Onions and Spring

It has been a very busy weekend for me.  I managed to get the usual suspects (laundry, checkbook, shopping, cleaning...blah de blah) done and got lots done on the quilt.  I also couldn't stand it any more and opened the onion stained silk.  It has been sitting in the Mason jar for over 4 weeks now and India's book said to leave as looooong as you could.  Well, I can forget the erosion package because I don't see it hanging in the Weeping Cherry outside.  But the jar....well, I walk by it several times a week.  So without further ado, 

 

These are three different pieces of silk.  The one on top is the onion skins wrapped in silk, sprayed with vinegar then stored in the Mason jar.  The middle silk was in the crockpot with oak galls and simmered for about 2 hours.  It was then put in the crockpot with onion skins that had already dyed the lowest piece of silk.  These are for drapes that will grace my livingroom in the future.  

This is the onion skins silk from the Mason jar.  The colors are subtle but rich.  I'm thrilled with these pieces. 

I'm not as excited with the next group.  But I do like the little pieces....I just haven't decided how or what I want to use them for. 

These were the little bundles of leaves, silk and felt that I steamed in the crockpot.  The colors are soft and earthy.  A different color than tea stained that I have done previously.  I will wait for inspiration.  

The quilt.  The quilt. The quilt.  

Each square has been revisited and as I develop technique each square develops.  How to choose colors, how to do soft corners, sharp corners, speed, curves and stops.  Each of these decisions is influenced by each individual square.  Each square reminds me of summers spent among flowers, meadows, mountains and bogs.  

Blue Dicks.  Shining in the tall grass.  

Tiny blue trumpet flowers waving gracefully. 

Snow Drops...on tumeric background....that needed some definition...

I can hardly wait for these Spring Lovelies to show up.  

The dog walk today revealed a defrosted swamp and mostly bare ground....but no swamp cabbage or snow drops.  No Christmas Rose or tulips poking their tips up and out into the overcast sky.  

But...there was very little snow.  Spring can't be too far away. 

The Next Step

After thinking and pondering and several trials I decided that machine embroidery is what needed to happen.  The squares needed detail and that needed to be done before they were joined.  So I first experimented.  I have at least four squares that I probably won't use in the quilt and tried different weight threads, different stitches, and different types of threads.  

Here is my first prototype.  

 

I wasn't thrilled with this...but it tell tell me that lighter colored thread on dark background and probably dark thread on light background.  The more contrast the better. So I started with my least favorite square.....the Water Lily.

  

The stitching helped this beyond what I had hoped.  I don't know if this was on an earlier post but it was a disappointment when I was done and I wasn't sure it would be included in the final...but it just got moved up to most probably.  

I have also been dyeing (of course!) and ground up some oakgalls in an old coffee grinder. Then I put them in the crockpot and cooked them.

I also tried a steam wrap of some oak, maple and poplar leaves.  These I wrapped tight with silk on one side and white felt on the other.  

 

  

I'm also waiting for the onion skin jar to see what happens.

I shall see what these bring over the next week.  But tomorrow.... I will be doing more machine embroidery to go forward with The Quilt.