Back from QuiltIndulgence Festival

I had a lovely four days in Mittagong at the QuiltIndulgence festival. Took two x two day classes. First was with Fiona Wright - we did nuno felting. All pieces were made on a background of black cotton voile. This one had layers of dyed merino in slate blues and gold/oranges laid out, and topped in places with pieces of silk in the same colours. There is also a piece of good old chiffon scarf (synthetic) like the old ladies used to wear over their hair rollers! It worked fine, even though it wasn't natural fibre.

The next piece hasn't photographed true to colour. It looks all pink and green, when in fact, it is bronzey/olivey.

Here is a scan, which shows the colour better. I think this will make a great surface for stitching - I am thinking, hand stitching in big running stitches, with thick silk thread.

Next couple were vaguely sinspired by Spring here - our spring festival, Floriade has just started, so I was thinking, fresh, spring greens, fields of tulips etc. They were also an experiment with including different types of silk - up until then I had only put silk organza on top - mainly because that is the only type I had! But these two include silk jap and silk chiffon - I really like the way the silk chiffon softly blends in - whereas the organza has a crisper, crunchy feel and look.

This next piece really shows that characteristic of the organza. The lighter sections on the surface are pieces of hand dyed mulberry bark.

I think this is one of my favourites - can't decide whether to use it horizontally, suggesting ripples in the sand, or vertically, suggesting tree bark? What do you think? The middle layer on this one is a mixture of alpaca (which doesn't felt) and merino, with a bit of glitzy stuff carded through. The top is a piece of cream silk chiffon. The yellowy textured bits are under the top (unlike the mulberry bark, above, which sits on the surface) - they are strands of silk throwsters waste). I like the effect it has created. This is another one I can envisage doing some hand stitching on - and maybe a few small shells? Only, of course, if I go with the seashore theme - they would look pretty incongruous grafted onto tree bark!

And finally - the colours in this one aren't true - it is really more olivey and Australian bush type colours. I used a layer of olive coloured merino, then topped it with some hand dyed silk hankies with some strands of textured wool laid on top. The base was an olive coloured silk scarf in a very open weave - you can see the fringe hanging down at the bottom edge.

The other two days I did some machining on water soluble stuff. One thing I confirmed doing this class is that sitting for hours, free machining is NOT my thing. a) it is totally boring, and b) it isn't good for my neck and back, which are a bit fragile and don't need any unecessary stress. I played around maching circles onto some polyester organza, then burning it between the stitching to make the holes. One of these is a scan, and one is a photo - I went with a vaguely circular motif - some stamping with fabric paint onto some hand dyed cotton, then some circular stitch directly onto the fabric - backed with batting - I used the flower foot as well - caused great interest in the class - have a feeling Dale is going to get a bunch of orders as a result! I did three circular shapes onto the soluble in purple rayon, then stitched them on with copper metallic. That was about it before my boredom thresh hold was reached. The rest I machined bubble shapes onto poly organza, burnt them out with my wood burning tool (had to sneak out of the class to do that) then stitched them onto the surface. Couldn't decide at first whether it was a cosmos or an underwater scene - class consensus - underwater - so there you are!