Remembering the Fabrics from My Earlier Years!

Some weeks ago I mentioned that my Mum had made me a beautiful quilt using a lot of fabrics from clothes my sisters, Mum and I made during the late 60s and 70s. We all grew up sewing as virtually all our clothes were homemade. It is the first quilt Mum has made and I am thrilled that she has done this for me. My photo makes it look a bit crooked but it is just my photography skills (or lack of!).

There is so much work in it - all the little hangers are embroidered and each of the little waistcoats is lined and has an inside pocket with a little treasure inside. Mum has used embellishments to link the quilt with me - my name (Deborah) means "bee" in Hebrew so there is a bee, there is a school satchel because these fabrics come from when I was still at school, gardening tools because I love my garden etc etc. Just had to share it with you! I love having it hanging in my home and even though my Mum lives about 1000 kilometres away, I feel as if she is closer every time I look at the quilt.

(Detail of one of the waistcoats)

PS If you met my Mum you would love her (everyone does) but if you mentioned this quilt I can guarantee she would tell you all the faults she sees in the quilt and all the things she reckons she should have done differently!

Rusted Fabric Experiments & Assorted Stuff!

Well I have just got back from taking Mum to catch her train back to Perth (it will take about 7 hours) and then she will overnight in Perth before catching the bus to Margaret River tomorrow (about 4 or 5 hours on the bus I think because of the stops). We have had such a lovely time although it always surprises me how quickly a fortnight can go!

The picture at the top is of my patchwork applique quilt that I started for Mum several years ago (before I was doing anything experimental with fabric or surface embellishment). It is birdhouse themed because of Mum's love of them. I used a Debbie Mumm pattern and adapted it a bit - it will look nice in Mum's living room I think (that was the plan and the reason I originally used those colours!)

The next photo is of Mum's No-Knit scarf drying on the pool fence. It is very pretty and lacy looking. You can see from the photo that Saturday here was an incredibly sunny winter's day!

The photo above is of my rusted fabric experiements when I first unwrapped them. The rest are scans of small sections of the fabric once it had been washed. I learnt a lot in the process and I think re-rusting and over-dyeing will yield really interesting results so I am going to try that too. I was surprised that all sorts of different fabrics reacted to the rust quite well. I think I like the results best on the soft silky fabric (it isn't silk but a soft fabric remnant I bought with no details). The markings are very crisp on that fabric and it is a fairly large remnant so I will be trying some more variations with that one. It is the top piece in the second photo below. I also love the copper rust patina effect on the small piece. It was a very old hair adornment that was very rusty but it must have some copper content I guess!


Tonight I am hoping to finish the beading on my "Paint Metal Fabric" quilt for Fiona - I am now weeks late with that and feeling very bad about it. I keep changing my mind about what I am doing on it!

PS I have made any inchies for days!! (I am suffering withdrawal symptoms ...)

Mum is 75 today!!!

I haven't been blogging because I have been making the most of my Mum's visit. It is her 75th birthday today and here is a quick snap I took of her last night. 16 year old Zach was actually in this picture as well and they were posing for me but I know Zach will kill me if I include his pose. We went to a new Italian Restaurant here in Kalgoorlie (Villa Maritana) to celebrate the birthday and Mum wore her scarf which you can see a little of. It really looks great and I am now a convert to the benefits of soluble fabric.

I finished Mum's Birdhouse quilt yesterday (after all these years!) and I must admit I am relieved that it is finally finished. I don't like to leave things unfinished especially when the bulk of the work has been done! So Mum is having to find a space in her case for it.

Tomorrow night I will upload some pictures of my rusted fabric - some worked well and some are pretty ordinary but all will get used in one way or another. I have a much better idea of the sort of things I will need to do to get a specific result next time. Now I'm off to bed.

More Fabric Inchies

I just love Sundays!

The day started off pretty overcast and dismal looking but by lunchtime we had a lovely sunny winter's day. Crisp and cool but sunny. Perfect for eating lunch outside (which we did). Joseph's beloved Dockers had a win, Zach's soccer team won against a team that "killed" them last time, Mum made great progress with her sample version for the No-Knit scarf (it is the first time either of us have used soluble webbing and it really is amazing stuff!) and I got my cards made and just have the instructions to type up.

I completed a few more sets of my blue fabric inchies and even managed to do some more hand quilting on Mum's birdhouse quilt. I can see that if I stick at it over the next week she will (finally!) be able to take it with her when she goes home. The scan of my inchies is not brilliant as the beading means they don't lie very flat on the scanner. The glittery bits and the iridescence don't show up very well unfortunately. Joseph made us all lovely Madras and vegetable curries with basmati rice and Garlic Chappatis for dinner so all in all it was a great day.

Back to work today of course but the sun is shining and it looks as though it will be another beautiful day here.

My First Paper Fabric Quilt

I am attracting some bad karma for some reason - I logged on yesterday to find that all of my recently re-established favourites have gone again! And I know this time (for sure) that I didn't delete them. Then I went to load my "little bit shiny/little bit blurry" photo of my first paper fabric quilt, which I have just finished and which I am very happy with as a first effort, and blogger would not cooperate again.

Hmmm - I need to be replacing my current thoughts (throw the computer into the swimming pool/pull the connection out of the wall/give up on the electronic age altogether etc etc) with something a little more zen. So I went to bed and read - meaning savoured! - some more of my CPS. I am trying to make it last seeing as the latest Somerset Studio hasn't arrived here yet.

Anyway this morning I can load photos again, so here is the not so good photo of my paper fabric quilt. I'll post about some of the "lessons learnt" in making this tonight or tomorrow.

An old friend of Joseph's arrived yesterday afternoon from interstate and will be staying with us for a few days. Their friendship started in the 60s when they were both very young and travelling to England as part of the Aussie pilgrimage that many did and still do. As I have only been in Joseph's life for the last 24 years and as they have lived most of their lives in different parts of Australia, I have only met this friend once before about 15 years ago. I see an interesting weekend ahead with lots of reminiscences!