Yesterday was so fun! I love the Aldo Leopold Sale. The vendors are really talented, the location is gorgeous, the people are nice and I get to support the nature center. What could be better?
Matt took a quick shot of me with my tunics and other awesome blue things for sale. Now I can relax for a little while, which is awesome.
The tunics will soon be available at Blue Bar Quilts in Middleton so be sure to stop by.
I’ve been dyeing like crazy to get ready for my December 3rd Sale at the Aldo Leopold Center in Madison. To be honest, I fear that I made too much. I’m going to bring a bunch of stuff, display one or two of each type of dyed thing and keep some under the tables. But you’re in the know, so ask me to bring out more patterns when you stop by my table.
I had a lot of fun dyeing at One One Thousand but only shared pictures through Instagram so here are some collaged screen shots
I’ve been lucky enough to dye in all of the publicly available dye studios in town: Blue Bar Quilts, The Electric Needle and – though it not officially a dye studio – One One Thousand. They are all my favorite places to dye. All of them.
So if you are a local dyer, I recommend that you call one up and reserve some time. They are all equally awesome. 
I was treated to a beautiful sunset when leaving One One Thousand so I’m sharing my blurry picture of it with you. I hope I see you tomorrow!!!
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.
Madison WI
53706
United States
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.
Look, I made a pillow:
I’ve cut out several more and just need to throw them together. Ha.
I was trying for a ginkgo leaf. It was a whole lotta stitching, which I really enjoy.
But, it’s more of an umbrella. It was more of a design issue than a technical thing though. I really love it. And what’s better than one Ginkgo- brella?
Four Ginkgo-brellas!!!!!!!!! I love learning stuff!!! 
I’ll be making more…that are maybe a little more leaf like.
I made this a few years ago. It’s inspired by Korean pogaji wrapping clothes. Which are hand stitched out of scraps of fabric. Mine isn’t hand stitched. 
I used french seams to stitch together linen that I took from thrifted clothes. You can see my first ever attempt at dyeing in that blotchy orange. Then I made into a curtain.
It’s on my garage door, which I see now is very dusty. I remember making it as a super enjoyable experience. I LOVE ironing linen almost as much as it loves being ironed. You need super high heat and a very steamy iron. It’s extremely satisfying.
I plan on re-making it in shades of blue. I have another naked window in my kitchen that needs one, too. They’re on my “to do one day when I have nothing better to do” list.
Then I took a macro picture –
because I love macro pictures – which distracted me mightily. So I’ll just post some of the pictures I then took with my macro lens on:
I hate to stay too on topic. Now you can see why I never get to that that to do list.