Thursday 11 April 2013

Still working on THAT quilt!

I'm nearly ready to start, honest. Here is my "design" back of the door where I have pinned up some samples. I've planned it all out, so just about to start cutting - gulp. It would have been quicker to build a new Olympic Stadium.






Meanwhile I tried a fabric painting experiment. Egyptian Cotton drawn on with a Sharpie pen and then coloured in with water soluble Derwent Inktense pencils. I painted over each section with as little water as possible to stop the colours bleeding. When it was dry I tested Derwent's claim the pencils become water proof by running the whole thing under the tap... and it worked. Lots of potential.



Next week I'm going on another workshop with Ruth Issett on fabric printing so I haved dyed a batch of mixed blues to work on.

I'll let you see what I've done with it next week.

I then realised I needed some more greens for my quilt, so rather than have another dyeing session I bought a lovely selection from  Maggi's hand dyed fabrics. They are greener than they look here.


I've also put together another set of little bird cards for my Etsy shop.


As I type I can hear the Midwife Toads bleeping in the garden. That must mean the evening temperature is warming up at last. Usually they are making a racket much earlier in the year. We were sort of hoping they wouldn't survive the long cold winter, but they are back!
Midwife toad, snapped a few years ago - noisy but cute, foreign invaders who've colonised my neighbourhood.


Hope all is right with you, and you are enjoying a bit of spring.
Jill





10 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

Your work just keeps on getting better and better Jill! Love what you are doing these days - not that I didn't before you understand! Looking forward to seeing the next stages.

LAC EMP 2020 said...

Jill, the quilt will be done soon by the looks of it. Final hurdle but you're nearly there. Well done. Love the piece with the inktense pencils and the sharpie but my favourite thing is those cards. I'm doing a little bit of hand stitching (shock, hrror)with some rusted fabrics just to keep my hands occupied and out of the biscuit barrel but I wish I'd thought of using it like you have. They should fly out of the shop!!

LAC EMP 2020 said...

Sorry Jill, forgot to mention those toads. They must be tenacious of life if the dire cold winter did not kill them off! Methinks you are destined to be troubled by their vocal chords for many a season.... want to swap for some rabiits?

Heloise said...

Good luck with the final piece. Hope that you enjoy the process of making it.

Maggi said...

Love the samples and the blue fabric. Glad that mine has come in handy. I really like the sample that has the net over part of it, gives a lovely shift of shade.

Anna said...

Wow, how busy you've been! Great to see all your work, the fig sample looks delicious!!Look forward to seeing the quilt progress. How lucky to have the toads and have fun on your course.

Joanna said...

Your quilt is a labour of love and will be so beautiful! I like your fabric painting experiment, you were very brave to test the waterproofing claims as boldly as you did!

menopausalmusing said...

I'm with Joanna on this: that quilt is a labour of love. With regards to your toads, I will up the offer of a swap and offer you three fallow deer (two of whom are pregnant this year). We are seeing silly numbers round here..........

Love your bird cards, they are just lovely Jill.

Emma said...

So are these pieces of 'that' quilt or beautiful samples? Lovely fabrics too - I see a hint of a post on fb then think I've already commented properly! the toads are cuties but I don't think the ones round here are nisy....I had to drive round them very carefully back from work late at night, they were all enjoying the deluge of rain we've finally had - the pond is a 1/4 empty (hehe ;)

Louise said...

Hi Jill - I love your blog - it is so interesting - and your work looks fantastic. It was so nice to see you again on the course at AVG - I
look forward to seeing you on some future course.
Louise x