A stitch in time

Dyed with fallen rose petals and the odd cornflower head

The type of subtle colours I love

I have reached the last day of my fiftieth decade, changes ahead, I don't know. I have just finished working my way through Jude's 'Spirit Cloth 101' so will be looking over at 'What If', one change on the way.

Train travel will be 20 per cent cheaper so maybe I will visit more places. I would love to just take off to Northumberland and Scotland for about a month, on my own, but that is not possible at the moment.



My evening occupation, I have fallen in love with stitching. Once all these pieces are sewn together I will make them into one larger piece.

Bright green bug

Does anybody know what this bug is, it seems to be eating things that don't normally get eaten like my Mum's bay leaves?

First attempts at dyeing clothes

Golden rod

Urggh

 I was quite pleased with this subtle yellow from the golden rod, but disaster it shows up the sweat marks under the arms horribly. The clothes all came from charity shops. I am sure India Flint would come up with some novel way of dealing with this but I am not sure I can.
I will probably cut it up and use the fabric for something else.
The other top looks slightly antiqued so I may leave it like this or over dye again. I haven't tried washing either of them yet, hope all the dye won't come out.

Cotinus, prunus and red leaved elderflower, front

Back

Dyed silk and paper yarns

Garden

I just counted 18 tortoiseshell butterflies on my buddleia, it certainly has been a good year for butterflies

Colour in the Garden

A favourite grouping

Pittosporum Tom Thumb, Rosa Glauca and stocks

The next berry crop

My latest Heuchera, I love the colour

Self seeded Cosmos

Penstemon

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Finally

Close up a bit bright

The whole piece but rather dark

Close up

 I have given up trying to get a good image of the whole piece, but here it is anyway. None of the images are actual colours of the cloth but overall I hope you can get some idea of the whole.

I am thrilled with it, the cloth has become very personal to me, a reminder of a special time and place. Also the first good result I have had from eco dyeing with plants.

Close up

Close up with my initial, pure coincidence

This photo isn't too bad, I am very happy to have created my initial, this is right in the centre of the piece.

Not quite yet

Ok I know, no images of the final piece, I am having real trouble getting a good photo of the it and I'd like to get it right as I am very pleased with it.

India Flint 3rd installment

Prunus and rusty nails on velvet

Dead leaves bundled corner to corner

 The rusty nails completely changed the feel of this viscose/silk mix velvet, it is now quite rough but I still like the colour effects.  All the individual pieces are approx 10x10cms. We were working in a fairly restricted area but these were a good size to sample different effects.

My favourite but can't remember what I used in it, it did have clematis and crocosmia flowers in it. as you can see this was folded.

This was the first piece front

and back, I like the string effect but to get a good print it should have been tied tighter

Lots of bundles out of the pot

Tin lids and cloth wrapped round small paper book

unwrapped cloth

I haven't photographed the book as I don't consider it very good but I love the tin lid impressions.
Final piece tomorrow, it is pouring with rain here and too dark to get a decent photo.

India Flint workshop, next installment

Our first bundle picked by India

 We had regular forages around the grounds to collect leaves and flowers for our bundles.
Ruskin Mill is in the most beautiful setting with many cultivated areas but still with a sense of wildness about.

They grown a lot of their own produce and have amazing food in the cafe, especially the cakes.

All wrapped up and ready to go

All leaves and flowers were collected from the ground

Another bundle

Prunus, eucalptyus and rusty nails

Dead leaves work very well

Eco Dyeing with India Flint

I have recently arrived back from a three day workshop with the gracious lovely India Flint. It was held in the idyllic setting of Ruskin Mill in Nailsworth. Three heavenly days, I have learnt so much and now feel more confident to go ahead and dye some clothes. More images to follow.

Playing about with cloth

Gekko in the desert

 I have been having fun with stitching again, this is tea dyed cloth with added pieces of solar dyed eucalyptus leaf cloth, the stitching is following natural lines that occurred during dyeing process.
I am quite enjoying bringing out details of the dyed cloth instead of adding many extra pieces of fabric.
I have got so behind with Jude's course that I am doing my own thing at the moment and will hopefully get back into the right Spirit to follow Jude at a later date.
I have also actually done a small amount of weaving but not enough to notice much. difference at the moment.

Butterflies

The air is alive with butterflies today, mostly cabbage whites but I just counted six peacocks on the buddleia plus 4 tortoiseshells, and one peacock on my daughter, which took quite a fancy to her shorts. I have also seen quite a few commas and some smaller brown and blue varieties which I don't recognise. I now have more trees in the garden, including three buddleias and a small patch of nettles, so I guess this is attracting them.