La France est en deuil

la France est en deuil, nous sommes en deuil.........

I was in Felletin

This year I went, like last year, to Felletin for La Journée de la laine (the day of the yarn).
in the morning I followed a workshop in crochet free form .
We made a brooch and arrived at home  immediately I made two more.
There was a lot of yarnbombing in the village, i especially loved the  idea of using  cardboard boxes to make  heads, so easy peasy and so cute.

I bought yarn to make this shawl, a pattern from Stephen West. The yarn is silk&wool from Bart & Francis.

Photo exhibition in Paris

Two weeks ago i was in Paris for a one-day-visit.  I wanted to see the  photo exhibition on the Quai Branly, next to the Eiffel Tower.
The theme this year was was : We are family.

When you are in Paris it is worth going to visit the exhibition.

Postcrossing quilt 4

I still do Postcrossing, I send postcards and I receive postcards, sometimes with a piece of fabric  for my postcrossing quilt;

Early this summer i made some blocks, as colorful as usual with fabric from all over the world....

And there are more pieces of fabric waiting. Yesterday I received some beautiful pieces from Scotland and some from Finland!

Indigo dyeing in Urciers

Urciers is the small village where I live, about 300 km south to Paris. Maybe it is better to call uUciers a hamlet, there are only 260 inhabitants!
After my dyeing experience in Bordeaux, i wanted to dye at home. I made a natural indigo vat, the reducer was fructose.
The first day the vat looked in a perfect condition but the blue was rather pale, even after 5 dips.
Two days later there was nu metallic shine, no flower on the surface of the vat, but the color was much deeper blue. I don't understand, there is still a lot learn about this magic indigo dyeing.

This week i will finish some children bags for the Christmas market, so next i will work with this fabric to make some bags.

Indigo dyeing in Bordeaux and in Japan

Oh my it is so long ago that I wrote a blogpost.
There are so many things to tell and to show you. At the moment I am working for the coming Christmas market . We had a splendid summer but weather was too hot to do any crafting, so i am far behind..........
But let's start at the beginning of september.
As you maybe remember i went to Bordeaux last year for an indigo workshop , given by Caroline.
I told Caroline that I really wanted to go to Japan for a ten days workshop. For several reasons I cancelled my registration but Caroline took my place and she went to Japan in may this year and it was a fabulous experience for her!

This was the view from her bedroom window.

The group was located in the house where the workshop teacher lived, an old traditional wooden house , rice paper on the walls, handmade traditional fabric everywhere.

The group learned several shibori techniques.....

Back home Caroline invited me to come again to Bordeaux to share with me the techniques she learned in Japan and of course to show me lots of photo's.

Her indigo vat was in a very good condition and we started to work .....

I made this masterpiece, it measures about 1.50 x 1.10.

The fabric was folded around a pole, that took me about three hours.

Caroline showed me how to manage the fabric with elastic rings,  while folding.

After folding the fabric was pressed together and ready for dyeing.

I dipped seven times........

After the unwrapping we were both very happy with the result.

Last weekend I dyed fabric to make bags for the Christmas market. I will show you some photo's soon.

Eco bundles and how you could use the eco dyed fabric

Some of you asked in my last post which were my projects with all those small and bigger pieces of eco dyed fabric.
Here are some examples.

A cushion cover.

a bag for the christmas market

the back

another bag

the back

I even used the fabric with no good prints and i am very glad with the results!