Indigo!

A couple of weeks ago I had a play day with Lynda of Bloom, Bake, Create fame. We had been planning for some time to try out indigo dyeing.  I finally had a day free!  Here are my cotton cloth prints.

I also tried three kinds of silk scarves in the vat but did not leave them in long enough. I attempted to re-dye them the next day in the vat, but it had oxidized too much. I then over-dyed them with a procion dye which actually turned out similar to the indigo dyeing.

On the left, silk chiffon (yummm!), then a silk crepe, and a silk habatoi.

A productive day!

Dyeing, Dyeing, and More Dyeing….

A few weeks ago I spent a day doing some dyeing.  I realized that my stacks of hand dyed fabrics to sell was getting mighty low.  So I spent a day dyeing and then hours of ironing to get them ready to sell.  I love the palette of colors I ended up with…butterscotch, curry, terra cotta, olive in light and dark, and indigo blue.  I decided to dye in such a way that I could get a piece with lighter value in the same tub as the the darker ones.

They look so yummy all stacked up together!

Today, I have started at it again. I sold a few yards at the show, but I still needed to beef up my stash as I will be setting up to sell to some fantastic quilters coming to New Harmony from Kentucky.  I have sold to these gals before at the farmer’s market and believe me, they like fabric!  So I am getting ready for them.  One slight problem…my stash of Pure Threads by James Thompson is on the very low side.  I have been pulling out every piece of white or off white cotton I can find in my house, since I can’t get any bolts of it here on time.  I have now dyed my Pimatex cotton (that I usually paint skies on) and yesterday I purchased quilt backing cotton and dyed it too as well as a cheaper natural muslin. I have some heavier weight sateen type cotton that I could dye too…not sure why I bought that in a wide width…

The first batch is now rinsed, washed, and dried, but there is more to go…and then there’s all that ironing….

Week In Review

It’s been a strange week. I slightly twisted my ankle last Saturday, but no pain and swelling showed up til Sunday afternoon.  And it swelled up really good by Monday.  I hobbled around the house determined not to let time be a’ wastin’…

I kept ice on it a lot, but also spent time at my sewing machine.  I had printed a huge piece of cloth a while back and decided to make these…those of you who read my blog will recognize the cloth…I love these…

Since I sold my first set of screen printed throw pillows last Saturday, I am now highly motivated to keep going, so I sewed up a few more covers, after cutting lots of fabric for the backs.

It’s too hot to be outside printing since we don’t seem to be able to move past 100 plus degree days. But I have lots of indoor work to be done as long as I can keep supplied with everything I need.  In my “weakened state” I made a request  on Facebook to see if anyone was going to Walmart. Could they check on zippers for me please?  One of my friends did go there but they didn’t have any of the polyester zippers I needed for my bags. So I placed an order with Brewer which I needed to do anyway, but wasn’t ready to do it this early.  I ordered a bunch of zippers, but they only had one box of the Cloister Brown and I needed many.  Sigh.  But the three zippers I got are enough to hold me at this moment.  I am making bags which are liners for a basket purse.  My friend Kay is a basketweaver and we are teaming up on this project.  I think the liners might help her sell the baskets better.  She did sell a purse and liner last Saturday. Woohoo! She has two big shows next month, so I gotta get busy.

And then there’s my own work…I am giving thought to creating hand dyed cotton napkins with matching table runners.  This is for the Select Collection event to be held in November.  The theme is home and wearables.  I dyed some shibori designs on fat quarters.  Table napkins, anyone?

Kay likes them and thinks they would be great as napkins.  What do you think?