March 14

Today is the day!  Today is the first day since the weather turned that I will be mixing up my first Indigo batch. A million thoughts are running through my head and the worries about the kiddo's schedule keep getting in the way. Wish me luck...

Stitching Shibori

Pics are from last summer..

Dish Towel

Stitching and stitching, my fingers will never be the same...Sometimes I think that its not worth the time to make so many stitches just to dye it all and have to rip the stitches out. Anyone who sews will tell you that ripping stitches out is a heart wrenching thing to do...so much time and work just to be rendered lost. My thumb joints are not ever going to be the same. I am constantly thinking please oh please let me have complete use of my hands the entire time I am living. I truly appreciate them so much.   Multiple dye sessions on a fabric always make it worthwhile to me though. Fold, stitch and fold again. Sometimes with different colors, sometimes the same. That layering look that we get as we age, something good something more beneath the surface. Pulling wet stitches though? Still the pits.

Samples

Every time I do anything I always wish I would have done some samples for myself....This time I remembered!  They are all 5 x 7 and I would like to make them into a little fabric book for myself, I do need to figure out how to make a book however.

Winter Dye

After the dye bath

After the stitching and dye bath I hung them up to dry before washing them. The winter has made me restless and so none of this was given any batch time. The darker green shibori from the stitching photo is bunched up on the top of clothesline, I wish I had taken more photos but a sunny winter day of 41 degrees makes a girl restless!

Most of these fabrics are going to be over dyed next. I clamped them first and have been doing some stitching. They are beautiful and will make someones quilting project beautiful!

Stitch

The beginnings of shibori. Words cannot express the joy I feel knowing I am going to be dyeing fabric. The prep work as seen below can never go fast enough! We didnt have much of a winter this year so there was not a lot of time to just sit down cuddle up and stitch.  I have 3 girls, 5,7 and 9 who want their mamas attention all the time when we are together.

Chauvet Cave France Mixed Media Project

I belong to a local art group that meets once a month. We all take turns teaching a new technique or one that we just want to learn more about. These projects are what came out of a session in which the woman-who is very interested in archaeology taught. Crinoline was our base and we sketched in hieroglyphics, mostly based on the Chauvet Cave in France. Most of the people made wall hanging quilts although one person made a pillow. All projects contain the crinoline, just in different amounts.

 These 3 to the right were mostly made of paint,recycled items, cereal bag liners and chip liners.

 Heavy beading on the bottom.

Watercolors and stitching

The pillow with watercolors,stitching, markers and embroidery. One of the women made this with her 9 year old daughter.

All the yellow is embroidered and a fine netting covers the entire project.

Fabric to make the outline with heavy crewel work surrounding it.

Not a great picture...

Time Escapes

Time escapes you as you travel across the country and raise a family. I am trying to commit to new/old endeavors. I opened my Etsy store Burnt Toast Ranch  http://www.etsy.com/people/burnttoastranch?ref=si_pr  in 2008, then we moved and I never restarted.
 Well on the cusp of another move I am going again... I decided to keep with my favorites of vintage items and hand-dyed fabric. Wish me luck...