Saturday, October 23, 2010

This and That


I pulled out some leaves and flowers that were pressed into several books last fall (2009). They still had color so I soaked them in some water with a drop of vinegar. I rolled them into a bundle, steamed them and let them sit for a couple of days. I was amazed at the results.

leaves from the Chinese Tallow tree
flowers from Desert Willow tree

I also made a bundle of fresh beet leaves but only got a beigey stained result. I will probably re-use this piece for another bundle.
fresh beet leaves

I now remember why I don't like using a sketchbook. I change my mind too many times and the center of my moon quilt is now something different from the sketch. However, brainstorming and writing things down did give me some ideas.

beginnings of moon quilt

8 comments:

Heartwideopen said...

That top piece of fabric makes my mouth water! As for the second one... one of the magic things about dyeing is over-dyeing! It'll be something amazing someday! The fabric for your moon is really nice... is it a dye-by-you, or a commercial cloth??

~ Debi

kaiteM said...

the Autumn leaves piece is lovely, how clever to dig up your pressed leaves and bundle them. i wonder where i might find mine?
re the 2nd pic, what sort of beet leaves? we have silverbeet (spinach), red beetroot (should give a strong red colour), and just yesterday i found golden beetroot which is waiting in the fridge to be dyed up. yours will be a nice background colour for another floral bundled piece.

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

OHHHHHHHHHHHH the mooooon quilt
already i can feel it. yes and
yes.
i have desert willow here. was
so enthralled with the Mexican
Elderberry that i didn't look at
the flowers on the DW. plus,
(and lesson learned) they are
pinkymauvy which was a color i
wasn't interested in....is that
the color your blossoms were?

jude said...

i like the border effect on the first piece. nice.

deanna7trees said...

yes, grace, a pink-mauvy color. I had 3 desert willow trees and now I have none. one was struck by lightning and the other two just got weak and were mingled in with the fig tree so they had to be taken down. I hope to plant another one soon. They are not easy to find in the nurseries.

Storycloth said...

Hi Deanna-I can relate to your comment about sketches and paper planning. I use a just a sketchbook for drawing if I ever feel like it. I'd like to get better at making proper patterns though just in case I want to make something again. Looking forward to the moon quilt. Gilly

Nat Palaskas said...

Moon shines over the cloth .... Love the shadow like on the background cloth - Hugs Nat

Sally Stafford said...

Thats a wonderful prints from last years leaves love the colours and shapes.

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