Experimenting...

Yesterday, I tried out a few ideas on the design board, with dark and medium grey...
and little leftover scraps of home-dyed chartreuse...
Then, this morning, I chose another approach, using Photoshop Elements and playing with layers. Now, I've got two designs that I like.
I will do some samples with fabric and threads this afternoon and see if they could work in real life.
In the meantime, I leave you with two pictures that were among my potential inspiration sources for a grey quilt. One taken in China...
and the other one in Brittany...

More grisaille

I dyed 12 pieces of fabric in grey yesterday. This one is my favourite...
It reminds me of this picture I took a few years ago in Beijing hutongs.
Here are my other dyed pieces, nicely ironed.
Last week, I bought 4 or 5 very large cotton bedsheets in a thrift shop, and this is what I used as fabric for my dyeing session of yesterday. I am always amazed at how well this old fabric takes up the dye.
I have probably abandoned the idea of adding a dash of pink to my grey fabrics. Now I'm thinking green and yellow (or gold)...
Most probably because of this picture...
My biggest problem with the fabric piece at the top of this post is that it's about 20x20, which means I'll have to cut it up if I want to use it for the 12x12 challenge.

Grisaille

I chose a few grey pictures in my photo albums and played with them on the computer. I rather like this one, after a few filters and effects.
But I'm not sure I will go this way, because it reminds me a bit too much of my BlueWhiteBlack 12x12 piece.
I also picked these two...
I think they have potential.
I've got a few more of these, but first I want to show you what I did this afternoon. While cleaning my studio this week, I found my old tiny wooden loom. I chose some grey thread and yarn from my stash, and today, I spent a couple of hours playing...
I couldn't resist dressing up the second piece as a smiling little creature.
I've been spending a lot of time with my cute little GD these days. Does it show?

Some news

Two weeks ago, after posting my 12x12 "Spice" quilt, I decided it was time to sew the next pages of my Colorplay-inspired fabric book.
I cleaned up the studio and sorted my hand-dyed fabrics. Then I started to work on the "Eggplant" page... Two weeks later, I'm a bit embarassed to say that my table is still in the same state...
In the meantime, I wasn't completely idle... I took care of my little GD for several days, and I sewed a few "useful" items for the home and for myself, but I didn't manage to find the energy to do any creative quilting. Anyway, yesterday, at last, I crawled back to the studio and selected some grey hand-dyed fabrics for the next Twelve by Twelve Colorplay challenge.
The same fabrics with a few chartreuse pieces...
Note to myself: I could also add a dash of pink!
I think I'm back. :-)

The winner...

La gagnante du tirage au sort est...
Chère Joëlle, dès que j'ai votre adresse postale, je vous envoie le livre!
And thank you to everyone who left a comment on my blog!
Today I plan to work on that black shirt that I started months ago...
I bought the fabric last year in Sapporo, and the pattern I'm using is from Burda.
Today it is supposed to rain, at last. But we only had a few drops this morning, and now the sky is blue again. The lavender is thriving with this amazing weather we've been enjoying for several weeks.

Sunset Tide

A few weeks ago, I was sitting beside an estuary in Wales on a nice and quiet evening. The tide was out and there was an almost perfect symmetry between the far away mountain and the shape of the foreground rock. I did a quick little sketch because I knew I had to make a quilt out of this.
Back home, I did more sketches, simplifying the landscape until I was happy with it. This became my Spice quilt.
Here are some details...
I've had a hard time photographing this quilt. The colours seem to be changing all the time.
And, of course, today is the reveal of the Spice Colourplay challenge on the Twelve by Twelve blog.