Pleated squares

Got the sewing machine back, finally repaired, so going to make some pleated squares. I have always wanted to try the technique, so here goes.

Drew lines 5cm apart horizontally and vertically. Ironed the vertical lines and then with purple thread sewed 0.5cm from the fold line. Wasn’t certain which way to push the pleats so on the first row horizontally I pulled the pleated towards me, and sewed in the same direction so all the pleats were turned the same way.

Vertically when I sewed I alternated the direction of the pleats, so sometime the “box” felt very small with the top and bottom pleat facing in, and then on the next row, these were facing out.
Decided to see “what if” so on every second seam a tight zigzag instead of a straight stitch.

Maybe I should have used metallic thread, but I like the contrast look the purple thread provides. A simple textural quilt. Would look nice in silk or shot taffeta, but would be slippery to sew.

Bush Walk

I hope that the Christmas break was just what you needed. I have spent time at the lake, just swimming and lazying about.

I want to try some “Sun Dye-ing. Dye the fabric, place object on the fabric, secure and leave in the sun. The dye wicks from under the objects so the dye appears around the objects.
Picked up lancewood leaves and leaf skeletons while walking up Mt Ngongotaha. Made up a green/blue textile ink solution and painted half the fabric. Then mixed in some more blue to make it darker green and a splash of red, which I didn’t fully mix, and I wanted to see “what would happen if”.

The leaves and skeletons were pinned in random manner to the painted fabric, and left it in the sun to dry. Amazing, the fine leaf skeletons work and look so delicate. The solid lancewood leaves had blurred edges, due to the wind, so need to pin more surely. Tried the technique on woven flax with ponga fern, but the ink absorbed straight into the flax – it didn’t work.
To add texture to the sun dyed fabric, I made a stencil with leaves with freezer paper, and rubbed gold, copper, silver and green paint sticks around the stencil, and brushed the paint inwards, to create a translucent effect.

I hand quilted leave shapes with gold metallic thread, and variegated green around the leaves.
Couched some “jazz” yarn in 3 meandering lines, creating a vertical composition.
I know you can buy some special Helio (sun dying) paints, but for my experiment the textile ink worked okay. Will consider using this technique again.