What I saw this morning...

My ducks eating their breakfast.  Ducks are rude and loud and obnoxious, then they shut up as soon as their beaks are full....hmmm, sounds like a few people I know.

Wildpuss, pretending to be a tiger.  He's not a fastidious cat and doesn't mind the dew.

Emma saying good morning to Wildpuss and Wildpuss not looking so amused.  Don't worry, WP, I don't like the wet nose either!

Them's thar turkeys on thar hills!

I love this one.  She looks like she's saying, "We are not amused," in her best posh voice.  As in, we are not amused that you are taking pictures BEFORE you feed us.

Such an enthusiastic, dopey dawg.  Being a labrador, trained as a gun dog, Emma feels she has to carry something in her mouth at all times.  Today she's found a bit of wood.  Usually it's a rock, which is bad.  Check out her blunted tooth.  She will drop them when we tell her too, but as soon as our back is turned...

And another pretty sunrise.  Can't help myself, I've a million shots of pretty sunrises.

Sunrise

Autumn is my favourite season.  And this is one of the reasons why.  The skies just go on and on and on.  Afternoon will give us amazing clouds.  Evening gives us fascinating light.  Then the sunrises...the sunrises can leave you speechless.

Did you know you can dye quilt batting?

Sorry!  More hand dyes.  Are you getting sick of them yet?  But I wanted to show a few experimental bits and pieces that I threw dye on.

So, clockwise from front left: cotton stranded embroidery thread, really cheap and nasty wool batting, cotton batting, my usual high-thread count cotton sheeting, woollen blanket, silk, repurposed linen.

What I learnt:

1. Wool does take non-acid dyes, just not as strongly as cotton, although cerulean blue just seemed to wash straight out (i.e, that orange wool was a tangerine and blue mix to make turquoise).  More experimentation needed.
2. Cheap, nasty wool batting is still cheap and nasty.  It felted a bit, which helps it's structure but it's still too soft to use in a wool appliqué project.  Yummy colours though and I could used it for a little hand-stitching art project I have in mind though.
3. Cotton batting takes the dye really well, but I should try and find some without scrim because this shows through a little on one side.
4. I need to find a thinner, finer wool blanket than the one I had.  Two pieces were from a thinner one and the rest were a much courser weave - big difference in the hand of them.
5. Old linens take the dye beautifully.  Must keep my eye out at the op shop!
6. I love dyeing, I already knew that, but I just confirmed it again.

I know I'm never going to be the best photographer, but I'm trying to improve and practice my skills.  Here I was trying for bokeh, or blur, by increasing the distance between my foreground and my background.  I like the look, what do you think?

And I'm so pleased with my deep purple.  Been hanging out for my black dye, and it finally arrived.  It's makes the best greens too.  Those greens are all made with black and yellow.

Loving the dye on the cotton batting.  It looks like watercolour paintings.  Now I just need to make something with it.

Pictures of the Whangarei Quilt Exhibition

In my last blog post I said I'd give you the pictures from the Whangarei Quilt Exhibition later.  Well, here they are.  Picture heavy post!

This quilt Wind in Their Whiskers by Dawn Dahlberg won Viewers Choice - Club Vote.  It's a pattern by McKenna Ryan and Dawn has very skilfully completed the appliqué.  You can see a close up of the 3D elements hanging on the clothesline in the photograph below.

This quilt caught my eye.  A good use of striped, spotted and checked fabric.  It's named Stripes Versus Spots and Squares, and it was made and hand quilted by Pam Carr.

This quilt by Rikki Going won Best Use Of Colour.   Titled Succulent Southwest, it represents Rikki's memories of New Mexico.

Cynthia Johnson used her hand dyed fabric and surface design to make this quilt called Moon Phases.

I loved the way these two quilts, both made by Leeann of Quilt Whangarei, were hung.  They really led your eye, but didn't compete by being side by side.  Leeann's favourite is is the red one.

This quilt called Lattice, was made by Kim Bodman from a pattern she found in Australian Quilters Companion.  It won the Novice Quilter award.

The graphic elements of this little wall hanging caught my eye.  It was inspired by a decorated rubbish bin!  It's called Taupo Cabbage Tree and is by Jane Robinson.

Spinning Out by Jenny Gough was inspired by a print of a painting (artist unknown) and won Best Use of Colour.

I had to take a picture of this one as I'm told it features some of my hand- dyed silk/cotton embroidery threads!  It's called The Runner by Shirley Julian and was made using a technique she learned from Dena Crain at the Taupo Symposium.

There were several quilts like the one above, all made in the same class run by Petra Pilkington.  This one is by Jenny Gough.  I liked seeing mixed media being shown.

This intensely coloured and interesting quilt was another that caught my eye.  It's called Flowing Ribbons, made by Ngaire Fleming in a class by Sally Smith.  Quilted by Leonie Wihongi.

The use of only solids gave this quilt a point of difference.  Made by Lyn Madden, it's called Friend Choice.

This is another by Ngaire Fleming and was started in a class by Sarah Fielke.  The quilt is called The Grove and was quilted by Leonie Wihongi.

I've become increasingly attracted to old style, really traditional quilts.  And isn't this a beauty?  Scrappy Irish Chain by Lynne Wilson.

The colours are a bit funky on this photo because of the lighting, sorry.  Midnight Blooms by Jean Nutter.  Needleturn appliqué always impresses me!

And Jean Nutter is obviously a handwork enthusiast.  This is called Rambling Roses and is a copy of a quilt called Little Brown Bird by Margaret Doherty.  Machine quilted by Jo Hollings.

Here's two quilts from the shirt challenge.  The first is called Stars and Stripes by Kerinda Robb and won the Bronze Section.

The second is called Chambrayed and is by Lynne O'Donnell.

And the last picture I took is of my viewer's choice vote.  I admired the fine work in this one and it's something that I probably will never do, so I admire it all the more.  It's called Flower Garden and is made by Jeannette Monaghan and quilted by John Neilsen.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

A Quilty Finish: Immersion. And Show Notes from Podcast Episode 5.

Here's some pictures of a quilt that was a UFO (unfinished object).  It's sat around in slowly progressing stages for a couple of years and I'm so glad that it's finally morphed into a useful 'finished object'.

My husband named this quilt Immersion.  It has a pretty watery feeling so I think that's appropriate.

It is about 60 inches by 80 inches, so drapes nicely on a single bed, covers an ample lap, or decorates the end of a queen size bed.

I have to confess that I LOVE the back.

I quilted chevrons in the centre square, pebbles in the next block border, a kowhaiwhai design on the two end borders and then piano keys on the final turquoise border.

And I do love me a dark grey binding.  I hand finished the binding and stitching it was never a priority so I guess that's why it took so long.  But now it's done, and even labelled.  Yay!

I talk about this quilt on episode 5 of my podcast.  I'm counting it as my finish to enter Lazy Daisy's UFO challenge, which I also talk about, but I mucked up and said that your finished object had to be posted to Lazy Daisy's blog, but it actually need to go to her Flikr Group.  Here's Lazy Daisy's rules, I copied this direct from her site:

2014 UFO Challenge!

Hi, and welcome! I thought I’d celebrate my birthday this year in a special way, by giving away a quilt. To enter, all you have to do is finish! Any sewing UFO that you finish before June 11, 2014, will earn you an entry into the drawing. All you have to do is share a picture of your finished project in the Flickr group. And I mean FINISHED! Quilted, bound, and everything! If it’s a garment, it must be hemmed and ready to wear. Finished means finished.  (side note- don’t forget to label your quilts, it’s important guys)

We’re relying on the honour system here, guys, so please.. Don’t cheat! I’ll know if you’re lying.. (really I won’t, but how could you sleep at night if you brought dishonesty into quilting?)

For the purposes of this giveaway,  UFO means that you started it before 2014, and finished it this year.

That’s it.

So, in summary:

1. Any UFO (unfinished object) started before 2014

2. Add a picture of your finished object, or “FO” to the Flickr Group

If you haven’t yet, check out the group for some pretty awesome entry pics!

Now, GO QUILT SOMETHING!! there’s a quilt to be won!

Thanks Daisy!

I talked about Susan Brubaker Knapp's Facing Tutorial and here's a link to it.  It's the best facing tutorial I've found so far.  It's a non-mitred one, but she has a mitred tutorial too if that tickles your fancy.

And then, I talk lots about the Whangarei Quilt Exhibition that I visited with my Friday stitching group.  But you're going to have to wait for photographs for another day, this post is getting too long!

Here's my podcast on Podbean: http://theslightlymadquiltlady.podbean.com/2014/03/29/episode-5-whangarei-exhibition-and-a-finished-quilt/

Here's my podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/nz/podcast/the-slightly-mad-quilt-lady/id820121885?mt=2

(Please note that podcasts always take a while to show up on iTunes, so if you don't see episode 5, check back later.  You can subscribe to my podcast and any new episodes will automatically show up in your feed.)