Last weekend my small guild had a "sewcial" day. Besides the business meeting, we also had a workshop on natural fabric dyeing presented by Kate (sorry, didn't catch her last name). She prepared pots of avocado, marigold, indigo, and madder. We each got four pieces of prepared fabric--one Kona, two other cotton, and one linen. My friends were adventurous and creative and made beautiful pieces. Here's just a few.
I was not so creative. I dipped my piece of Kona into the avocado dye. Funny how it comes out peachy. I can't recall if this dye was made just from the skin or if it had the pit as well. It was light peach when it came out of the pot and it's getting much darker now.
I tried various ways of dipping my other three pieces in the indigo. By the way, indigo dye smells. We took that one outside before opening the bucket. I did one where I attempted a gradient (linen) and then did a fold and a tie-dye on the other two (cotton). I should have done the gradient on the cotton rather than the linen. Here are my pieces hanging to dry--they are supposed to drip dry in the dark. Once they are fully dry, I have to rinse them until no more loose dye comes out.
I also had some sewing time that I spent working on my Magnificent Mystery. I completed all the half blocks. It sure helps when you use thread in your sewing machine. 😉 I made decent progress on the pink and blue blocks. I didn't get to the green and blue ones yet. This is my OMG this month. It's not looking like I'll get it done, but we'll see.
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| Everything fell off the green/blue block board during transport. I was lazy and didn't fix it for the picture. |
I did complete a second knitted selvedge rug. I wish I would have done two more rows, but it's fine. I have enough selvedge prepared to get probably at least half way through one more rug. I still have all the selvedges that a guild mate gave me, so if need be, I can sort through those to try to get additional length.
I'm not sure how to record this one in my PHD list. It's an old project--I'm using fabrics that I rolled onto the ball four years ago--but I only had one rug on my list because I didn't think there'd be enough for more than that. Right now I have it listed as a new start. I don't know, where would you put it?
I've gotten a few more quilts done. I stitched Saffron Blossom on Jeri's sister's quilt. I'm working on the binding.
I stitched Marmalade on Jeri's quilt.
This one is bound. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'd inadvertently made an invisible/pattern-matched join on the binding.
I also bound Jeri's two quilts that I quilted last week.
I quilted Cassava on Keetah's quilt.
I quilted In the Swirls on Toni's quilt.
Out in the garden, we were able to make a sizable asparagus harvest. 😏
We planted peas and lettuce. We bought a few Brussels sprout plants to try. The kale I planted last spring (and wasn't able to harvest at all) is going like gangbusters right now. 🤷🏻♀️ We were able to do some more weeding in the lower garden. We had a giant patch of some kind of weed and a bunch of Johnson grass. That stuff is awful. We're probably 40% done now, maybe a bit more. There's one swath remaining on the right side. I think most of that is spearmint. We can pull it, but it's kind of pointless. The far left side has a lot of weeds. We have a large weeping cherry tree that gets a lot of weeds and unwanted saplings under it because it's a favorite perch of many critters that drop seeds.
Finally, here is this week's chick picture. These guys kinda scare me. They are so much bigger than the silkies and they are trying to fly and get out of the tote. Right now they are still under a heating plate, but I think that will change soon. We may need to locate a larger container to house them. They are almost three weeks old now. I think the Barnevelder (striped one) is a hen, but I'm concerned about the other two. Time will tell. Photos courtesy of my son.
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| Worshipping the queen? She mostly hides between them if we are looking at them. |
