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!

Blog hopping fun etc.

So this week I was going through my blog list
and reading so many wonderful posts!

This one has got to be my favorite this week
It's from Appunti patch ~ Linda's blog ~ I asked
her if I could show it




This is Nicoletta and she made all of these little quilts
102 of them! To give away as gifts..... but you should
read the story
HERE On Linda's blog. What an amazing person
Nicoletta is and such a generous spirit! Bless her heart!

And over at Approachable Art - Judy or rather
the Dharma Trading Company is having a great
giveaway. You might just want to stop by and
leave a comment.

Belinda over at Brown Dirt Cottage has a Part I
tutorial on Clamshells - no not the kind that you
eat! Well, go and see for yourself - it's great!
THIS IS PART II I always wanted to make
one these - I could use all of my scraps!

Last week at our Guild meeting we had two very
talented and funny ladies - Mimi Dietrich and
Norma Campbell! I haven't laughed so hard for
such a long time and it felt good!

Norma is known for her "Trip Around the World"
Quilts

And it's many variations




You know of course Mimi is known for her applique


The next day we had a "Stash Busters Workshop"
Where we learned some techniques and tips.
The pattern was a Carpenters Wheel

Here's mine - made with all of the scraps I could
find! I have a couple of ideas for this one but it will
have to wait awhile as I'm working on 3 quilts already!

One quilt that I "Just have to make someday" is the
One Block Wonders. My friend Julie and her mom
made one each and I just love them! "Show n Tell"

Here's Julie's

And here's Julie's Mom's Quilt

Aren't they gorgeous! I just love them! A great
Mother/Daughter project.

What do you think I'll be doing with these?

some flowers

berries?

Rose hips?

and some of this stuff

Well, you'll just have to come back for another visit
and see. (-:

Photos for this week: (Please click on the image
to enlarge)











Blessings!

I'm making good progress on the borders of
my Vicksburg Quilt.


I added some green sashing because I think I cut my
fabric too large - I had an inch left over. I am also
going to add some bows along the border. I like
the way that it looks. I love this quilt ~ Thanks
Again Dawn for the BOM!

"I'm making a Quilt For ME" ----> see side
bar for Linda Poole's Facebook page.
I'm keeping the Vicksburg Quilt Just For Me!
It's fun watching everyone's progress on their
quilts

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At our Guild meeting this month; our lecturer
was Teresa Fusco. Originally from Brooklyn!
Teresa now lives in Pa. She was an instructor
at The Quilter's Palette in Fleetwood, Pa. but
sadly the shop is closing at the end of the month.

Teresa dazzled us with her art quilts which are
made using beads, raw edge applique, and bright
beautiful colors. Most of the quilts that she made
are her own designs. Here are a few:

Reverse Applique

Here's my favorite!

I just love this one! The Amish do not wish you
to take their photos, so Teresa drew the three
boys.


Teresa will still be giving classes and she is working
on her web site; which I will add to my blog list.
I love her!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wrote about this quilt back in September ----


There is a "sister" quilt to this one and Ann Holte
from my Quilt History Study Group made a pattern
for it!
She Calls it the "Lancaster Diamond Quilt" and you
can buy the templates at her web site
HERE These Quilts are on display at the the
Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum until the end of
the year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another quilt that I wrote about last year was one
brought to our Guild by Marylou McDonald.



It was the Mary Potts Album Quilt and it has
85 blocks! Marylou was still working on the
patterns and now it is finished and for sale
at the Winterthur Museum Store. You can

CLICK HERE to purchase this pattern. I'm
very tempted to buy it! Maybe for Christmas I'll
treat myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As you can tell - I'm really getting into Photography
and I love it!

Here's some Pics that I recently had taken - I hope
you enjoy them!

A Cardinal with a New York attitude!

I only have eyes for you dear.

It's a Bug's Life

Nobody's Perfect

Have a great week and see you in September.