more dyeing with black walnuts...

The black walnut dye keeps giving. I've done a few more pieces ... some shibori style.

click on the images...

top left piece was folded in half and then in triangles. the binder clips I used give nice marks

shibori style....wrapped with string

shibori style....circles of stitching pulled taught on cotton/linen

kokopelli imprint on silk linen

I did some more printing on silk like I showed last week. First the watercolor on paper; scanned and printed on paper; doodled with ink pen; and finally, silk ironed onto freezer paper and printed. I should have washed it to test it but I didn't. I'll remember to do that next time....and maybe, try to print on cotton next.

pink silk, hanky, and watercolor painting on paper

mandolins drawn on printed watercolor and then printed on silk

I've started putting together a couple of small pockets....mini pouches....hope to have them finished by my next post....lots more stitching to be done.

the beginnings of 2 pockets

using the printed cloth for a mandolin shape and some hexies. fine piping cord used to mimic mandolin strings.

Ready to go out and put some more seeds and plants in the garden. We already have had days in the 80s and it's getting too warm too fast. I prefer the 60 - 70 degree range, but the plants seem to be happy.

Have a great week.

another pin cushion...

The watercolor play that I showed you last time wound up as part of a pin cushion. A fellow student in Karen Ruane's class suggested I try printing the watercolor on silk cloth....so I ran with that suggestion and wound up with this....

click on the images...

hand dyed silk and damask cloth and watercolrs

I started out by enlarging one of the watercolor images....

watercolor image printed on dupioni silk by ironing freezer paper to the silk and running it through my ink jet printer. I did paint over the print with some intense blocks to brighten up the color a bit.

I used a fine line Sharpie to draw the design onto the silk

I cut out hexagons and circles and stitched them together. I also cut out prairie points that you can see on the finished cushion.

I chose some hand dyed fabric for the background and it all came together quickly.

 Feel free to try this technique if it appeals to you. I think I will be running silk through my printer again for future projects. Thanks to Jann who suggested it.

I finished up another Sally Doll. I tried doing Intarsia  and stranded color work on this one and gave her an embroidered skirt covered with tulle. I think that's it for dolls for awhile.

There's been more dyeing with the black walnuts but it's all being washed out right now so I'll show you that next time. I've also been playing with repeats for fabric design after watching the first 2 sessions of a five week workshop on Creative Bug.....lots of fun.

The radishes and cosmos are already up in the garden and a few more vege plants are in. It's going to be a rainy weekend so all the plants will get some wonderful rain water.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

lots of pics today...

First I must show you the beautiful Amaryllis sitting on my kitchen table. It sat outside all winter and I brought it in the first week of February. So far, one bud has produced 4 huge blooms. Each bloom is 7" in diameter and such a soft pink.

click on the images...

Amaryllis ... each bloom is 7" in diameter

I did finish that crocheted headband I showed you last week and my knitting/crochet teacher says it is the 'SAND STITCH'. I'm sure google has lots of instructions for the stitch, if you want to play with it.

crocheted headband using the sand stitch

I played a bit with watercolors this week and then embellished them with some pen doodles...

watercolors and pen doodles

....and I did say I was going to do some dyeing with black walnuts...I soaked a mesh bag holding about 15 black walnuts in water overnight. I then boiled it all for about 2 hours. I filled 2 glass jars with the prepared cloth and poured in the boiled liquid. I left it in the jars for about 3 days....not really necessary....a shorter period will give you a lighter shade. I then opened all the bundles and washed the cloth in hot, soapy water a couple of times....rinsed and hung to dry. All the cloth I started out with was a light beige or white in color.

soaking some rose and chinese tallow leaves that were saved from last year

preparing some cotton with shibori stitching

using a strong thread for the shibori stitching

all the bundles in 2 medium sized glass jars

bundles ready to be opened

subtle markings on the shibori cotton

this one was pleated and stitched down both sides. that yellow is turmeric that was sprinkled on the cloth.

a cotton bundle wrapped with old rusty keys

a silk cloth with a tone on tone design wrapped with leaves and sprinkled with turmeric and paprika

silk with imprint of the rose leaves and the string wrapped markings

top is silk with an embroidered design....bottom is a piece of linen where i had done some free motion embroidery

and here they are all together. that yellow one, 3rd from the top, is silk velvet. i used too much turmeric on that one.

Some of these pieces will be redyed because I don't like that strong yellow color. I need to use the turmeric sparingly as a little bit goes a long way. Silk always seems to give the best results but it's nice that the black walnuts easily dyes cotton. Hope some of you who have access to black walnuts will try this. There is lots more info online and different methods. Google is a wonderful thing.

Today was a most glorious Spring-like day....sunny and in the 70s. I did do some planting....parsley, swiss chard and a lavender plant and some radish seeds. It looks like two snap pea plants are coming up from seeds planted in the Fall. They probably will not survive as it gets hot real fast here and we usually don't have much of a Spring.

Hope the weather is settling down for everyone and that all the snow will soon be gone. Have a great weekend and see you next time.

trying to do it all....

The Sally Doll is finished and I've started on a new one, this time with an abstract intarsia design in pastel colors.

click on the images...

her legs and arms are fabric with cross stitched letters and numbers. her scarf is a bit big for her body.

 ....and she is reversible....her reverse side is showing a sad face. it wasn't intentional.

reverse side with a checkerboard design.

a new Sally Doll in the works...

I have been practicing my Calligraphy...probably not as much as I wanted to but I'm getting there.

warm up exercises

I couldn't resist starting this crocheted headband last night. I do love the look of this stitch. It reminds me of the knitted linen stitch. I'm halfway done with this so just a quickly done distraction from all the knitting projects in the works. Here's a link to the free instructions, if you'd like to try it.

crocheted headband

I've been playing with walnut ink all morning but I'll save that for next time.....and maybe I'll have some planting done by then as well.
Have a great week.