SEASONAL STITCHING

Started this last Christmas. Just basted all the pieces down and then put it aside. Last night I stitched the trees down and finished the little deer. Now to start all the little details I want to add. Fun stitching on icy cold days like today.

ALL THE LEAVES ARE GONE...

 All the leaves are gone and I miss them so. But the good news is I have lots of beautiful, one of a kind fabrics to stitch with this winter. Took three of my little sample eco-prints and put them together with other eco-dyed fabrics. Have just started stitching and am looking forward to lots more.

The Red Aspen

Colorado is known for its beautiful golden aspen trees that color the mountainsides each Fall. If you are lucky enough to see an aspen turning red, you'll think you won the lottery. Red aspens are rare, very rare. My husband and I hit the jackpot when we made our annual trip to close up our mountain cabin and saw several of these radiant red trees. This little story cloth (a la Jude Hill style http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/) is a tribute to these beautiful leaves.

HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION

Last Thursday I gave a presentation to my local fiber art group entitled "HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION". It was an overview of everything I learned over the summer about eco-printing and dyeing. It was great fun telling the story of how I became interested in this process and showing  the fruits of my labor. It was a summer full of adventure and experimentation that resulted in a pile of beautiful fabrics that I hope to have fun using this Winter. Below are my eco-prints using crabapple, rose, aspen, cottonwood, eucalyptus and maple leaves.

 Here are my dyed fabrics. I used turmeric, aspen leaves, cottonwood leaves, blueberries, red cabbage, onion skins, pomegranates and beets.

This is my favorite piece--raw silk with rusted wire, seeded eucalyptus and spiral eucalyptus. Looking forward to lots of sewing this Winter and also more printing and dyeing next Spring. Many thanks to India Flint, Jenny Dean and Sasha Duerr for all their expertise.

SEARCHING FOR GREEN

You would think that green would be an easy color to obtain when using green leaves for your dye. Not so; I've spent many days experiementing with green aspen leaves, carrot tops, yarrow and others. And the closest I've come has been this yellow, slightly green shade.

 I guess I should mention that I have obtained some lovely green when doing an eco print of a leaf. I guess because the dye is directly transferred in a concentrated manner to the fabric. When suspended in water you get a more diluted effect. The following picture shows yellow cottonwood and aspen leaves bundled and tied and steeped in a carrot top bath. Kind of the same yellow green.

 In another dyeing session I made a bath of yellow and red onions and got a golden brown. On a whim I decided to add a little alum and it turned a dark brown. Didn't like that so why not add some vinegar. It went back to a more dijon mustard color. So I steeped some habotai that was tyed with rubber bands for a couple of hours and left it to dry overnight. And the result was the greenest I have yet to get. I wasn't trying for green. I wanted a more golden color.  So the moral of this story is to quit trying so hard and be happy with whatever magic happens. I truly love all of the colors that I have obtained, so in the end it really doesn't matter.

 The next few phots are of  random pieces. First is a cold bundle of lavender sweet peas, yellow and red nastursiums, pink petunias and parsley. Didn't get any of the flower colors but I did get this lovely mottled effect that I may go on to try some eco prints on. Trying to build layers of depth here.

 This one is gambel oak. Didn't get any prints just this brown mottling.

 Another oak bath piece tied and steep for two hours and then left for a week.

 On to color---The following are all silk (habotai or dupioni) soaked in a cold blueberry bath. First one I added vineger, last two I added alum.

That's all for now.

MORE ECO DYEING

Eco dyeing has sure made me a lot more observant of the plants in my neighborhood. Reading through India Flint's book, Eco-Colour, I have learned that a lot of the plants she uses for dyeing and prints just aren't plants that one can find here in Colorado. Eucalyptus, for example, sure won't find that here. But it gives such a lovely orange-red color. Never fear, it's a favorite of florist so I went out and bought a bunch, came home and started a hot bundle using a piece of ivory colored silk. I probably did not steam it long enough, but I did get some lovely red prints.

 Kind of like the green ones too, but wish I would have left it to steam longer so I would have gotten more of the red color.

 For this print I used a scrap of habotai silk that I had dyed in onion skins many years ago. It was just a very pale yellow to start with. I bundled up aspen leaves (most plentiful in Colorado) and some small red leaves from a bush outside my house. Wish I knew what the name of the plant is, but it yielded a lovely red color. Aspen prints are very pale but did provide some green.

This next piece is my favorite. Started with another piece of the onion skin dyed habotai silk and this time wrapped some lavender sweet peas in it. This was a cold bundle. Didn't get any of the lavender color, which I have gotten in the past, but I love the lovely greens and khaki colors. And most of all I love all the wrinkles in the fabric and the striations from the rubber bands. I think I will leave it as is, not press out the wrinkles, and use it for texture in a landscape piece.

Looking forward to the fall when the aspens, oaks and maples start turning colors. I'm sure they will yield some rich color for my dye pot.

IN BETWEEN ECO DYEING...

While waiting for eco bundles to do their magic I have been doing a bit of primitive stitching. Meet Mimi and Pearl. Two little girls from the past who have a lot to say. More to come.