Bright Spots

This morning when I basted another block for Palace of the Soul, I included a bright spot of red, which is not really as bright as in this photo, but echoes the colour of another part of the cloth. And then I went to get the mail and experienced another bright spot in my day: the arrival of a bobbin lace pouch from Deanna that I won last month on her blog at: http://eclectic-meanderings.blogspot.com/. Thank you Deanna! I love the fine lace and the colour

matched the ocean today

where I saw more bright spots like this arbutus bark and a chartreuse golf ball in the sea froth

and then there was this creature buried and emerging from the sand,

which I missed at first, as I walked by, because it was covered with water, but then I went back for a look when several seagulls circled above me and one dived to inspect what it may have thought were crab legs but are actually rope. I was fooled, too.

Securing Expansion

I decided I needed to start fastening all my bits down, today. And I filled some gaps like the lower right corner in this photo.

I attached these and cut off the bottom which had been hidden behind other fabrics.

And I basted half of this and am recovering alot of pins.

But the big news for me today is finding a table I can use for laying things out, cutting and sewing, with a storage shelf below! I don't have room for it yet, but I expect to set it up sometime in December.

This and That

Here are some fabric scraps gathering ready for Jude Hill's Contemporary Woven Boro class and sorting through them is like taking a trip down memory lane for the last four years. I have alot of colour and fewer neutrals. I've also been basting fabric weavings and it's good to regain those pins, as I know I'll be needing them!

I've also been finishing my machine thread colour scales for my other class, and I overdyed these fabrics - adding bright green and magenta. They're more interesting now, but I may do another round of colour. I am curious about how different methods of dyeing compare to each other. I used low immersion methods here - with three hours of batching and a different recipe and the results are as vibrant as the tray dyeing. It seems to me there's room for alot of leeway.

And serenditpity plays a large role, too.

Fall

More basting today, with a few leaves falling from the trees...

Basting Season

While turkey will be my basting focus this Thanksgiving weekend, for now I have been basting together some fabric weavings I started in Jude Hill's Cloth to Cloth class earlier this year - I really need those pins! Some quilting stitches have snuck on there, too.

Roses Are Red...

After cutting some of the last roses in my yard, I just couldn't waste the lovely green leaves... So I tried using them to dye cotton.

Here is the entire half metre piece and there are a few longish Eucalyptus leaves I threw in, as well.

And this piece is now basted and ready to quilt.