home sweet home

it's been a fabulous year
but it's lovely to be home
the garden is a tad overgrown
 my cat is pleased to see me
and there is work to be done

there have been a couple of withdrawals
from the feltquilt workshop
at Dairy Flat on the north island of lovely New Zealand
drop me a line if you think you might have space in your life
to gather around a dyepot
make soft prefelts
stitch silk and wool cloth into the surface
and bring them together in a snuggly warm wrapping cloth
a feltquilt to take with you on your travels

feltquilts at shakerag

the quiltfelt landskin class very quickly settled into a splendid

sewing circle

many stories and much laughter

we entrusted ourselves entirely to Mother Nature during both this

and the walk in the woods class held the week before

and

[with the exception of kudzu and nepal grass, both noxious weeds]

relied on windfalls from the woods

and a few from the kitchens

to colour our cloth

[although some eucalyptus leaves snukkled in from Florida]

no synthetic mordants were used

only leaves and water

some found metal objects [iron and copper]

and a little milk to assist with dyeing linen and cotton

bio-regional colour...

Shakerag took a gamble

inviting a gypsy from across the Big Puddle

to venture into the Tennessee woods

and teach

and the gypsy is very grateful

crockett cottage studio

we had such a wonderful time at Mansfield earlier in the month

working with stitch and cloth and plant dyes at the beautiful Crockett Cottage Studio

that it was decided there should be not just one retreat held next year, but two

especially as

several brave souls from the first class

have already put their names on the list for next year

the studio is owned by Sally Harvey [who also took the photo above]

a woman of passion and vision

who has beautifully retro-fitted an old cottage

so that it features a lovely big well-lit studio

outdoor dye, print and felt area

with a sweet deck off the kitchen

where one can enjoy the end-of-day sundowner

pleasantly located on the fringe of Mansfield

overlooking the golf course

and with an abundance of interesting flora in the region

it's the perfect place for

gentle sewing circles

drawing

bio-regional dye investigations

and satisfying walks

i left Sally with a list of dye plants

to help inform choices as the gardens are landscaped over the coming year

so as the years pass we'll have even more lovely growing things to choose from

popped over to the studio website [in order to get the photo at top]

and found that several people had very nice things to say about their time there

you can read them here if you like

and here's the plan for 2010

November 1-5 Mapping Country

November 8-12 the FeltQuilt

workshops run 9.30am-4.30 with morning /afternoon teas and vegetarian lunch supplied

cost AUD$590 includes materials kit

the first workshop overlaps the High Country Festival so it's wise to book accommodation early for that one

please click here to send a message if you'd like more detail on the classes

and to see what other workshops are being offered at Crockett Cottage Studio you can access their website here

and last but not least i'd like to wish all the friendlies out there in Blogovnia a very Merry Puddingfest [apply that to whatever you celebrate during the holiday season] and all the very best for the coming year

...i'll be dreaming of a White Christmas

shakerag

i'm delighted to advise that Shakerag have published their workshop details for 2010

and that they're kindly letting me offer two courses there next summer

Quiltfelt Landskin
In the quiltfelt landskin class students will undertake daily windfall walks, dyeing strips of fabric to be used in a layered, pieced, stitched , quilted and ultimately also felted cloth whose gentle colours will reflect those of the woods around us. The pieced cloth will grow organically day by day as small dyed fragments are added, before a gentle wet-fulling process is applied on the last day followed by one final overdye to bring harmony to the piece in the form of a last colour wash.

and

A walk in the woods
Every plant gives some kind of colour, depending on how it is processed. This class will embrace a number of methods for colour extraction as well as protocols for plant collection and plant identification.

Participants will explore the local area around Shakerag through writing, drawing, stitching, and dyeing, taking mindful windfall walks, mapping marks, observing and responding to the essence of the woods.

During the week we will dye silk and wool, using windfall leaves from the woods, and construct a series of small leaf-illustrated textile notebooks that will be both maps of the journey taken and documents recording the week’s explorations.

We will work with plant dyes, stitching, paper, and cloth.

this of course allows me my [fast becoming annual] pilgrimage to San Francisco [don't worry, we're planting trees here to make up for all those flights]

and

means that i'll be stateside when Eco Colour [the American version] is published there on July 1, 2010

the fabric of society

i have terrible trouble with bookshops. somehow books attach themselves to me like magnets and beg to come home. this delightful book leapt at me recently in that mecca for booklovers, Kinokuniya in Sydney.

Annette Gero has collected exquisite images of all sorts of quilts i never knew existed along with photographs of the makers and stories about the making.

another source that's recently come to my attention is the International Quilt Study Centre and Museum.  located in far distant Nebraska this museum can be browsed over a cup of tea via the internet.

well worth a visit...