Projects to dye for

this is the dye pot -- located at long last

we have spent several hours looking for this item -- and where was it? right there in plain site!!

the last time I used this was before we left California

and we had two pots that looked just alike --- one to can in and one to dye in (yes, I'm sure this is the dye pot -- I had packed it with a quarter of a paper barrel bag of black walnut hulls inside for a future dye project!)

now the question is -- what happened to the canning kettle? the jar rack is here, but the kettle is not, and I know I was here when we moved --- it's a puzzlement!




so these were the fabrics that needed to be dyed

I had not previously used this particular kind of dye

for one thing the fiber reactive sort of dye is relatively new in the local fabric store -- you used to have to order it from someplace like Dharma Trading

the coolest thing about these dyes is that the fabrics actually came out the colors they were supposed to! (having worked with Rit dyes quite a bit, I was prepared to be disappointed with these) I used the China Blue on a 2 yard chunk of bleached muslin, and the Terracotta on a 3 yard chunk of unbleached muslin

because I will be using the blue for the sky of the next piece, I wanted it to be an even color, so I paid a lot of attention to proper stirring technique

the terracotta will be part of the "dirt" and part of the tree bark, so even color was a lot less desirable, so the fabric was just sort of "bunched" and stirred around without trying to get something homogeneous

so the dying got done yesterday then each color was put in a plastic bag and allowed to sit overnight to develop

this morning I washed this batch of fabrics (which are also for the Trees project

then I rinsed out both of the dye batches (one at a time of course to avoid cross contamination)

there will be a major ironing project to be worked on after breakfast

this aluminum foil pan is all marked up for the cutting

it is going to become the big metal panels at the top of this building -- now I just have to go through the box of gray beads and find the right ones to build all those bezels that will surround each piece






I had been experimenting with different things to be the scarves around the necks of the penguins on my Christmas cards, but so far everything was too bulky

I found these wired garlands in the drugstore

I think they will work really well -- they're fluffy and sparkly and will stay where I want them and because they are basically wired mylar they aren't too bulky around the back of the penguin's neck where I need it to lay flat

since I have almost finished the book that goes with the mystery Christmas quilt, I'll be working on the cards a lot more now

like this?

I do

the DH is working on a design to be used to make new needlepoint seat covers for our dining room chairs

this is the original line drawing

I've done him a couple of copies so he can play with the color

after he gets that to what he wants I'll scan the colored image and create a graph with my beading software (got to love all the many things you can do with something laid out on a square graph!)

yup, we've got projects aplenty!!