Mar 25, 2011

Boro Cloth and Family Time

We had DGD and DIL with us this last week so not much blog visiting lately. Our DS and his family lives 8 hours drive away from us so we don't get to see them too often except on Skype. It was lovely to spend time with them. We went to the beach on Saturday which was a very nice day out together. Too cold for a swim but not too cold to dip your toes in the water. One day I took them to my favorite place, yes you guess right, Ziguzagu! It's never too early to introduce DGD to fabric!
I have finally completed the Sashiko motive on my BORO cloth. It looks great on the worn piece of indigo fabric. It's so satisfying giving a new life to an old cloth.  
An indigo piece I got from Glennis D0lce  is now stitched. A lot of stitching for a small piece but I really enjoyed it and it lifted the whole cloth so much with those tiny stitches. 
The moon is shining on BORO cloth! I decided to use blue and white threads on this piece. It's a lopsided moon because that was how it turned out in the dye bath.  
This is how my BORO cloth looks with more stitching on it. I just love working on this cloth. There is no quarter inch to worry about! What I love best is the freedom of stitches I can create as I move from one patch to the next. The true BORO cloth only has straight stitching, but that is no fun when you can just do curves and circles so I decided to do the latter. 
DIL and I had a few stitching sessions together in the evening after DGD went to bed. DIL got herself  some vintage kimono pieces at Ziguzagu to make her very own BORO cloth. She only found the green, red and white and the gray piece. The rest of her pieces were from my box and the indigo piece was from the indigo dyeing we did together one day. She wants this piece for her bedroom wall.
I have been dyeing using Procion dye powder in indigo shade. The purple/blue ones had been over dyed. It is silk thread and I wasn't happy with the dyeing the first time so I dipped it in indigo dye and I'm now happy with it. The white ball on the right is linen that I got from Camberwell market on Sunday and the dark tan spool is also linen. All of them are best for hand stitching on BORO cloth. 
Original BORO cloth hanging at Ziguzagu. It was a duvet cover. Very well used and loved. Lots of torn pieces and stitching. I forgot to see how old it is, but it cost $285. I didn't get it, but from what I have seen on the internet, $285 is a bargain.  
Some photos to share. DGD at Ziguzagu and the beach. She might be too small for some displays, but she had a ball getting into remnants tubs. She checked out indigo fabric and I think she likes them best, surprise surprise. The day at the beach was a treasure. Mr NJN takes the opportunity to have a cat nap!



2 comments:

  1. oh your GD is a delight to see. she'll be stitching away before you know it. so many interesting photos to look at. i'm loving your boro cloth and all that beautiful thread. you sure do keep yourself busy.

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  2. i'm just realizing this is an old post. i thought it looked familiar. nice to see it all again. i guess you're moving things to another blog. confused.

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