fiberrainbow

The weather is  w a r m .

I can hardly remember the last time it rained ...

(a week ago some very light drizzle ...

but you couldn't call that rain, when you asked the plants !)

Luckily there's water next to our garden !

So a lot of heavy watering cans every morning and evening.

Stitching is fine

(though in the shadow of the sunscreen !)

Silk, cotton, rayon and some beads on bourette silk

And because I had some more of that silk

I made a cuff too

Youngest grandson helped with another present

for the teacher that he is leaving.

The group he was is is called "the Guppies"

so his mom knitted six (his age now) little fishes.

He wanted to have hearts attached to them :

three silver ones (from my stash) and three he made himself,

of shrinking foil !
(Krimpie Dinkie)

The shrinking foil was such fun

that he made some more !

(the cat he kept for himself !!!)

*

Just saw something AMAZING on another blog :
the Gaia Mother Tree 
by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto
in the main railway station of Zürich, Switserland !


(more pictures on this blog !)
and here too !

Yesterday was a

blue day

and ... it was a day full of magic !

Eight ladies and a nice teacher, Elly Poldervaart, explored 

(along the edges of)

the  v a s t  realm of indigo.

(surely that is too much to fathom in just one day,

I think you can study years on that !) 

After the introduction

Elly started making an organic indigo vat,

according to the instructions of "Indigo-guru"

botanist and chemist Michel Garcia

A look inside the magic pot !

We then all started with a length of  thin woolen fabric (etamine)

to fold, clamp or stitch shibori-wise.

(it was very silent then ...)

(totally forgot to take pictures of my own stitching)

We had a good lunch

(although we didn't have "time" for that  ;-) ...)
and started "dipping" after that,
or
continued stitching, like me

Checking temperature,
checking pH
and putting the first one in.

Tah-daaaaaaah

There it is
yellow, green ... and then slowly
BLUE

After that ...
it started raining !!!
(and no small drops)
So everything was moved a bit, to the bicycle storage
(Elly's studio is in an old school building)

Slowly, one by one
the magic blue cloths appeared !

Hmmmmmm ...... unpicking the threads
took quite some time and effort !


In the end we could put in
some more items that we brought with us.

Then, too soon, it was time to tidy up and put all the work on the table





Thanks Elly
it was a day of magic !


At home waited Man with yummy lasagna
(another treat !)
and some more rinsing and unpicking
...........

My green silk strip
and ...

moons !!!


What a day ...


BLUE  !!!

Man and I had a busy morning :

visiting our youngest grandson's school class

Right now they're working along the "family" theme.

Because it's also a special week and a half

for children's books (with the theme : "grandparents")
("Kinderboekenweek")

this special visit was arranged !

His teacher, my former colleague, had asked me

to read my favorite picture book for the children,

which of course I did.

I  LOVE that

(I still have many picture books in the book case at home)

It was really fun !!!

But this took a big bite of my "stitching" day.

I started one textile jewel,

and another,

but they are not quite finished yet

so ...

to my back-up plan : a jewel I made earlier.

Pink Ribbon textile jewel  5

A cobalt blue pendant hanging on a long double ribbon

with a back of batik fabric

( 8 x 6 cm  )

embroidered with cotton and rayon, 

one big and several small glass beads.

For

€ 10

you can have this striking blue beauty,

for yourself or as a present for someone dear.

All you need to do, is send me an email at

fiberrainbow@gmail.com

You know that all your money will go to the Pink Ribbon fund.

SOLD  !

See you tomorrow with the next Textile Jewel !

Today, the shortest day

(at least here ... "down under" my friends have the longest day)

so time to post my Solstice piece.

Winter Solstice

I finished it yesterday evening,

right on time !

I was so happy to receive that indigo dyed thread

(that I sent as white thread to Birgit)

it was the best colour, together with a bit of yellow

to make the stitched "rays" between the "points".

This piece has a tail :

the Kaffe Fasset strip at the bottom

was longer than the (20 cm) side

and I left it on because I didn't know how to proceed, yet

...

Then I found another (blue) strip

that was just as long as the extending end

so I just stitched the two together !

A coincidence (?) that we found something else 

with a tail, this morning ???

You may know that we have two cats in the house.

(they're daughter's, but live at our house for the time being)

About a week ago I suddenly discovered

mouse droppings

in the kitchen and the living room !

The cats are staying in that area at night

(otherwise they sneak up to the bedroom

and we won't be sleeping very quietly ...)

But apparently, our cats are
too well-fed,

too lazy,

or just a bit too old (15)

.....

These last few days we took away the cat food at night,

cleaned the counter top very carefully,

and closed all the cupboards 

where there might be something to eat 

.....

Finally

this morning : there he (she) was

another tail

!

(hmmmmm ... too well-fed for sure !

*

 On this shortest day

we went to Amsterdam

to say a last farewell

to the old mother (97) of a good friend.

They gave her the most wonderful goodbye :

there are some wonderful musicians in that family

and during the ceremony they played several times,

what a special way to remember someone dear !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehc4IIKQ4bg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-imw0fq5C4

It has been an aweful long time since I unrolled my

 Sun and Moons

to do some stitching ...

The fact that I took it with me on holiday

was to restart stitching 

ánd to show it to Birgit when we visited her.

(because I know how eager "textile people" are

to see the "real" thing with their hands, 

rather than just looking at it on a photograph)

With the actual cloth on the table

it's easier to explain what you have been doing.

(with or without a cat lying on it  .....)

Although there wasn't enough quiet time to restart thén

I indeed did a restart, now I'm home again.

(and the little repair tast for the classroom 

of my former collegue Ada is finished :

school started again today !)

I forgot to show last time

the gorgeous indigo handdyed Baby-Alpaca wool

that Birgit gave me as a present !

And since the little extra : blue dyed lace,

fits so well with the colours

of the "Sun and Moons"

I had to stitch a little piece of it into it !

I may find yet another place for the next bit too ...

First invisible "glue-stitch" and then some thread beads.

on progress !

This is "Eye" moon.

It is one of the three moons dyed by Jude

that were in a package of goodies she once sent me.

In fact there are a LOT more blue coloured strips of fabric

(all around the piece)

that were once a double woven piece by Jude.

The three moons are looking through a hole 

she had cut in one of the strips.

(ha, I told here I was taking it apart

and using it in a different way :

she laughed and told me it was fine) 

So, this Eye moon is now keeping an eye

on the slow but steady progress

on my Sun & Moons piece.

(my thread nest, thimble and pliers right next to me)

Two corner, where I extended the pattern

of the black and blue fabric onto the blue border strip.