I was just digging through last year’s Deep Into Indigo Retreat photos. Lots of pictures here. We had such an awesome time!! June is almost here and it time to sign up for 2017!
Indigo Update!
Indigo Update!
May (the month of awesomeness) Giveaway! Has Ended!!
Our winner was Lisa Genson! Congrats Lisa!
It’s my birthday month but it’s also mother’s day month – which is almost as important – so in honor of these two monumental events, I’m giving away a set of two Queen Sized Cotton Sateen Indigo Dyed (natch) pillow cases.
Of course there’s a Terms and Conditions Clause. You best read it.
Please share this with your friends and mild acquaintances.
Indigo Update!
I went to Seattle to take a natural indigo vat making class with Kathy Hattori of Botanical Colors. I learned a lot about different kinds of indigo vats. I think I like the henna vat the most. Everyone was awesome. I took the class with artist Stephanie Sykes who was a hoot! I looooooove learning new stuff.
Guest appearances!
Check it out! Kim Lapack of Persimon Dreams and the famous Project Quilting has been sewing with my fabrics!
She came to a trunk show that I did at Millhouse Quilts last summer and bought some.
Yes, there are other fabrics in there as well. Mine are the indigo (duh) and the hand dyed mustard colored fabric.
How awesome is that?
But wait! There’s more!
A friend just let me know that I have made a guest appearance on Sewing With Nancy and I didn’t even know about it. It’s really just a half second of a picture of me during the Monona Library Mending Day. It was a teeny tiny part of a larger story about the amazing and fantastic Sewing Machine Project.
The interview about The Sewing Machine Project starts about 20 minutes in.
A girl can dream: In my head, I’ve made several recent guest appearances.
Deep Into Indigo Retreat Dyeing Chat
Jenina and I have been recording some of our thoughts about our Deep Into Indigo Retreat plans. Also, adding many pretty pictures, because pretty is what it’s all about. Also fun. Also food. Also Friends. The best F words.
Deep Into Indigo Retreat Location
This year the Deep Into Indigo Retreat has a new location. We talked about it yesterday and threw together this little video about it. You can find more info here. We hope you join us!!
Deep Into Indigo Retreat 2017!!
We’re baaa-aack! We had so much fun at the Deep Into Indigo Retreat last year, that we are doing it again this summer. The only changes are that we’ve moved to a more spacious location AND the food will be inspired by the holiday happening on the weekend we are retreating: Bastille Day!
Click the picture for more information. We hope you can join us!
A Mighty Mess
I made a mighty mess. It’s one of my favorite things to do. I mixed up some rice flour and Gum Arabic, which is also known as sugar glue. It’s made with the sap from the acacia tree. I had tried to make a resist from just Gum Arabic – I swear I read a tutorial for that somewhere – and it didn’t really resist the fabric very well. Here’s the Gum Arabic alone:Nice, but a little too subtle for me. I wanted to make something resist-ier. Hence, the rice flour. I just stirred a little at a time in to my leftover Gum Arabic goo until it was the consistency of glue…I guess. Then I painted it on. I laid the fabric on some wax paper because it bleeds though. It dried really fast, though. I was messy and didn’t really think much about the pattern. It was drippy and messy to work with and, for me, that makes it fun. Here it is after a coupla dips. The resist did get sticky again. I left it to dry for a few days though I think 24 hours should be plenty. We run out of good dye days in Wisconsin pretty early and I had to wait for the weather. I think I dipped it three times. The vat was old so the result is light.Boom! I love the level of resist I got. There are some bonus little drippy bits here and there. My random pattern makes me happy too. I will do this again for sure.