quilting on natural dyes quilt

My goal was to have the machine stitching done before leaving on my trip.  Surprise - didn't happen...  I am very close, and maybe a 2 week leave from it will make it easier to finish. By the way... leaving for Sweden this morning.

making ink: flowering crab blossoms

My flowering crab is in full bloom.  The bees are all over it, being such happy bees.  To enjoy the delicious scent a little longer, I cut a few branches and put them in a vase inside the house.  This morning the petals were starting to drop on the table, but instead of running the branches out to the compost, I decided to make ink!

I used a ratio of 2 to 1,  water to blossoms.  I simmered the blossoms for about 2 hours with a tablespoon of vinegar and a tablespoon of salt. (Trying to somewhat follow directions in Make Ink by Jason Logan.)

After straining, brushing some ink on watercolour paper, and letting it dry, I had a big surprise!

Yes! my lovely flowering crab ink dries green. But it is a lovely shade of green!

Prepping: Dye Thickener Workshop

On Sunday I will be teaching a workshop on using thickened dyes.  It occurred to me that having a sample of the colours on fabric instead of on printed colour charts would help the students and also tell me what else I needed to mix before the class... 

A few of the ideas I will share with the class:

Butterflies

Afternoon walk: violets

It's wonderful to search the woods for little treasures: