Shibori Dyeing Class

Friday was so much fun.  Bre works 4 day weeks so she was off and she had rescheduled the shibori class we were meant to take in May.  We were both pretty stoked about it.   Driving to the shop we went across the longest bridge in Melbourne.  It was really beautiful.

We were a little early so we had some amazing pastry at a local shop.  I'm telling you, there are these little places every other block and they all have wonderful food.  This place is definitely a foodies paradise.  I had an apple croissant and Bre had a chocolate coffee cake kind of thingy.  Both were delicious.

We walked a couple blocks back to the Handmaker's Factory where we met Nichola, the instructor.  She is a cute, perky woman who has this amazing studio to teach different crafts. 

She had been very gracious about rescheduling our class while I was here.  We waited a few minutes for the third lady, Masha, to join us as she had the wrong time for the class start.  Nichola is a great teacher and very organized.  She had two big pots of the indigo dye cooking when we arrived and had set up all the towels and blankets.  She had a printout of all the instructions so we didn't have to worry about taking notes and could focus on the experience.

She demonstrated 3 different techniques before we got started and then it was off to the races with us starting out trying all three techniques on fat quarter size light cotton.  They all turned out so pretty.  Then we got a scarf size piece that we could try anything on.  I used all three techniques on mine.  Awesome.  It was great she had all the right equipment for all of us to do what we wanted at the same time.

We broke for lunch and Bre and I walked a couple doors down for Japanese food.

I had this great Udon noodle dish.  Yum.   There was a gentleman sitting outside the restaurant with the cutest little Yorkie.  Bre had to stop for a cuddle.

In the afternoon, we were free to dye whatever we brought so I did a light weight hoodie I ordered before I left.   I was pretty pleased with the results.  Bre dyed some t-towels the she had ordered from the U.S. they turned out amazing.  She really had a great knack with the plastic discs.

It was a lovely day, learning new things, meeting new people, and sharing a great experience.

On the way home, we stopped at a quilt shop that Nichola recommended, Amitie Textiles.  This is a very cute little shop with a lot of beautiful fabric.  There were some really cute patterns and a whole wall of notions.  I picked up a set of hexie templates.  Almost every store I've been in so far has had a plethora of English Paper Piecing notions.  Love it.  I've worked a little on the ones I've brought with me and it is very relaxing.  There were three ladies in the shop and they were all very helpful.  They had some fabric that wasn't exactly quilter's cotton and wasn't linen either so I asked about it and found out it was double gauze.  Not something I've seen much of in the U.S.   So a bought half a meter of the cutest French Bulldog with glasses fabric.   Such fun.

It was a really nice day with Bre.  Love spending time with her and learning stuff too.  Life is good.