Northland Quilt Shop Hop and Podcast Episode 4

I don't visit quilt shops often, because I don't have any close to me.  I have to drive for about an hour to get to one.  So when I do visit, I tend to have a list of needs and wants and it always feels like a splurge!  Here are three shops I visited last weekend on my way to Auckland.  In my podcast episode 4, I talk more about each one.

These are photos from The Country Yard, my favourite quilt shop.  The staff are just the best and they even have blogs.  Click here for Raewyn's and here for Leeanne's.  I love their range of Stof basics.

These were my purchases, I think I was on a neutrals kick.  I also got some crushed walnut shells and a little bit of batting and a new rotary cutter blade - but they don't looks so pretty in a photograph!

I had to take a photo of my country bumpkin car next to the shiny city ones!

Above are photos from the Northland Sewing Centre.  The second photo shows you the fancy acrylic boards that they are wrapping their fabrics on.  It makes for a really clean look and much more room on the shelves.  And I bought clean modern looking fabrics to boost my stash.  The duck egg one is from Art Gallery Fabrics (I was trying to remember the name on my podcast).

And then The Apple Basket in Kaiwaka.  A cute little cottage with a nice choice of fabrics.  And here are the purchases I made from The Apple Basket, three subtle shot cottons, a linen, a Sweetwater fat quarter and a Lucien fat quarter.  I took a close-up of the Lucien fabric because it had a divine texture.

I also talk about what I've been up to, with some project updates, dyeing and running classes.  You can listen to Podcast Episode 4 here at Podbean, or wait a little while and it will upload to iTunes.  Thanks for listening and I love getting feedback, it's really helpful.

Hand Dyed Fabric on the Warm Side of the Colour Wheel

Just a quick post today with some of my recent hand dyeing.  It's a quick post because I'm busy getting ready for beginners class tonight and sewing up samples and writing instructions.  It seems to take a stack of time!

I was aiming for some more 'ish' kind of colours - not pure hues and I also wanted some tints (colour with white added, which with dye is diluted dye).  The second photo was dyed light orange then folded and one edge rested in pure dye.  I love the effect the wicking action gave.

I also dyed some silk.  I expected lighter colours than I got because silk tends to dye a little lighter than cotton, but the colour I used as a base for all these (I was trying out a series theory) is a pretty tenacious colour.  I must remember that in future!

I wish you could see the lustre of the silk, just yummy.

Workshop Weekend

I spent a long weekend in the Big Smoke, aka Auckland, for a workshop with Jeanette DeNicolis Meyer.  Jeanette hails from the United States but spends a fair amount of time in NZ.  She is a very talented woman, and I say that not just about her art, but about her teaching skills.  Not everyone can teach as successfully as she does, keep the workshop running smoothly, attending to everyone's needs and catering for all skill levels.  Yay for Jeanette! (In fact, this is the third workshop I've taken with her - because I know how great she is!) So if you ever get a chance to take a workshop with her, you should seriously consider it.

Our workshop was titled: Working Toward A Series: Design Basics and Beyond.

We worked with line, shape and texture.  Colour - with hue, value, intensity and temperature.  Design principles.  Symbols and evocative objects.  Composition and story telling.  And through it all, Jeanette wove examples of working in a series and how and why you might go about doing this.

I used my iPad mini throughout the class to take working photographs.  It made it really easy if I wanted to refer back to a previous composition and has a much bigger screen than my camera (no, I don't get a kickback....darn it!)

The group of participants was lovely - most from Auckland with one other from out of town - Hi Shirley!  A wide range of experience and backgrounds, which makes it that much more interesting.

So I had a great time.  Exhausting, lots of brain work and I collapsed in my motel room every night but so glad I went.  And Auckland put on the good weather for me too!

The drive down was lovely too.  I visited three quilt shops on my way, so keep your eyes open for a blog post about them.

Ciao for now.

Hand Dyed Fabric - lighten up

I squeezed in a little fabric dyeing this weekend.  I need to get some lighter colours, some tints, to round out my hand dyed collection.  I also need to get some shades, which are blackened colours, but I discovered I've run out of black dye so that wasn't happening today.

They are very clear and bright.  I think I need to muddy some of my colours up a little to get some more interesting colours, but these definitely add a lighter aspect to my collection so I'm not unhappy with results.  I could also do another round of dilution in the orange and fuchsia, but I ran out of soda ash soaked fabric.

A brief explanation of how I dye my fabrics:
I take my prepared for dyeing fabric and rip it into fat quarter sized bits.
I write a number on the corner of each one for record keeping purposes and then put them in a bucket of soda ash solution, roughly 1/2 cup soda ash to about 8 litres of water.
I use procion mx dyes and I mix about 1 1/2 teaspoons of dye powder to one cup (250 mls) of water.
Then I pull out a piece of soaked fabric, wring it out and squirt on my dye.
If I want to make a mixed colour or dilution, I aim for about 1/5 cup (50 mls) of dye solution per fat quarter.
Leave it sitting for as long as you can (I often leave it overnight), then rinse and wash etc.
REMEMBER: use gloves, a mask when the dye powder is exposed, and utensils and pots reserved only for dye use.

The rest of the weekend has been taken up by the never ending housework, baking for lunch boxes, stitching with my quilting group (if you listened to my podcast yesterday, you'll know I got in a bit of hand binding), helping hubby build a deck outside our back door and painting another window frame (second to last one!!).

And now I think I'll settle in for the evening with my hand binding on my lap and a cup of peppermint tea and my hubby to keep my company.

Show Notes - Podcast - Episode Three

I tried something new today and went mobile with a handheld voice recorder.  My stitching group were my guinea pigs and I have to say a big thank you to Steph, Monika and especially Suz who let me try out my interviewing skills.

Suz's blog: http://www.suz-allthegoodonesaretaken.blogspot.co.nz
Monika's blog: http://monika-quiltingjourney.blogspot.co.nz

Here is an image of Suz's very first quilt she made about ten years ago - we talk about it in our interview.  Go visit her blog for a look at the type of quilts she makes now - she's pretty talented!

Sorry - taken on my iPad so not the best pic.

I know my audio isn't perfect, but I think it's listenable.  I'm getting better at using my software - I managed to splice three different audio files into one today - go me!  And I'll get better at using my handheld recorder too.

Hope you enjoy it!

Listen here: http://theslightlymadquiltlady.podbean.com/2014/03/01/episode-three-my-stitching-group/?token=600ea15b2bdf72a182e8431ba7c86996

and you'll find me on iTunes under The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady.