Yay Spring

Well you wouldn't know it was spring from

the recent snow that we had but I have high

hopes!

I have been putting sets together from all

of the eco fabric (from plant dyes) that I 

had dyed a few months ago. I put them away

and make them cure for awhile and then take

them out and wash them. So far so good - no

color loss! Yay!

These were dyed from Pear, Pyracantha leaves , 

and prunus serrulata leaves - also some cherry

tree bark. All found here in Lancaster County 

and I used no chemicals or metals in the dye

matter - all natural. I love the way the colors

came out and seem to blend together. 

This Shibori piece was also dyed with Prunus 

Serrulata leaves (fall). It will be interesting to

see what color they give in the spring and summer.

That's the fun part!

I used a piece of fabric dyed from Oak and

the Prunus leaves to make this little needle book.

The embroidery threads are all naturally dyed also.

All the above for sale in my Etsy shop 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MaterialisticVisions


During the winter months I also love to bake....

I haven't made a Crumb cake in years! And

it was delicious! The cake part is made with

cream cheese and the top - a layer of chopped walnuts 

on top and then the crumbs - OMG good!


And now that Spring is here the crazy crows are 

back! Hundred and hundreds and the noise!

These are only two trees - they were on

eight others in the back by the farmer's field. 

And then there was just one bird 

at my little make shift feed (which of course the

squirrel knocked down) a White Throat sparrow

male. Cute!

I'm keep looking for migrating birds but I haven't

seen any yet. 

Back to cleaning out my Sewing Studio !

Happy Quilting!

Natural Dyeing + Rusting

I was doing some experiments with rust
dyeing - first with the SOS pads which
I think came out great (a previous post)

While I was in the dollar store I purchased
their steel pads and thought "What a bargain!"
But when I experimented rust dyeing with
them it was a bust!


The fabric remained white and the pads
disintegrated leaving these little tiny
rust spots. Not what I was looking for.

When I did the pomegranate experiment
with the skins; I think I might have
grabbed the fabric above instead of
another prepared piece.

With the skins still in the pot.

I was reading on another blog (can't remember)
that if you leave the skins in the pot; it will
result in spotting. So now I don't know if
this piece is the result of the skins or the
rusted piece or both! Anyway, I'm not crazy
about the result.

Then I strained the liquid in the pot
and put it in a jar with newly treated
fabric and left it overnight.

Still spotted!

I was happy with the results from the
turmeric. The colors are not true -
I can't get a good photo !

I have others but there are not worth
mentioning (-:

If you're interested in Natural Dyeing
there a good blogs to read!

Arlee is getting some really fabulous
results! You can find her blog
HERE
You'll have to go through her posts and
it's worth it!

And of course K Baxter Packwood!

You can find her blog
Natural Dye Journal Wow!

While at my sister's house awhile back;
I was walking in her backyard and found a
small rusted piece and asked her if I
could borrow it.


I'm using my bleached muslin and it's soaked
in vinegar. I had a bottle of vinegar outside
and kept going out and adding more vinegar
on it with a paint brush. It started to rain
while I was out doing errands - so I left
it out until the next day.


I was afraid that it wouldn't work but it did!
I love the way it came out and I have a quilt
already planned for this!

I'm going to try a couple of more pieces!

Some Fall Garden Photos

I'm sure going to miss my garden this winter!

Dyeing Naturally - Pomegranate

 Update - May 4, 2014 - The Pomegranate fabric
that I did here in this post (4 yrs. ago) is shown
here in my latest post. Pomegranate Fabric Here

In my previous post I had some photos
of natural things that I would try and
dye fabric with.

Now all of this came about when I
was blog hopping and clicking on
some blog links. And I found
Sonia's blog Naturally Dyeing
I just loved the results
she was getting from plants (she
lives in France) and so
I wanted to try it before winter
sets in.

I have never tried this before so I
will sound a bit naive.

I do have to warn you - if you have
bad allergies maybe you shouldn't
try this method.

Sonia mordants her fabrics in Alum
before she dyes them. I didn't have
any and while talking to the druggist
(getting my prescription) I asked
him about Alum. (He thought I wanted
to cook with it) and he told me to be careful
about ingesting too much..... but I told him
that I was using it for dyeing fabric.

I'll start with the Pomegranate and
the results that I had.

Oh, and I also used Bleached muslin -
washed in very Hot water - it's all
I had.....put it in the alum and water in
a stainless steel pot. (now saved just
for this purpose and NOT cooking)

(click on photos for a larger view)

A little messy but fun!

When my brother and I were children we

couldn't wait for the "Chinese apples" to
come to our little fruit/vegetable store.
They were expensive; so my mom would
give us half each. We had so much fun eating
them and playing with them. We would suck the
juice out of the seeds and then spit them out
at each other. (what can I tell ya) But what I
remember is that if it got on your shirt; it would
stain. And so.....

I laid out a piece of Freezer paper - the
shiny side up. Took out all of the seeds
and onto the wet fabric (with alum). I
folded the fabric over and then used my
potato masher to press the juice out.
Let it soak up awhile and then for some
weird reason I put it in the microwave
(don't know why but just did???) on
15 seconds 3 times. Then I put it
over a towel rack in the bathroom cause
it was night time, with an old towel under
neath.

Before this I had cut the pomegranate
skins and put it in a pot with some water,
made it come to a boil and then simmer
for about one hour - Took out the skins
I then added the
alum treated fabric and left it in there
for about one hour. The color result
was green! I took that fabric and put
it on the towel rack next to the pink
and after about 1/2 hour went to check
on it and found some small blue on
the pink fabric?????




So now I'm thinking what if......
and took both pieces back to the kitchen
and laid the pink on top of the green
and rubbed it. Then I rolled them up
together and let that sit for about 1 hour;
came back and unrolled it and dried it
on the rack. (-:

This is the results:


The colors are not true because of my flash
(I think) but you get the picture. I was a little
disappointed because I thought it would
turn blue because of that spot!

This is the piece that was on top of the green:
Let's call this piece #1 -



First notice that there is NO green on it...?
This piece was lightly ironed and then I
put some water drops on it and see what
happened! So I decided that I was not
going to wash the pieces. I folded them
and put them away




- Now it's a little over a week.

And the colors did fade a little:
Let's call this piece #2

But I can see a hint of blue along the outside
line of the pink.

Okay, so while I'm writing this blog I'm getting

brave and decide to soak Piece #1 in water......
Go and make myself some coffee etc and
came back and found.................

THIS! The piece #1 has a blue green color.


I'll see what happens once it dries. Wow
I can't believe this.

Now I want to go and soak the other piece!

I have one other piece that I did from the
pomegranate seeds - this piece came out
lighter because it was a larger piece.
When I ironed it - look what happened


Let's call this piece #3
I'm guessing that the iron was set too hot
and that's not a burn.... the color just changed.
?????

Sometime later.....

Now I'm back after soaking Piece #2

Ha, this too turned blue!

Now I'm soaking Piece #3

This color is not true it actually came out a little lighter.

I don't know what those spots are????? Maybe pieces
of Pomegranate that I didn't remove??

And that's my Pomegranate experiment for today.
I hope that you found it as interesting as I did!

I have had more - shall I say - odd results with
the Pomegranate but I'll save that for next time.

Also some results with Rust dyeing!

I would appreciate any feedback!

*************************

Links:

Noon Solar launches Americas first natural dye production house.
Is this great! CLICK HERE
to read the rest of the story.

Here's another one I just love:

Slow Color
The Slow Color movement! Lots of ideas here!


*************************



We have had hardly any rain here in Lancaster,
and then we had a terrible storm:

This is my backyard

The creek is in the back of those trees - this is the
overflow.

This little guy was confused and didn't know where to go.

A couple of days later - these mushrooms grew!

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!