Spring

This is part of our Japanese Maple with a beautiful spring sky in the background.

This is one of the prettiest years for our crabapple trees. This is Indian Magic.

Here is a sure sign of Spring-a robin that has a nest above our deck.

This is a close up of the Forget-Me-Nots

This is a close up on one of my three Hellebore plants.

On the left are Forget Me Nots, in the center is variegated Solomn's Seal with ajuga on the right

 Here is part of the 7 lilacs in my lilac hedge. They held off blooming until Mother's Day as we had a cool spring. The smell is heavenly. These are one of my favorite spring flowers.

This is our water garden that is 30'x8' with a 5 foot waterfall. The waterlilies will be blooming by the end of May.

Here is a close up of one of my 7 lilac bushes.

Purples and greens, etc

Here is the outcome of some more dying sessions. All these fabrics were dyed using the Fusion Dying book and the jar dying method. The bottom wool in the front left is actually a gold green formula #44. It looks brown, but is a dark gold green.  The soft green velvet on top is actually from the same formula. Hard to believe, but true. Velvet takes the colors very differently than the wool and silk.On the top of that pile is silk dyed with a bright yellow green formula # 34 with some wool dyed from the same color underneath. All the colors I have dyed so far from this book have turned out fabulous.  I am hoping to be dying soon, but I went to the foot Dr. yesterday and I can't wear a shoe full time for about 2 more weeks. I know standing and dying fabric would be too stressful for my foot for a few more weeks after that. The Dr, basically told me just to sit and take it easy.Well, I guess I will just look at my wool, velvet and silk and drool!!
 Here in Iowa we finally have warm and sunny weather. It has been a cloudy cool spring and I am very happy to see the sun. The lilacs are in full bloom, hostas are up as well as peonies. My lungwort  is in full bloom and the wild columbine is about ready to bloom. Due to my foot I will not be doing much, if any, gardening this spring, I definitely will not be digging up anything with a shovel. That would ruin all of the gains I have made with the tarsal tunnel surgeries---NOT going there!!!
The pile on the  left in the back (on the bottom) is  royal purple #17 and above that is lavender # 14. I believe (as I do not have my notes and sample swatches) that the color on top of the lavender is and the blue is # 19 blue purple.
On the right bottom is #6 soft pink wool with the soft pink silk on top of the wool. Next is #1 bright red, and then is #11 dark fuchsia with #43 orange  above that. I think the silk on the top is dyed with the dark fuchsia. In a later blog I will show all the colors separately with their values so you can see the colors better.

In the Pink (magenta that is)

 Here are a couple of photos of my magenta dying day. There is silk charmeuse, silk velvet and wool. In the top photo the wool is on the right and the shiny fabric is the silk charmeuse. I used the microwave to dye the silk and velvet and the lazy swatch method for the wool.
I mixed 1/2teaspoon of dye to 1 cup of boiling water and then spooned it onto the silk and velvet before setting the dye in the microwave. I spooned on some yellow (see orangey spots) and blue (see violet spots) along with the magenta and let them blend into new colors. Lots of fun. In the top photo you can see the different values I got from the wool.

The Blues (color that is)

Here are the results of dying with Pro Chem # 490 Blue. The wool is dyed using the lazy swatch method on Gene Shepherd's blog and the silk and velvet were dyed using the microwave method as described before.
  The lazy swatch method uses 1/2 teaspoon of  powdered dye to 1 cup of boiling water. Add this cup of liquid dye to  1.5 gallons of boiling water, turn off the heat as the citric acid may cause the water to bubble up, then add  1 tablespoon of citric acid crystals or 11 tablespoons of vinegar to the water and return to the heat. Take 1/4 yard of pre-soaked wool and add it to the pot ( soak wool in warm or hot water from faucet with a small amount of synthrapol added to it for at least 30 minutes ahead of time). Open up the wool so the dye can penetrate it and then gather it up with tongs or a wooden spoon and press it against the side of the pot and hold for 30-40 seconds. Do the same for three more pieces. This makes nice mottled pieces of 4 different values. It is hard to see, but the wool is of 4 values.
The silk and velvet have had the dye spooned on and the set in microwave for 2 minutes.

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Hand Dyed Silk Charmeuse and Velvet

 Here is piece of my hand dyed silk charmeuse. I dyed the silk in a large (gallon) sized zip lock plastic bag.  First I spooned on liquid dye of the three primaries while the silk was inside of the plastic bag, then I closed the bag and put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds so the bag would not pop open. After the 2 minutes the dye was set and I slowly brought down the temperature of the silk by putting it in a bath of hot water, then one of warm water, then a cool bath. If  the silk is shocked by quick temperature changes it will ruin it  (Ask me how I know!). I then squeezed out the water from the silk and put it on my Aga to dry. 

The next two photos are of silk/rayon velvet purchased from Dharma Trading Company. I dyed the silk velvet the same way as the silk. For this piece of velvet I used magenta and yellow only. I got some nice blending creating a few shades of orange. However, I did not get enough dye on the velvet and there are a few white spots, but overall I was very pleased for my first attempt at dying velvet. It is, also, drying on my Aga as is the last piece.


For this last piece of velvet I used blue and yellow. I got some great greens. The only problem with this is that there are,also, white spots where I did not get enough dye into the velvet. But it is all usable and overall I was very happy with this piece, especially since it was only my second attempt at dying silk velvet.

Martin's Jungle 2

Here is another part that I have finished on this quilt. I added Martin the cat and some  'foxgloves' by the base of the tree.
To make the 'foxgloves' I cut out an oval from pink wool and made a small cut out on one end. Then I cut out an oval of darker velvet and appliqued it to the lighter pink wool. The stems are from a green textured wool. I will embroidery the small stems that go from the flowers to the larger stems and, also, add some leaves.
I wanted the cat to be surveying his jungle so made his back to the front of the quilt.

Easter

This is my goddaughter, 3, and her sister,6, hunting for their Easter eggs in our backyard. They came over for dinner yesterday. Their mother is my husband's cousin. It is so much fun having little ones around. Their decorated eggs were really fancy, some had glitter on them.

I hope all of you had a Blessed Easter. The Lord has Risen!

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