Alternative Quilting Read On

Alternative quilting or sane quilting are types of creativity. I have been quilting since 1992, a long time right? I finished many quilts and started lots of UFOs. A lot of my quilts were in exhibitions and some have been published. That's not important here; the most important thing is I'm creating, learning and trying new skills. These days I'm creating alternative quilts using recycled fabric, vintage fabric and re-purposed fabric from used clothing. I am also dyeing my own fabric using Procion dye, eco and natural dyeing. This BORO quilt I'm making for my future blue and white studio at Seabird is taking shape. I have started putting 

some stitching on it now. 

Some pieces in the BORO quilt are thin and worn, so to strengthen it I stitched over it using sashiko design stitching. I love this pattern (I will get the name later) because it has two birds. The birds represent Mr Notjustnat and I who flew from different parts of the world to unite, hence I named our new property Seabird.  

Some more stitching on another part of the quilt. Criss cross stitching. A bit more to go yet. I'm trying to apply all different stitching in all patches. The quilt will be strong and decorative at the same time. 

Another part of the quilt with my hand dyed indigo moon. A few stitches are starting to immerse on the moon. I will add more stitches in cream on it later. 

I want to share this book I got from Ziguzagu a few weeks ago with you. It's a great book of modern BORO quilts. The thing is I didn't know the name of the book. It's in Japanese but I can understand the instructions. I was looking and looking and found in the smallest print the name of the author in English. I searched and searched on the internet and in the end I found it. This book is by: Junko Maeda and it's called "Days with stitching on cloth" I found it on Bemused blog. She has some photos on her blog too, so go and have a read. 

What else have I been creating? Well I have tried weaving! It was another one of Jude's influences. My very first weaving apart from basket weaving.  I have woven with my homemade loom. It was an old tapestry frame I got from an op-shop. I nailed brass nails on the longer ends and tied thick hand dyed strings firmly on them. It was only a trial run, but I'm happy with how they turned out. The left one uses strips of indigo fabric and the right one uses sari silk yarn.  

After trying traditional weaving it occurred to me that I can use the same weaving technique as basket weaving so that is what I did with the indigo and sari silk yarn. I can hear a voice in my head asking me what will I do with them? Well, I can either add them on to my slow cloth project or attach them onto Christmas parcels as tags...yes something different right? 

Now and then

I visited a friend last week and spotted this basket. The basket I had given her husband Dr Raphael Zimmerman as a gift for the opening of his exhibition 5 years ago. It sits on their kitchen bench with potatoes and onions in it. I am surprised how much it changed from when I first made it. The color of natural fibre has turned golden brown. Very beautiful actually. What a shame I can't have it back...!

I went to Quilts in the Barn this morning. It was wonderful and I took lots of photos. It will still be on tomorrow (Sunday), so it's not too late if you live locally to visit. You will see some gorgeous quilts here soon.