A nice pile of washed and pressed fabric. Some late night sewing. And patches and strips slowly coming together. I've been gathering pink fabrics since last winter, planning to make myself a light weight summer quilt. Well, summer is gone now, but no reason not to still make that quilt. These fabrics are a mix of pieces from my stash, vintage sheets, pretty cottons from op shop clothes, pieces from used cushion covers and pillow cases, and some favourite pieces gifted from friends. Four and a half inch wide of varying lengths between 4 and 6 inches stitched together. It's an easy, gentle project, perfect for a spare half hour here and there when I feel like being at the machine.
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There's been some chat back and forth between myself and Peggy (in Colorado USA) about how to get green fabric from dyeing with plant material. So we decided to have a dye-along, to see what sort of colours and effects we each get, given that there are such differences in our water, plant sources and mordants and the effects these will produce on whatever fibres we use, whether silk, linen or cotton as well as the method used.
I've started with a blue cotton, a cushion cover from the op shop cut into small strips. The front has interesting patches of a waffle weave in white and a deeper blue and I'll be interested to see how these take the dye. The back is plain blue. They've been soaked in vinegar then stuffed into a jar with a couple of spoonsful of turmeric......blue and yellow make green right?...........and a piece of what I think is brass. I'm just leaving this one in the sun to "cook". India Flint talks about solar dyeing in her book Eco Colour and suggests "the process can test your patience as you burn to investigate the results". I don't have much patience, I might leave mine a week or maybe two...have to discuss that with Peggy, it's probably best if we leave our experiments for the same amount of time.
I want to do a couple more using different mordants and method .....not today though, I have a puppy wanting to go for a walk.
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I like the different pink patterns and will look forward to seeing it progress. Do you have any favourite pieces of material in it?
ReplyDeleteIt's good when the patterns play nicely together. There's a couple of pieces I like a lot...soft floraly prints from old curtains and cushions mainly. I'm not in a hurry to finish it.
ReplyDeleteOh, I see a tinge of green there, Nanette! I found a few more pieces of blue and hope to get started on it tomorrow. Because, you see, I need to go celebrate Spring with my circle tonight! And a very happy Autumn to you. And by the way, it's dumping snow here right now. xoxo
ReplyDeletei, too, love pink. sleeping under pink will no doubt bring soft, sweet dreams.
ReplyDeletei read your post about the dyeing last week and i'm itching to get back to that but there just aren't enough hours in the day. wish we could grow eucalyptus here.
Hope you had a wonderful time with your circle Peggy, the dyeing will wait. I'm going to wait until Tuesday then open the turmeric jar...it's looking quite lime-y! Can't wait to see yours.
ReplyDeleteHello Deanna...The weather's so nice and I'm outdoors a lot, so it's easy to grab plants and leaves and stuff them in a jar. I saw your blog post today and you're doing lots of indoorsy things, that will probably change come your summer and you might find you have more time for dyeing. So many varieties of eucalyptus here that give such different colours.
ReplyDeleteI will be very interested to see how this comes out, as greens are trickier to get with natural dyes! I've managed some really wonderful purple from purple carrots, and a great deep orange from onion skins, but I have yet to try any blues! Peach leaves are meant to give a green, but my silk came out a sickly greenish yellow, which looked almost neon ... not what I was hoping for! :D
ReplyDeleteOff topic now, I have nominated you for the Liebster Award! Please don't feel obliged to accept this, as it is a chain letter type of thing, and that's not everyone's cup of tea!
I posted about the Liebster Award today: http://simplecraftylife.com/2014/03/24/im-honoured/
I hope to read a lot more from you in the future! :)