About me



I've been a quilter for about 15 years now. I was drawn into quilting through a love of colour (see the story below) dyeing all my own fabrics and have now developed a love of playing around with pattern and free-motion quilting. I have attended a few workshops and learnt much from many books, but most of all I have learnt from doing. Each piece I do sparks of many more in my head (what I call my 'mental-masterpieces' on account of my imaginations great ambitions and ability to overlook all technical and artistic difficulties!) My aim with this blog - a new venture for me - is to record the life of those 'mental-masterpieces' that actually succeed in making it out of my head to become hopefully enjoyable pieces.

The whole of my quilting life began by accident. I was working abroad and one of my treats on my annual holiday home, was to stop off in London and spend a delightful afternoon browsing in one of the really big book shops. I can’t remember what book I was looking for on this occasion, but the book that caught my eye was ‘Dyeing to Quilt’ by Joyce Mori and Cynthia Myerberg. I loved the colours and was absolutely fascinated.  But I was neither a dyer nor a quilter, so there seemed little point in buying it. It went back on the shelf. The next year and a different book store, and suddenly I found myself with the same book in my hands. I remember distinctly looking at a colour gradation showing eight values of the same colour - a delicious blue ... and something in my soul stirred. I was sorely tempted, but, I persuaded myself, the book, and therefore the dyes used, were American and would not be available in the UK. ‘Dyeing to Quilt’ was again returned to its shelf.

Move on another year, another book shop and there again, staring me in the face, was the same book. This time I decided fate really wanted me to have this book, and I returned home with ‘Dyeing to Quilt’ in my bag. My fears over supply were of course unfounded – Procian MX dyes are readily available in the UK (where I had now returned to live). 

One kitchen swathed in protective black bin liners and I was on my way. I started by dyeing two colour runs. I was thrilled and enchanted by the jewel like colour of each 8” square steeping in its dye filled plastic beaker. I was disappointed and perplexed by the greyed apology of a colour that each square possessed once rinsed. The jeweled effect had certainly departed down the plug hole with the spent dye.

With the help of my book, I diagnosed the problem as a lack of urea. My step-father, a retired chemist and inveterate collector of maybe-could-be-possibly-in-the-future-be-useful stuff appeared with half a sack of urea that he had 'rescued' from a disbanded lab years previously. It had been sitting in the garage for years, had gone solid and had (don’t ask me why) got quite a lot of bits of straw in it – but it worked. My next dyeing attempt left me with a washing line full of little squares moving in incremental steps from blue to green. Over the weekend, red to yellow followed and even some experimental browns and bronzes.






Wonderful! I now possessed a collection of colours squares of cloth that delighted me – but what was I going to do with them. The obvious answer was to sew them together. I bought a basic sewing machine. Since I had squares, squares seemed like a good place to start. Much as I love colour and fabric, I am not a fan of traditional patchwork and didn’t want to follow a traditional pattern. I decided that I would chop up and reassemble the squares, making each one different. I had no plan. I just improvised each square, making it up as I did it. It became obvious to me, that each one being different was just going to look muddled, so I decided on a few patterned squares amongst solid colour – rather like bathroom tiles.  I didn’t have quite enough to make it as large as I wanted and at that stage did not have the skill to re-dye matching colours. So I bought some red and yellow fabric, put a broad band of yellow around my squares, then made a border of all the meaning bits a pieces, adding in a sort of log cabin way (although I didn’t know it then) strips of red and a final yellow to complete.

My First Quilt

I had no idea how to quilt in those days, so the layers are joined together with buttons. This is a much loved piece, by both me and cat and is used over knees and under paws on many a cold winter's evening. 

11 comments:

  1. Hello Hilary- what a wonderful story about how you started quilting!

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  2. Hi Kristin,
    Thank you so much for visiting and leaving a comment. It is so encouraging to find other quilters out there, and I will be sure to drop by and explore your blog. Yes, the story is fun isn't it. It really feels like I was meant to start quilting whether I wanted to or not - which of course I now very much do.
    Hilary Florence

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  3. I've just come over from 'The Inbox Jaunt' to have a browse, your comment caught my eye because I live in Devon too! I love the dyed fabrics you use, this is something I'd really like to try myself, so I'm going to have a look at this book that got you started. At the moment the only dyes I've used are the shop bought Dylon dyes which I often use to dye recycled wool pieces I use. Your approach looks far more exciting! Have you ever dyed wool or do you just stick to cotton/linen type fabrics?

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  4. Hi Sally,
    Here abouts in Devon are you? I'm in the south, near Plymouth.
    By all means get the book - it has good basic instructions, but also look online. Go to Melody Johnson's site the lazy dyer - you can get there through the link from my blog to her's - Fibermania which is of the blogs I follow. She has a wealth of useful information. She does not urea, which works for her. I think the water where you live is important. I don't use water softner, as our down here is soft enough.
    The dyes you want are Procion Reactive MX dyes. There are many stockists, but I use Kemtex which you can also find on line. They do good starter packs of the 6 dyes you need to get going, information sheets and are very helpful.
    No, I do not dye wool. You need a different type of dye for this. Procion will dye cotton, linen, silk, jute, wood and you - so wear gloves. Happy dyeing!
    Hilary Florence

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  5. Hi Hilary,
    Many thanks for your kind comment in my blog I'm sorry the translator didn't work but if you have time to pass by again I've now changed the layout and the translator is OK. I've visited your blog with great interest and your free motion quilting is marvellous! I love your colors, they are Lovely!

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  6. Thank you so much for visiting and your lovely comment....(I could not respond directly as you are set as a "no-reply" blogger)

    You know...you say your doodles don't look like mine? But I'll bet if you do what I do....which is draw an outline of an object and then add your pencils lines (like fmq) inside in sections you will come out with a very similar look. :-).

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  7. I think this has happened to a lot of people when they went to google + ???? anyway...in your blog profile there is a spot to insert an email address ...here is a link that is a tutorial on how to make sure your settings are correct http://jenniffier.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/google-profile.html

    Many people are unaware that they are no reply bloggers making it very difficult to respond to comments...can't always track everyone down :-)

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  8. Hi Hilary! Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment! I've just recently finished an indigo piece for a permanent installation, and love that you are using indigo for your cameos. The piece that started out yellow is a wonderful fit into the mix! I've seen so much to inspire me with your various pieces and series, and will be back! Love the story of how you started out, and can feel your nervousness about washing that first quilt.

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  9. Love the story of how you started and what you are achieving. Well done... you are an inspiration.

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  10. What a wonderful story about how you got started quilting! I've never done any dyeing, but the lush colors of fabrics are one of my favorite parts of quilting.

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  11. what a delightful story...and you have certainly found a hidden talent.
    I remember my first venture into quilting - I bought a applique wall hanging pattern, and after doing a fine job on the applique, the pattern said "quilt as desired" !! I had no idea what that meant. I had hoped that the pattern would teach me how to quilt it, I guess! Anyway,, I persevered and learned to quilt!

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