Finding Inspiration

The first image is a close-up of a salt bag I purchased in Syria. I really love the colours in this and would really like to make a quilt using these colours. However I am not terribly fond of piecing and I don't want it to look exactly like the carpet- I would rather work from the "inspiration" of the woven salt bag- that is finding my own way to express what it is I like about the salt bag.

I also decided to put images up of two smallish quilts I made sometime ago ( 2006 and they measure 20 inches x 24 inches) as they are for sale. The bluish one which has a hand painted background using the African painting technique, layered with lutradur and machine stitched costs $250US inclusive of postage. The second quilt also has a hand painted background using the African technique, and has been layered with hand dyed scrim and has been quilted using entirely french knots and as such took a lot more work so it is priced at $350US inclusive of postage.However as I put the photos up on my monitor I realised the second quilt might be a way to think about the salt bag. A hand painted background using the colours of the salt bag and then layered with a deep hued plum coloured scrim( or maybe lutradur) and then stitched- hand or machine? Don't know yet, I want to have a little think about that one- I am tempted by the scrim idea- but as I want to make the piece longish I will have to find some way of stitching other than french knots ( which take ages, though the effect is rather lovely)- perhaps a coarser hand dyed cotton?

And someone asked about which textile inks I use. I use normal textile inks used for screen printing- they have the consistency of a thickish custard. I often use the base extender also know as uni-base and add my own pigments which I purchase from Kraftkolour. As I do a lot of printing this is the cheapest way to buy textile inks. I also use Laura Liebenberg's Trapsuutjies textile paints. Their consistency is excellent for the type of work I showed in the previous blog post- however I can only bring so much home in my suitcase unfortunately- and I seem to have an excess of lime green and bordeaux colours and no yellow/ orange or denim which I need.

The kids and I think we may have found the house we want to build . Most houses are beyond my means and those that I thought I may be able to aspire to don't have the right sort of ambience for the environment in which we live. The one we have found is very modest but I think will fit in well with the ambience of the block on which it will be built and I wanted something that did not have a big footprint and perhaps double story to take advantage of the views. I will have to save desperately hard in order to do it- but as there is some time before it can be built I know I can do the smell of an oily rag stuff. I can actually see it built- have marked out the place and am busy "visualising" its presence . And I won't have to chop down a very delicate Japanese liquid amber which would have been the case for another house with a bigger footprint- in autumn it goes the most glorious red.