I've Been Busy

So much has happened since my last post.  I realized that I haven't done much on the quilt and that November is here.  The heat is slipping away outside and although we recently has an almost 70F day here most mornings I wake up the temp is close to 40F.  The trees that just a week ago were full of leaves of color and now mostly dark lines against the grey sky. 

I took a dye class at ProChem.  I've been dyeing for a long time....since the 1960s off and on.  But I've never really spent time figuring out how it all happens.  For some silly reason starting to do natural dyes has made me curious about dyes in general.  I've been reading books about dyeing and even dreaming about dyeing.  I'm thinking seriously about doing an indigo vat.  But ...that may be a future post.

We had a wonderful time with this lady:

This is Vicki Jensen.  She is the Class Coordinator and Dyer Extroidinare at ProChemical and Dye.  She also happens to be a felter.  I think she is delightful....and a wonderful teacher.  She presented an organized class with even the math de-mystified under her tulaledge.  We did immersion dyeing

Then we thickened and painted

The results were wonderful.....even in the washer...

There was a rain storm that passed outside....but we made our own rainbow and hung it near the window when the sun came out.

I came home and loaded up the dye pot and went to work on the quilt this last weekend.  I had an exhausted dye bath every time!!  I was soooo proud of myself...no excess dye down the drain!  And I made a beautiful green background silk.

So then I finally worked on new squares for the quilt.  First I made 10 drawings.  It is the most time consuming part of the process.  I always have trouble deciding how I can cartoon the flower yet make it look enough like the actual bloom that it could .... ahem...kinda be identified correctly.   Some times I actually think I succeed. I'm hoping these two look like Itherial's Spear a type of wildflower found in the Sierra Nevada foothills during the dryer summer months.  Always a treat to find hiding in the grasses.

It needs some embroidery to finish up the details.  I still haven't decided if it is machine or hand embroidery I want to do.  I love working by hand, but machine may hold up better to use.

I also did Prairie Clover.  Driving through Texas...long ago...I remember seeing these.  I loved the purple colors.

So I also sat down and tried to figure out how many 'squares' I would need to finish my quilt.  OY...I have to make 40.  Yep....Four Oh.  It makes me a bit overwhelmed to think about it.  I guess I never stopped to think of how big a king size bed quilt really is.   LOL.  So now I have about 18 done and 7 more drawings.  I'm not sure I'll have it done for this winter...good thing we recent redid our heating system with a more efficient boiler.