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.

Fame at last

- not for me. Go here and scroll down to the bottom – Skye, a.k.a. Ronaldo the Wonder Dog.

The final is at the Hurlingham Club. Mrs Cheddar has to get a very posh frock. I think Skye will probably be equally stylish in her Man U. collar.

On a much more mundane level – some of my creative efforts. As mentioned I made black prints of some of the tile stamps.

 

 

 

 

And then in an effort to try to come to terms with Paint Shop Pro, I played with the scans. Which involved rather a lot of bad tempered muttering, rising at times to loud swearing.   At the moment I can’t work out how to put the results of my efforts here – I suspect it has to do with how I saved the images – but that can be tomorrow’s little effort.

Instead I'll show you  what the stamps look like after a bit of use …

 

 

 

 

And the inverted scan.

Some interesting patterns there – I always like stuff that comes good by accident. Why I like dyeing, I think. And you can always overdye what doesn't work …

 

Today’s brown image is another photo from the Hillier Gardens. Now this one could almost make me like brown.

It might also be interesting to play with it in PSP …

Some paper, some stitch, – and a purple picture. Oh – and a rabbit.

Despite an insomniac night I've been quite productive today. At about 2 a.m. I decided it was about time I did something with this, which has been tacked to some felt for a few weeks now.

So it has been Kantha'd extensively and is currently in the washing machine being shrunk. Heaven knows what it will look like when it emerges from the washer.

 

 

I also played around with some more tile ideas in paper. [Can’t get them out of my brain.] These are postcard size.

 

 

 

   I decided it was time to get away from the stamps – so here are some in cut paper with doodles…

 

 

 

 

 

and cut paper without doodles. I used all the cut out bits as well – love those bird shapes in the corners. These tiles are getting more and more elaborate.

 

 

 

 

This is a technique I got from a Jane Dunnewold article in QA or CPS. There are three separate images, collaged in Picasa.

 

 

The purple picture is another from Furzey Gardens – I think it’s a magnolia, but I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong. I find those strange flowers on bare stems quite weird.

 

 

 

And the rabbit? The lady on the left decided she wanted to invite her new friend in to play and was quite miffed when we wouldn’t let her.

After a while it was only half a new friend but we still wouldn't invite it in.

She decided to think about the problem. In the sunshine. With her eyes closed. And while she was sleeping it off – er - thinking about the problem – the rabbit mysteriously disappeared. Odd, that.

A thank you, some experiments, and a flower

First - a thank you to Lisette, for nominating me for an award.

I am always proud to be nominated but like Lisette I have found not everyone likes it - so instead of passing the award on, I'll take it as an opportunity to point you towards some blogs I enjoy - and which I would have nominated if I did - if you see what I mean ...

The first is Lisette's own blog - textiles, food and cats! What more could you ask? And look at her list of influences. Clearly a woman after my own heart!

Of course. if you prefer just food, you could try her other blog. Eat your way up the High Street? I'd be waddling even more than usual by the time I got to the end - although here it would be eat your way from the station to Barclays, the High St restaurants being less - er - let's say - less individualistic. ...

Another blog I enjoy, although it's not a textile one, is Martha Marshall's 'An Artist's Journal'. Just look what she did with some of her luscious papers and Photoshop. Pity I've got Paint Shop Pro ...

Finally - if you like artist's books this blog will save you the bother of making your own. They have a generous give away of books which you can print out, as well as all sorts of other interesting stuff.


And now for something completely different. This is finished.

That rather undisciplined tassel was even more ill disciplined until I steamed it - the result of using rayon thread that had been wound on its card for at least 15 years [i.e. since I inherited it from my aunt] and probably even longer [i.e. since she frugally recycled it from somewhere else since one lot was all yard long pieces knotted together]. [It's being half Yorkshire, I think.]

We looked at the original tiles again while we were in the Cathedral yesterday and it was interesting that the circle, which comes out clearly in the embroidery [to me, anyway!] is much less obvious when you see the tiles en masse.

The experimental pieces are dyed, washed, and pressed - and in one case, zapped with a heat gun as well.

These are in the same order as the last time I showed them to you - wadding, flannel and felt backing. They all shrank a bit more with a second washing, and the felt is now pretty well square again - albeit 1.5 inches smaller all round = which my trusty calculator makes a 12% shrinkage rate.

This is the pieces from the back, in the same order. I was surprised how well the felt took the dye, until I remembered that it is wool/viscose, and viscose takes Procion dye, being a cellulose fibre.

The white stripe across them is a strip of poly organza set into the seam - and this is one after zapping.

Below is what I thought was black poly organza with a scoobydoo as a piping. However the black was very reluctant to melt, suggesting it wasn't a man-made fibre. The cotton was beginning to singe before the sheer reluctantly went into tiny holes and then went shiny and hard.




Not sure why Blogger has put it vertical when the original is horizontal - but I can live with it.

The next one was a layer of sparkle organza over cotton. As you can see the dye went through the organza and dyed the under layer successfully - which is what I hoped.

And finally - yet more yellow - Christmas Roses at the Hillier Gardens. I love this pale yellowy green, it is such a bizarre colour for a flower! This was taken last January - notice the misguided bee.

I apologise for such a long post - not sure how I had the energy after wrestling with my embroidery unit which did not want to behave since the chief techie wasn't here - and dealing with the aftermath of Wensleydale's attempt to flood the house. All OK now but the kitchen floor is much cleaner than it was ... I told you we lived exciting lives.