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Dark Side

I took the batch of shirts that I dyed last week back into my indigo vat at Paradigm Gardens to redip. They got sooooooo dark! I took the batch of shirts that I dyed last week back into my #indigo vat @paradigmgardens to redip. They got sooooooo dark! Woohoo! That's one of the awesome super powers of indigo dye. The more times to dip your fabric in, the darker it gets. #blueandwhite #darkside #madisonwi #cotton #handdyed #blog. Now they will hang fora few days before I wash them. | February 05, 2016 at 01:53PM
Woohoo! That’s one of the awesome super powers of indigo dye. The more times to dip your fabric in, the darker it gets. Now they will hang for a few days before I wash them.

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Shawl Giveaway Winner!!!

 

Wooohoooo! Here’s the ever lovely Rebecca Bernstein modeling the hand dyed shawl she won!!

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Running a giveaway was super fun.  Imma do another in the spring!  Thanks to everyone who played along!  And HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!

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Songs to DYE by

When I’m dyeing, I get songs with the word Blue in them stuck in my head. That’s just how it is. 

I thought it might be fun to share some of them with you in a very inconsistent series I’m calling “Earworm Random Day (So I don’t have to post on the same day every time)”

I hope you enjoy them!

The song I get stuck in my head the most is Blue by Eiffel 65.

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Giveaway! w00t w00t!

It’s Giveaway time!

I’ve had such an awesome year!  w00t!!  Thank you!  The classes at Paradigm Gardens and Olbrich Gardens have been the bomb dot com and I’ve met so many amazing people.

I love to make stuff with indigo but I think I like teaching the dyeing classes even more.  I love enabling people to PLAY and make mistakes and messes.  It’s a stone cold blast!

Here’s a really short highlight reel!!!

Anyhoo….I’ve decided to give away one of my hand dyed indigo shawls.  The deets are in the Giveaway dealio.

I hope you’ll enter and tell your friends and that they enter and that I’m overwhelmed with people who LOVE indigo and want to learn more.  Because it rocks!

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December Rocks!

December is going to be super busy and awesome this year! w00t!!  Check out my Events Page, it’s chock full o’ awesome!!

First off, I have been invited to sell some of my indigo items in a trunk show this coming weekend, December 5th and 6th at the Hillcrest Handmade Bazaar Sale.

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It should be way fun, there will be quite a few artists there and I plan on doing lots of Christmas shopping there myself.

On December 6th (that’s a Sunday and the second day of the sale) I’m going to give a FREE talk at Paradigm Gardens about (wait for it….) Indigo!

I’ll also demo dyeing for anyone who want to see what a super and amazing process it is and (painlessly) learn a titch of history and chemistry.

I’ll have a fresh new vat there, which is excellent because the very next Sunday – which is the 13th of December – I’m teaching a Dip Into Indigo class there from 1 – 4. It’s the perfect chance for you to MAKE Christmas gifts for people.

November Sale - some stuff left for December

Here’s my booth from the Art in the Wright Place sale I did last weekend.

It’s going to be a freaking awesome month! There’s even more happening that isn’t indigo related.  There’s a Fearless Crafter’s Program at the Monona Library on December 16th. Guest Artist Linda Orr will be leading us through making a fabric collage calendar.

Also at the library on Sunday, December 20th, I’m leading a community mending day. It’s happening every third Sunday. We will mending clothes and drinking coffee from 2 – 4.

Back to indigo, I want to thank everybody for keeping me so busy doing fun stuff so I’m hosting a give away in December! Woohoo!!!  Watch this space for details.

 

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New and Blue

I went to an awesome and fun quilt retreat at the Jones Mansion in Mineral Point WI and had a totally awesome freakin’ time.  I took a bunch of indigo dyed fabric – both cotton and linen – and no plan.  I figured that, as long as it was blue, anything I made would look lovely.

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I love improv quilting.  It’s very freeing and fun.  I sewed a buncha squares together and found that I had made enough for two small quilt tops.IMG_4875

My husband happens to have two co-workers who are expecting babies in the spring so I needed to make two baby quilts anyway. But then I was done and had used up all my cotton indigo squares.  Never fear, I had a pile of linen fabric too.  I made four nine patch squares and then sewed them together.  I was inspired to try something that required a little planning by all the quilters around me.

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But I can only plan so much.  I started stitching this mandala inspired circle with no plan but to go in a circle.  This one may keep me busy for a long time.  It’s really fun to sew.  The running stitches are actual quilt stitches and all of the embroidery stitching only goes through the top layer.

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I will also be kept busy by this little guy who just joined our family.  He’s Augustus The Strong!  He’s named after a Polish King and also the dude from The Fault in Our Stars.  Luckily it’s a name that both kids could agree on, even if for totally different reasons.  I just call him Gus.

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Socks N Hats

Tomorrow I am dyeing a huge batch of socks and baby hats for the November 22nd Art in the Wright Place sale.  I think, after that, I’m switching to ironing and sale prep.  I’ll share pictures as I go along so you can see what will be there.

Before then, though, I have an Dip into Indigo Class on Saturday, November 14th!  I’ve totally lightened up on the structure so it’s good for any level of experience.  Woooooo!

So much is happening!

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Indigo Dye Class at Paradigm Gardens!!

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Indigo Dye Class at Paradigm Garden yesterday!  Woohoo!  We had a blast. Check out the different colors.  The indigo dye turns from green to blue.  So beautiful.

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We had super fun.  The students were very experimental and adventurous.

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Check it out.  Lovely stuff.  Most of my pictures still have lots of green in them but the fabric was all blue and white by the time they headed home.IMG_4748

I have more classes coming up soon. The guys are Paradigm are so awesome, they’re letting me stay and dye some more.

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I’m changing the classes up a bit.  No longer will there be a separate 101 and 102 class but just a free for all kind of class.

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I’ll supply some fabric but you can feel free to bring a shirt or something vaguely shirt sized or about a yard or two of fabric.

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Check out that shocked and happy look on her face.  She was very happy with everything she made.

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She was not the only proud dyer that day.

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More details about future dye classes here.

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Two…that’s right, count ’em, TWO classes in one

They didn’t really happen at once but I’m going to post the pictures from them both at once.  They were both awesome and fun and a blast and I loved them.

These are from yesterday.

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It was a private lesson and she was super experimental.  She totally got my whole idea that we’re just playing and you really can’t make any mistakes.

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She came up with a whole new method that looks freaking awesome:

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She also played with the old classics.

image4(19)  image1(18)It was a great day.

But wait, there’s more:

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I ran a class on the weekend which also rocked.  Also chock full of playful people:

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Everything is Awesome!

Everything is cool when you’re part of a team.

Here’s my team member:

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Also, I’m just in a great mood because I dyed twenty four (24!!) napkins today and they were almost all PERFECT!!

Those that weren’t perfect, didn’t really suck.  I also dyed several shirts.  I’M ON FIRE!!!

Actually, I’ve realized that it’s September and summer won’t last forever.  So I’m dyeing ALL THE THINGS!!  CAPSLOCK!!

Here’s a few pictures:

image2(17)These guys were all on the same pole.  The one on the right is still oxidizing.  Here they are later:

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But, wait…there’s more:

image8(9)This is one of the one’s that didn’t work.  The really fully blue one with the tiny white spots, is not supposed to look like that.  I still like it.

image3(17)image4(18)image5(18)image7(10)That’s not all of them.  But I didn’t get all the pictures.  I didn’t have to.  I had all the fun!