Pastel heaven

Here in the southern hemisphere, comments are often made on our vibrant use of colour, due, no doubt, to the harsh quality of our light and considerable quantities of ultraviolet.

However, there are times when we crave for pastels. Below are a pile of fat quarters that I've made this weekend, in very subtle pastel shades. Sorry about the rather fuzzy photo. This lot is called "Aurora" after the southern lights of the same name. OK, you have these in the north as well, but these are OUR ones.

I've also made another smaller set called "Monet's Garden" which I really love. Click on the photo for more detail and to see how the shades intermingle.

I have been very influenced by the Impressionist painters as a gardener, and just LOVE the sorts of gardens they produced.

This fabric has actually been double-dyed. I blended all this fabric up yesterday, and then when I washde it, I found all the pink, brown and purple had disappeared. This explained why some of my students expereienced "washout" during Symposium - I thought it must have been the soda ash, but I have now traced the problem to

fuchsia dye that I had bought from another supplier here in NZ. I normally import all my dyes, but I had stocked up with some of the basic colours locally to ensure that I had sufficient for my classes. Whew! I'm glad that was solved, as in class, I assumed I had made a stuff-up which wasn't a good look. I've let all those in the classes who gave me their email addresses know.