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

Some Kind of Wonderful...

..is the name of a book by Anni Downs which I had seen mentioned on several blogs. I liked the work that I saw which had been produced using the book and although it is totaly not my usual sort of thing! I sent for a copy.
And I am very pleased that I did. There are some really lovely ideas in the book which will be great starting points for projects. The instructions are clear and easy to follow and Anni's embroidery designs are quirky and original.
These two items caught my eye and as I needed some handwork to take with me to UK last April they seemed and ideal project.

Sewing bag with matching pin cushion.

The bag is about 7" x 9" and 3" deep. The little sqaure patches are 1". I enjoyed doing some embroidery again and hand piecing is always relaxing. It is the first time that I have constructed a bag like this so it was good to learn.

I do wish that I had padded the handles and a little quilting on the gusset would have been good. I did machine quilt the sides of the bag to the lining as I felt it needed it to be firmer.

Having completed these two projects I spent some time tidying away the leftover scraps of fabric from my Mystery Quilt. Some of them were cut into squares for my Scrap Therapy collection, others machined together into 4 1/2" blocks to add to my collection for a Super Scrappy Quilt.

We are having a really horrible cold, wet spring here - this afternoon we have had  torrential rain although it is brightening now. Maybe we shall see the sun tomorrow.

Thank you for dropping by.

Lin

Another Mystery - solved!

Clues 5 and 6 are now finished and I have my quilt top complete.

Fortunately it has been dry today so I was able to spread this outside to photograph - it is quite a large quilt.

The photographs do not really do the colours justice but I am mostly pleased with my choices and I do like the design.

The outer border was a close run thing though!

Putting this away now for quilting next winter - lots of other projects to complete and lots of new ones in my head!

Thank you for dropping by.

Lin xx

Another Mystery - Clue 4 and Bourdeilles!

This clue took quite a while to complete and now the end is in sight. Do wish I had some more of the light bamboo fabric.

Family visiting, so dodging the showers, we went out for a drive this morning. Bourdeilles is about 15 minutes from here and on the river Dronne - the same river that we overlook. 

The Chateau dates from the 13th century and the small attractive town overlooking the river is worth a visit.

Thank you for stopping by - the mystery will soon be revealed!

Lin

Another Mystery - clue no 3 complete

Another Mystery - clues 1 and 2 complete!