A very pleasant afternoon ....

.....was passed cutting and machining to produce this

from this

The layout is based on Anni Downs' Daisy Quilt from 'Some Kind of Wonderful'.

I knew that I did not want to cut the print into small pieces as that would then lose the fun of the design - so this layout seemed like an ideal solution. I cut frour strips out of the fabric and 'fussy cut' them to length. I have a narrow strip left which will make squares for my Scrap Therapy box.

Looking forward to quilting this - I plan to enlarge one or two of the birds from the print to use in my quilting.

I forgot about this orchid yesterday. It is a Lizard Orchid.

Not the prettiest orchid or most colourful, but at over two feet tall it is impressive!

Wishing you all a very good weekend.

Lin

Bee Orchids

After a glorious day yesterday when we were able to sit outside with friends until midnight it is now pouring with rain again.
Before the rain started this morning I managed to get round the garden and photograph a few orchids.

This is a bee orchid - Ophrys apifera.

I have seen a dozen or so around the garden - they seem to be particularly strong plants this year.

This is a variation - I have only found one of these.

We also have plenty of Pyramidal Orchids - Anacamptis pyramidalis.

I have been dying fabric to use with one of the fat quarters that I won a few months ago in the spring blog hop from Sherry.

These are the fabrics I have dyed.

I always add some threads when I am dying - the finer one is coton a broder, the thicker one is sashiko thread. Although all three pieces of fabric were gathered up in the same way only the marine violet piece shows the pattern clearly. The other two pieces are larger and I think I was unable to draw them up as tightly.

Here are my fabrics with the fat quarter from Sherry.

 I am pleased with my colour choices and now have to set to work cutting them up.

Thank you for dropping by.

Lin

Indigo and Shibori fabric

For Christmas my niece sent me two lengths of this lovely indigo and shibori - tie dyed - fabric which she bought in Guinea.

Many countries around the world have a tradition of tie dying fabrc - Japan being the most well known. The Japanese term - Shibori - has now become universally used for manipulating fabric before dying.
West Africa has a long tradition of producing tied and stitch resist fabrics and indigo is the traditional colour used.
I found it interesting that a damask fabric was used for this but looking around on the internet it seems to be the fabric of choice in Guinea.

I love the design used for the damask weave.

In these two pictures you can see the holes made by the stitching that forms the resist when the fabric is dyed.

And here you can see some of the resist thread - sometimes left behind on purpose to prove that the fabric is authentic!

The fabric shouted Kaftan to me so that is what I have made with it.



Welcome to Rosa - the latest follower of my blog. Thank you Rosa.


Much warmer here at last and a lovely clear blue sky today.

Lin