Giant Panda - I can almost see the finish line

Of course (...) I ended up with plenty of aqua and green leftovers... I didn't want to go backing-shopping, and I had some nice white cotton sheets of the right size for backing. But even little 9 year old girls will get white things grubby, so with the help of mum I dyed the sheet (and my hands) aqua!

Take some aqua procion dye, a large microwave and a large plastic container as well as some Soda Ash (I used the instructions from LuAnn Kessi which I had blogged about here) and your white sheet becomes an aqua backing:

I put an IG filter on to get the pic closer to the true colour 

- oh yes, you can get blue hands, too, if you're not diligent about wearing gloves lol

Since we put a big fluffy mat in the lounge, I unsuccessfully tried table basting before I made enough space on the floor by the breakfast island 

I had asked on IG if people thought I needed to add leaves to the aqua lines in the wide white border, there were mixed responses, but to be honest I couldn't really get myself motivated, so instead I quilted giant bamboo stalks:

I found no easy way to photograph this...

... visible a little better from the back

There are still a few more projects from 2018 I want to blog about, but as I'm going back to work next week, we'll just have to see how that works out. Until then I will just enjoy the beautiful summer in the Far North of New Zealand!

Happy Sewing!

Pottering along

I had written a post and put it in draft ten days ago - and here it still is today! Summer has finally been simmering and we have had some amazing weather in the last little while though this week it has cooled down again, especially at night. A sure sign to tell a nice summer day here is when our pool already shows 29degC by the time I get up ;-) Admittedly when it then rises up to 31 or even 32degC during the day, it's not all that refreshing anymore - but now that it's back to 28degC or so I feel it's cold!

The other day I had the urgent urge to reorganise parts of my home; I moved drawers, a chest, a cabinet - found an impressive amount of (very dusty) Wine and Schnaps Glasses - and now my still messy creatively organised sewing room looks like this:

Trying to be organised this year - thanks to Wendy from Sew it's Finished!

My drawers are more organised

my WIP drawer

we're getting a bit less organised here...

can you see how small my stash has gotten?

Bags and bags of scraps...

"The Pile" - mending and UFOs...

Last weekend our local Patchwork Club had their annual exhibition. As I had left my camera at home on the charger (...) I am very thankful that friends have kindly offered me copies of theirs - in the meantime though, here is Suz's post with the pics she took.

Lovely Suz had invited Rona from Layer upon Layer to come up from Auckland so we had lots of fun jabbering about quilting (while the men were just rolling their eyes). Thanks heaps to Suz for the organisation and accommodation and to Rona for travelling so far! Rona brought some of her various fabric painting supplies and we also had great fun with those. We ended with doing some microwave dying - sporting matching red hands now (must be some sort of secret club lol - Suz suggested a name to do with "tutuu" which is lent from the Maori language and usually means to muck or potter around).

Learnings:

• I need to save some money to buy Fabrico Dual Markers by Tsukeneko and Derwent Inktense Blocks
• Using more Procion powder to water results in a darker colour - yippieh!
• Just to stay on the 'save money to buy xyz' part, I also want to get my hot little hands onto some Lumi Inkodye at a reasonable price - can't wait to try that out! Please let me know if you have seen it or even tried it out. (I have seen Inkodye and the Fabrico Markers on Dharma Trading, but now I need to wait for pay day next month).
• It pays to feed my visitors first and then show them the mess I make in the kitchen with my microwave dying - not sure that anyone wants to eat at my place again;-)

Since then Suz, Miss Lottie and I had a play date at my place (kids occupied themselves - great! while we played :D) and today Suz and I had a little shopping spree at our ex-LQS ;-) Can't wait to use these batiks....

Adding to my stash!!!

I also received the remaining supplies for the Tokyo Subway Map Quilt in the mail and have laid out and pieced my first two blocks, here is the first:

My D4P has made a lot of progress, currently I am putting the sashing strips in:

Top half

with sashing strips

This week I have spent away from home for Induction to my new job as Blended e-Learning Facilitator. Lots to learn before I can start working with local schools! As it is fulltime it should be paying the bills better even though it will limit the time I have to quilt. I might just have to make up for it at night or on the weekends!

Happy Sewing!

Experiments

We've been doing all sorts of experiments at home lately...
What happens when 8y old stomps on 10y old's hand? Lots of tears but apparently nothing worse - phew...
Will a rescued wild baby rabbit survive in the cage? So far that is a yes:

Can 8y old's vinegar and baking soda rocket take off with baking powder? Yes, but it shoots higher when you use baking soda:

I am still working on the D4P, but after reading this post by LuAnn Kessi, I just had to experiment with microwave dyeing. Lovely LuAnn gave me some more tips per email which made it very easy: You have your fabric ready (pre-washed and wet), put approx. 1 fat quarter into a plastic container (I used ice cream containers), squirt on your dye (I used Procion MX Dye), just cover with soda ash (get Sodium Carbonate Hydrogen from the local pool shop as Balance Pak 100 - mix 1/3 cup with hot water), cover with clingfilm (poke some holes into it) and microwave on full power for 3 min. Watch your fingers when you take it out, it's hot! Rinse and then soak in very cold water for 30 min. Wash on hot. LuAnn says as it has been set in the microwave, your dye won't run later.

Here are my results:

I had wanted to go for greens, but as I had mixed my blue powder with less water than the yellow (and the red), it dominated.

Resist dyeing on some white-on-white

Less contrast from the back and therefore easier to use

 

Another white-on-white

Next day some more colours after I mixed my yellow to a stronger and then even stronger concentration

I had tried over-dyeing some of my blues, it looked good until I rinsed it - maybe the soda ash wasn't good any more or did I even forget to use it?!

A fq rainbow of pastels :-) I still want to learn how to make them more vibrant, but I was very pleased with the overall result

The resist pieces and some of the scraps I dyed also

I found that I got stronger colours by using 1 tsp of dye to 100ml of water in the blue, and for yellow I even ended up with 2 tsp to 150ml. The red I am using up must have been at 1 tsp to 150ml. I will repeat the experiment and add more powder. As this was so quick and easy and got just as nice results as when I followed this tutorial, I might stick to this method being an instant gratification type person!

This is what my blues and greens turned into later on yesterday afternoon, my first draft for the AQC Challenge 'Free':

 

Size 48x49" marked out on my design wall - it's meant to be 49" square but my wall is not that wide

Auditioning fabrics

Adding some other bits to see if this could work

Lots of squares needing to be sewn together.

I'll keep you posted...

This is my 100th post - whoop-whoop! It's a scorcher of a day outside, after getting lunch for the kids I might just have to hide in my sewing room until the sun is bearable again - I love the hot weather though the sun doesn't love me, but any excuse will do lol.

Happy Sewing!

Change in the air?

[Here are some non-quilting ramblings about my life in general - feel free to skip this and scroll down to the 'interesting' stuff :-)] I have been wondering about this. I am not quite over the shock of the government announcing they are cutting my job, then capping the cuts to what would still have cut me, to then taking it all back. Their explanations for this have been very poor, the PM has said they didn't sell it well - which tells me that he sees nothing wrong with making me unemployed. Well, I didn't vote for him last time, and I surely won't this time!

At work our interim principal has been appointed, we might get to meet her Monday or Tuesday, so there comes another change. In the meantime I had been encouraged to apply for a job at another local school, but after much deliberation I decided against it - my life is too busy as it is right now - and sent the lovely people who encouraged my a polite email explaining to them why this was not the right decision at this point in time. One change I can't face right now. Have you been in this position before, where someone offered you sth., a job, and you felt you should go for it because it was so flattering to be asked, to be wanted? I have made this mistake twice, and both times I didn't enjoy the experience.

On top of all that I have been shortlisted for a job I had applied for weeks ago, outside school. I would love the position, from people that work they I have heard how supportive people are, what great PD you get, that there are opportunities to specialise etc. Unfortunately, that particular vacancy is only 0.6 - at least was when I inquired. Not enough money to pay the bills - but maybe I can find a top-up p/t or relief at school? The major change here would be no school holidays - real world conditions. How would I cope? How would my family cope??

"Nothing ever is quite perfect", a friend once told me, "you have to decide with which imperfections you can live." Well, we'll see if there is or isn't change in the air...

NOW ONTO THE INTERESTING STUFF

I have been sewing these little strips together, and this is what's on my design wall at the moment:

Current plan is to extend it to 5x5 blocks, which should make it approx. 55" square - big enough for a polar fleece backed throw for the lounge to go with the stripey cushion I made last month :-)

I've also been busy for Leslie's Handprinted Fabric Swap (see the button on the side bar). I screen printed, stamped and eventually dyed fabric. Here are some glimpses:

I had some trouble with the set screen print flaking off after I wet the fabric. I am wondering if this has to do with the pearl colour I mixed in?! Will have to ask Petra from Zigzag.

My first ever attempts of dying with Procion dyes - I really like the results (will reveal more after the FQs have gone off to their new homes). As my screen prints where in shades of grey and charcoal, they were harder to see on blue and purple, so next time I might use black for this instead - which might eliminate the flaking off, too?

Now I just need some envelopes and they will go off to their new homes - mission accomplished!

Have a good week and stay warm!