especially the silk. I will let it sit in the pot overnight, as so many sites recommend 

Once more, no idea what I will use the fabric for!

I'm am a roll now, am going to use yet more silk and worn out clothes, this time fawn silk (it was a singlet/camisole), to try using some of  the many leftover, dried hollyhock flowers that are just sitting around. 

The fabric is mordanting and I will let that rest for several hours, then do the dye bath thing. 

Time to take the dog out for a wander.