Bye, bye...

Finally...
This blog and the shop both will be closed by the end of
the month. It has been a long time, and times have changed.

A few fabric packs are still in the shop, and a few scraps
still waiting in a basket here have been added for a final
sale, which will last till February 28.

All best, everyone, and farewell...!

New packs...

New fabric packs in the shop.
Combined shipping international has to cost 3 € more from now on, so there will be
a little gift with each order this time: a spring bulb collage...

Scraps etc...

Just updated these and more to the shop.

Next week...

Pastel shades, attempting to defuse January's leaden greys...
They will be in the shop next Tuesday.

Shop update...

After a break of several weeks, HG handmade is back into
business with new plant dyed fabric packs – at the relatively
new (but old, in fact, as I've started out there many
years ago, and hopped back and force between there and Etsy
quite a few times...) location:
heikegerbig.bigcartel.com.

No...

No activities here for the time being.

To see what textile art supplies etc. I have on the shelves, please visit my shop (see sidebar) and/or send me an e-mail to hgerbig(at)gmail.com to receive my newsletter (about twice a month).

Thanks for your interest, all best!
H.G.

Studies in neutrals...

I admit it: I like beginnings better than carry-ons.
But there might be people who like the carry-on and enjoy a start being made already.
Four beginnings are in the shop today...


"Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.”
(Meister Eckhart)

Surprise...

... in a box. New in the shop.



"Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise."
(Alice Walker)

A reliable, but capricious root...

Some fresh scraps, dyed with ratanhia.
It's pleasant, easy to handle dye material.
I buy the dried root, it looks like this:





But it has, as most of that stuff, it's own will.
This time – quite red.
Last time I used it – beige to brownish:





Both times – out of the same bag...

Flowers...

Six flower patches are new in the shop, all hand sewn with plant dyed and vintage fabrics on stitched fragments from my stash...


"A flower blossoms for its own joy."

(Oscar Wilde)

More birds, stitched this time...

Pictured above is a bundle of bird things I made lately –
machine stitched bird images, and machine hand written bird quotes, for example this one:

Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels
bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same,
knowing she has wings.

(Victor Hugo)


It's all in the shop.

Birds and bark...

... cotton and linen, printed with a hand carved bird stamp.








... and bags of scraps, dyed – no, not avocado: with linden bark...

New today...

Little distractions + fresh fabrics...

It's time consuming, but I enjoy making little tags...

Avocado abundance...

All dyed with the skin of a single avocado.
Four bags of it are in the shop.

And I'm not done with the Spring bulbs yet:



These are a miniature version of the ones I made the sewing pattern for – I just didn't add a seam allowance to the templates...

Hibiscus and logwood...

... a pleasant combination: the hibiscus turns the logwood's lilac boldness into a quite poetic (and much needed, I think) vagueness.
Some scraps and packs are in the shop.

Spring bulbs...

Though a winter person, I find myself awaiting Spring with an uncharacteristic impatience.

I greet and admire every little sprout I encounter on my walks.
They even crept into my dreams somehow, and I sew several bulbs with shiny green sprouts, in hopes to get over it.
But this turned out quite addictive.

So I made a Spring bulb sewing kit, in the spirit of infecting others too.
And to spread the virus still further, I made a Spring bulb pdf sewing pattern (first of both, ever)...

Shop update...

...with several bags of scraps (and the inevitable dash of pink...)

Sewn words...

Recently I found this among my fabric stash – a patch with a quote I must have sewn years ago.
It says: Let a guide direct you who only has at heart your getting lost. Lovely, isn't it – by Robert Frost.

It inspired me to make some similar ones.





They are in the shop now, each comes with a little card with quote and source...

So much about planning...

Earlier this month, I had intended to dye dark, earthy shades – having in mind the barren February soil.
But somehow instead more yellows and rosés (together with some light browns) imposed themselves into my dye pots...

Just updated the shop with the results...