Many colours

These lovely coloured fabrics are the result of a fabric dying class at Village Books and Crafts last weekend, and the pink-orange-yellow lot I did at home yesterday.

I learned several things. Firstly, when combining two colours of dye I need to mix them together more before adding the fabric so that I get more even colour. Secondly, I dont have a lot of confidence in zip-lock plastic bags. I was very apprehensive about squishing the fabric, dye, water/soda ash solution in the bag, having nightmarish images of bright orange solution woushing all over the room, and all over me. I think I might try another batch using some kind of plastic container instead. Thirdly, I learned that if you are going to re-use your zip-lock plastic bags it is important that after you wash and try them you must turn them back in the right way before filling with another batch of dye solution - ask me how I discovered this.

I also learned that I love scarlet. Scarlet is the fabric on the far right in the middle photo. I think I will need to do more with scarlet.

I'm in the mood for a little Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice...

Such a dazzling coat of colours
How I love my coat of many colours

It was red and yellow and green and brown
And scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose
And azure and lemon and russet and grey
And purple and white and pink and orange
And red and yellow and green and brown and
Scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose
And azure and lemon and russet and grey
And purple and white and pink and orange
And blue

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Amy is hosting her Fourth Annual Bloggers Quilt Festival.

The quilt I've chosen for the festival is one I made as part of an online class with Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting. This is the first quilt I've designed from scratch, I had so much fun doing it and it brings me great joy each Christmas when I hung it up.
Tonya had us choose a Christmas carol and extract elements about the holidays that we liked and turning them into a design, and then we used her tutorials to piece the various elements. I love the two colour combinations of purple and orange, and raspberry and lime, so it was a double the fun to put them together. Because it was my world I got to put New Zealand at the centre, and then I used a little old scrap to make Australia and put it off to left - VBG!! Making this quilt has given me a lot more confidence

Do check out the link above to Tonya's website, she's very talented and has lot's of tips and tricks to teach. I'm off to check out all the other quilts in the festival.

Pinehaven Quilt Show

The Pinehaven Quilters Show was at the Expressions Gallery and the quilts just looked stunning in this setting.

Postcards and more show pics

I took part in a spring postcard swap this month which was a lot of fun. I made friends with the man at the local stamp shop because I wanted to have my postcards hand franked, rather than subjecting them to the rigours of NZ Post's machines. Well the stamp man was not only very helpful, but he took a liking to my postcards and paid me to make him two, so I'm grinning from ear to ear.


More pictures from the Wellington Quilters Show at the weekend... these from the "less colourful section" as you can see.




You can see that these two quilts both have ribbons so the judges were more won over by their creaminess than I was. Though I was impressed with the judging for quilting. The awards for excellence in machine quilting (above) and professional longarm (which I didn't photograph) both went to quilts with simple quilting which connected well with the quilt. That didn't seem to be the case with some quilts where the quilting didn't seem to tie into the quilt.

One of the most exciting part of the show was seeing a Phillippa Doyle quilt with old doillies in, and another quilt inspired by her work. My photos didn't turn out very well unfortunately. I will have to change the settings on the camera before the next show.

Wellington Quilters Show

DH and I drove to Wellington on Saturday for a quilt-y day. The first show was Wellington Quilters. There was a lot of colour on show and I enjoyed seeing quite a few scrappy quilts exhibited, wondering if this is a sign of the economic times, or perhaps I'm just noticing them because that is what I like at the moment.


There was also a creamy section but Blogger is on the go-slow that might have to wait for another day. In the mean time I'll save the bright colours.

Sunny Weekend

We have had more than our fair share of rain but this weekend the sun is shining which makes everything feels good in the world. Yesterday was our monthly quilting day and I made good progress quilting the cot quilt I am making for a work friend.


These are the green inchies from last year's swap, mounted on canvas. The flash really picks up the gold paint, it's not quite that bold. This is hanging over my sewing desk now and I'm really enjoying seeing it there.


All this progress makes me feeling like baking something yummy to celebrate!

Remarkable Symposium

The Symposium book came in the mail today. I excited and confused. There are so many classes to choose from, though my registration number is rather high so I probably need to be realistic about my options.

My goals for the weekend are to tidy up the sewing room and finish my inchy project... and ponder the symposium classes a little.