Farewell Mongolia

Thanks for the friendship, sharing and welcoming me to your community! I have had a wonderful time during the Winter months in Ulaanbaatar. I hope I can return, in the future, during Summer to enjoy Nadaam festivities. Happy stitching!

Crazy patchwork in silk

Ideas from paper into reality, with the creative energies of a team and stitching skills of experienced sewing women from the Mongolian Quilt Centre, made us all feel very happy.

 

Heading home

March has passed quickly with time spent in the lovely company of stitching friends at the Mongolian Quilt Centre in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Apart from teaching classes about the colour wheel and table runners, product development has been a very creative exercise.

The recycling of silk scraps via crazy patchwork piecing is a hallmark of the centre. Using these patched pieces in new ways is exciting.

Here we see a purse front made in silk. It is backed with cotton, lined and zipper stitched in.

Looking beautiful, useful and ready for the tourist season beginning in earnest in June.

 

Life in a freezer- day 3 continued

My third day in UB was busy and after coffee I went to see my friend Selenge Tserendash who established the New Way Life Mongolian Quilts to empower disadvantaged women to earn a living. It had been 3 years since I was last at the shop/office and I noticed changes in what was being stitched. Mongolian motifs and cultural influences are now making their way into quilt designs and small sales items.

Here Selenge shows me a Hobby Horse made from offcuts from the Gobi cashmere factory- recycling at it's best and she is proud of their 70%  use of these otherwise waste products. The cashmere is so lovely and soft and baby blankets have also been made, as in the photo below.

Stitching is underway for the Christmas Fair in November with Advent hangings made with cute horses, gers and a camel or two.

I loved this Christmas tree with items velcroed to the tree.

 This tree was made of silk offcuts while the patched Bactrian camel uses cashmere offcuts. In the weeks ahead I will be spending more of my time with this group of industrious women.

A quilty day

Discovered the ETC Every Thread Counts patchwork shop on the corner of 6th and State Street Hood River. The wine tasting room next door is only open on weekends unfortunately for Bob, but they did have a very comfortable 'man' chair.

So Bob was happy while I browsed and picked out a few bargains in the reduced section. There is no added sales tax in Oregon so I thought I should make the most of that with 4 yards now in my suitcase.

Dottie was on her own today as Mum was looking after a sick goat.

At the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center a crazy quilt adorned one of the covered wagons. The early pioneers had a dangerous time crossing the rivers on these log rafts with their wagons.

The modern synthetic fabrics effectively age this crazy patch quilt.

And to finish off our day we found this flour sack contemporary quilt at the Sunshine Mill, a converted flour mill which now hosts wine tastings.

 

 

Floor mosaics

These floor mosaics were found when digging was underway for an underground garage. They are now beautifully preserved and open to the public in the Domus of Stone Carpets under a church in Ravenna. This is the Dance of the Spirits of the Seasons.

This was a large house and each room had a different floor patterning. Many designs are familiar to us today as patchwork patterns.

 

Patchwork

Found a patchwork shop in Gallipoli, with a very small selection of fabrics, that were mostly 10 euro a metre. The sewing goods were inside a fishing shop, so probably good for bored husbands, if they like fishing.

For a small space it was well stocked with ribbons, trims, wadding, lining and interfacings, threads etc. I'm hoping to find a larger patchwork shop in the next week or two but this had a steady stream of women customers, not so many fishermen.

I got a red spot fabric, as the plain white cotton I was looking for was not available, and have been printing some old balustrade on it.

Bob is my spotter for traffic, but I can generally hear them coming down the Gallipoli laneways. This was a small one!

Lots of room to spare there!

And this is the spot Bob got our hire car through without a scratch! It is the narrow, pinch point in the 'street'.

Another one coming through. Most local cars have dings in their body work.

Pot plants, washing, pedestrians and other objects are part of the driving skills test!