a little time for thickened dyes

I keep a table set up for dyeing in my garage.  Lucky me - heated garage with an upper level for my treadmill and a small studio area.  It is so nice to have everything at my finger tips when the mood hits.  I keep feeling that my sunshine project will need some additional fabrics when I get ready to join blocks together, so daily play does actually have an end project in mind.

The samples are still wet.  I used prochemical and dye "mustard".  The dyes were applied with a paint brush and a stencil.  Some of the dyes are too thick, so next time I will use a sponge to apply the thickened dyes.  Or not.

Travel badge prep: Portugal

Next week I leave for a week in Portugal.  This is a new adventure for me - rather fun learning about the many things we will see on this trip.  One of the stops is a tile studio.  I am so excited about this and decided that my travel badge would be based on a tile.  I remembered that in my stash I had a yard of fabric that looked like tiles.  When I purchased the fabric it was after a trip to Copenhagen and I thought that it reminded me of Denmark.  Much to my surprise, after digging thru the closet for an hour, the fabric is actually named, "a tiny piece of Portugal".  Won't this be fun to work on after a day of sight seeing!

This little fob came on a small bag from the tour company! Perfect for a travel badge:

More dyeing...

I can always find an excuse to dye fabric.  Friday was easy - dye workshop at the library. Lucky for me, everyone there had already dyed fabric with us in the past. Not much teaching, just extra play time for me!

Just had to dye a little fabric for an upcoming sewing workshop:

Pretty colour selection after rinsing and drying.  The threads are a happy delight!  I came across a length of fabric I wove long ago while cleaning out a box of fabric and such.  The ends had not been cut off, so into the dye pot they went.  Judging by the brilliant colour they must be cotton.  

Still stitching away on my little bits for a much larger piece...

Klimt jacket: Sunflower

For a long time I have wanted to embroider the back of a denim jacket.  Now that fall weather is upon us, it seemed fitting to start this project.  My inspiration for using embroidery came from a pin I purchased from an artist in Russia, Alexandra Krylova.   She can be found on Instagram as kry.embroidery

Being a VanGogh admirer, I picked the Sunflowers pin for my first purchase:

Deciding what to put on my jacket actually wasn't too difficult to decide on.  I am planning an artful  trip next summer with my niece and one of the places we plan to go to is Vienna.  Gustaf Klimt.  What else can I say?  

Klimt painted his sunflower painting in 1905.  It is in someone's private collection, so not nearly as famous as The Kiss or Tree of Life.  

I began by making a rough sketch directly on my jacket:

Deciding that I wanted it to be brighter than the painting, I picked a few brighter greens for the leaves, and just started stitching. Not much planning.  I figured that if I didn't like it, I could cover it with something else.

 I am thinking that the sunflower needs some beads:

Here's where I'm at now:

Eco dye: red day lilies

A few months ago, a girlfriend dead headed her red day lilies and gave me a bag full of dried flowers to use for dye.  I'm finally getting around to using them.  Yesterday I rolled them up in some muslin fabric and tied them with string. They then went into a pan to simmer in a shallow amount of water.  Now I play the waiting game for as long as I can stand, or until they start to smell!  Hope to leave them for at least a week before unrolling the bundle.

Acorn cap dye

Funny story....  I wanted to try acorn caps for dyeing.  My dear sweet girlfriend gathered  a bag full.  Plenty to make a wonderful pot of dye.  But I got greedy.... This past weekend my son and I went hiking and found a nice stash of caps lining the trail.  I gathered another bag to make ink and dye all winter.  Problem was - chiggers!  I didn't wear bug spray (tons of sunscreen, but really didn't need it in the woods).  So now I am covered with itchy bumps.  I should of been happy with the gift acorns. 
Silly me.

Used the dye on silk and cotton threads.  I feel that the silk must have a finish on it as it should of taken the dye better and darker than the cotton.  Still a nice colour.

Paper pieced butterfly

I have been asked to teach a class in the spring at our local quilt group.  The person who asked had seen my butterfly bag from the 100 Day Project.   She is sure others would like to create a bag like mine.  Haha, does she realize how many hours went into it?  At least 100!

My thought was to teach a butterfly that would use more traditional methods , as most of the quilters are very old school.

This is my first sample. I have decided that it needs to be simplified even more to teach in the allotted time.

My next inspiration came at the fabric store this morning.  I believe I see a flock of monarchs begging to be made!