Who’d have thought it?

I have been dyeing for a long time – but I’ve never had an experience like this before.

Have a look at this lot.

Would you believe me if I told you they all came out of the same dye bath? [Apart from the colour catcher - that got washed with them all.

It is a bit misleading because the pieces with the distinctive mottling were ones I showed you after the last dyeing session. The cotton lawn at the bottom, the felt [top right] and the silk rods were white when they went in. The dye was a mixture of buttercup yellow, magenta and turquoise which was supposed to come out a golden brown – as it did on the felt and silk noil at the top. 

So why are the rest of them green? [They are greener than they look in the photo.] I realise I must have been a bit heavy handed with the turquoise but I didn’t know that mixed dyes can affect different fabrics in different ways.

My first reaction when they came out of the dye bath was ‘yuck’ but they are beginning to grow on me. And the silk rods are a wonderful bronze colour.

Following my whinge yesterday about not feeling creative I tackled one possible cause – I tidied up. And I do feel better having done it. Perhaps I’m turning into my mother in my old age? No – I don’t use milk jugs. And I know what colour my hair is.

So I went round in circles.

I know it looks like a mat. [Perhaps I am turning into my mother – although it was my mother-in-law who had mats on her mats. I kid you not.]

It is a sample for Dyehard Surfacing’s battingless quilt challenge. Three layers of sheers,  fixed to the bed of the sewing machine with a drawing pin held by some masking tape, so that the fabric rotated. I cut away some of the layers and then used the drawing pin and tape to hold it to my rather grubby window. [Definitely NOT turning into my mother!]

It was inspired by these.  The purple just happened.

 

 

 

 

This is another sort-of-appliqué C&G sample – inlay. It is painted pelmet Vilene, with the leaf shapes cut out and transposed, then machined.

Could be a technique for tiles.