Week 2 of #AtoZchallenge2021Quilt (Art)

I've managed to stay organised and on time for week 2 of the #AtoZchallenge2021Quilt (Art). My next challenge is to do the same for week 3 😊 I want to say thank you to Frédérique for hosting this wonderful challenge.💝 If you didn't catch my posts on Instagram or through Frédérique's daily linking parties, here is the recap with bonus material.

D is for Dyeing fabric and thread

The first image is of all the perle cotton (#8 and #12) that I dyed in the last year. The very bright pink (there are technically 2 different shades but I can't really tell them apart), was dyed last July. You can access the posts in Related links below.  

The gray was done a month later while the other colours were dyed in two different batches in February of this year, but I haven't posted about those yet.

Perle Cotton dyed in the last year

The purple cotton was also dyed in February. There was no fancy tying, just rolling it up and tying where I could with hair ties. I just love the effect. Of course I have to idea what I'll be doing with it, but I'm sure that it will be perfect for a project one day!

Lovely purple dyed fabric

In the second batch of dying that I did in February, I dyed a white bamboo fitted sheet for my daughter. If this doesn't make for happy dreams, I don't know what will!

Bamboo fitted sheet for great dreams

E is for Embroidery Stitches

These are my three favourite meditation blocks on the Traveller’s Blanket (so far). There is a house, seascape, a rose block and lots of different embroidery stitches. The embroidery included blanket stitch, cording, cross stitch, French knots, back stitch, chain stitch, stem stitch, satin stitch and fly stitch. 

For the house block, I appliquéd the house onto some hand-dyed fabric. I had a lot of fun embroidering the block itself and then around it on the blanket. I forgot to add the Palestrina stitch on my list of stitches. It's the outside border stitch that looks like lace. It's time consuming but super easy to do. 

The house block - love the Palestrina stitch

This one is called the Shining rose block. Once upon a time I had stitched a rose on a napkin, but obviously never got around to making the whole set. At some point, I dyed the napkin and then cut it up to make this meditation block. I added shiny ribbon that I save up when I buy things and used metallic floss.

The Shining Rose block surrounded by chain stitch

I made this block after making the seashell container (see G for Grommet below). I used dyed cheese cloth over a piece of dyed cloth. I added the seashells and lots of stitching. The seashells come from a necklace that I purchased on a trip. That's how I get a lot of my lovely beads, stones and shells!

The seascape block with variations of the fly stitch

F is for Free Motion Quilting (FMQ)

The piece is Lone Tree 2: Tired or Overachiever?  It was part of the Colour Unboxed Exhibition with the Out Of The Box fibre artists group (OOTB). I learned a lot when making this piece, especially about the importance of value in design.

Lone Tree 2: Tired or Overachiever?
It features tons of free motion quilting

G is for Grommet

The piece is a Seashell Container made during a workshop with Debbie Lyddon through the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club. It was the first time that I hand-stitched a grommet. 

Seashell Container with hand-stitched grommets

Inside the Seashell Container

Front of Seashell Container

H is for Hexies

This piece is Sweet Memories: Northern Lights It was the first time that I did English Paper Piecing (EPP) and it was love at first try! It's also about the night that I was speaking on the phone to my mother, who was about 600 km (350 miles) away. I was looking out the north facing window and saw the Northern Lights. I told my mother this and she went to her office window and we watched them together. It was indeed a sweet memory. 

Sweet Memories: Northern Lights
featuring English Paper Pieced hexies

I is for Improv Piecing

The piece is Exit Strategy 1. It’s all about trying out new techniques on a foundation of improv pieced batik fabric.

Exit Strategy - made on an improv pieced background

I learned many techniques while making Exit Strategy and it took me over a year to finish. If you want to read about it, see the link to the Exit Strategy page in Related links.

What I learned

• I have finally mastered the art of copying and pasting my information and adding one or two images in Instagram. You see, practice does help 😊 I've also gotten much better at linking my Instagram post to Frédérique's linking party. Yeah me!!!
• I haven't mastered the art of getting up early to post though. Let's face it, it doesn't really matter what time I post as long as it's within the day. One night I couldn't sleep and it was posted at 4 am. Hopefully that won't happen again!
• My secret to participating is being organised. It was easy to write the post for week 1 since it was only three days. This post took me much longer. However, since I included all of the blog posts in my working document, it did make it easier.
• I'm now going to start getting ready for week 3. Although I have my words figured out, it will start getting more difficult to find examples of work that I haven't previously used.

Related links

• Frédérique's Quilting Patchwork Appliqué
• Dyeing Thread
• Mark-making & Dyeing perle cotton, July 27, 2020
• OMG and slow stitching projects update, August 03, 202
• Traveller's Blanket and Meditation Stitching posts
• More learning with the Traveller's Blanket, May 19, 2020
• More slow stitching, meditation style, January 19, 2020
• More hand-stitching fun, June 08, 2020
• Palestrina stitch, the last demo on FIVE stitches for lettering in hand embroidery, Sarah Homfray, YouTube
• Colour Unboxed Exhibition, January 24, 2017
• More hand-stitching fun, June 08, 2020
• Five Years - 150 Posts, March 06, 2017
• Exit Strategy page

Linking parties

I will be linking up to Frédérique's Patchwork & Quilts as well as Free Motion Mavericks with Muv (I'll be hosting on Thursday). Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap!, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Peacock Party, Off The Wall Friday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday,