Tag: indigo

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stick a fork in me

I had a crazy productive day today.  I took this completely beautiful and fabulous cat print that I picked up at the Madison Print and Resist Zinefest in the fall,

Made by an artist at justseeds.org

Took some fancy goo

And put it on a canvas.  I used tissue paper and a doily to make a frame around it.  It’s on a stack of freshly ironed, indigo dyed dishtowels.  Christmas is coming right up, ya know.

But gooing and ironing wasn’t enough for me.  Inspired by a friend’s project, I also used some of this horrible, cheap, plastic yarn and experimented with basket making.

I’m actually really thrilled with the result.

How cool is that?  I used the horrible cheap yarn because I happened to have it on hand and we just had a big snow storm so I didn’t want to go shopping.  

I really wish I had used nice, natural cotton rope.  I think cotton will make a nicer shape, too.  Oh, yeah, there are more of these in my future.  

BUT WAIT!  

There’s more!  

I took a bunch of close up pictures of my dishtowels. Yep, that’s sounds pretty obsessive, I hear it.  But it turned out cool.

I

I added a favorite quote to the photo.  Fun.  I wonder if that would work as a print.  

But I won’t be finding out today.  

You can stick a fork in me, I’m done.  

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Stinks like WHOA!

I’ve had better ideas…but I’ve also had waaaay worse ones.*   My big idea: Dye with indigo in my house.  I’ll just say this part again: In my house.  If you’ve never dyed with indigo, you may not know that it stinks like WHOA!  

Way back in the day, dyers used yeast and fermented urine to get the dye to affix to the fabric.  I don’t, by the way.  But I do use chemicals that smell like ammonia (the secret sauce in the fermented urine of old).  

Dyeing outside it not really an option right now.  Indigo likes to be warm.  It doesn’t require boiling like most natural dyes but It does not like to be cold.  Neither do I.  Wisconsin in November:  Cold.  So is December, January, February, most, if not all, of March and much of April.  That gives me a veeeerrrrrry long wait before I get to play with indigo outdoors again. So, I decided to brave the mess and stench.  

To conquer the mess I bought two kiddie pools.  Finding kiddie pools in Wisconsin was an adventure of it’s own.  There was nothing available locally (Wisconsin in November, need I say more?) The first ones I found online were about $10 plus $80 shipping.  If I’m being honest, this whack-a-doodle pricing was a big motivator for me and may well be the reason I went past the “just wondering” phase of this idea.  $90 for two kiddie pools? Ahahahahahahahahaha! I can do better! 

This required much googling, which I love doing.  I did finally find some reasonably priced options.  Thank you Toys R Us and the fact that you ship everything everywhere everyday anyway.  Buying those pools meant I was committed; see how the falling down the rabbit hole works?

Also to tame the mess, a tarp.  The tarp doesn’t really have a good back story…it’s just a tarp.  Eventually, I added a couple of towels around the edges to wipe my shoes on before leaving tarp-landia. 

Totally worked.   The indigo was very happy in the house.  The vats woke up easily and dyed the fabric really nicely.  

But the stink…I had a fan blowing and the door to the outside opened but THE STINK!!!

Because of the stink, t’s not something I would do again real soon but I’m pretty sure I’ll change my mind before April.  Spring is soooooooooo far away.

 * I am thankful everyday that there was no Facebook when I was in my early 20’s.

 

 

 

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Pretty Dang Awesome Quilt

I totally forgot to show off my linen quilt now that it’s finished!  Every inch of fabric is linen.  It feel amazing and super soft and light as a feather.

Linen Quilt Front

 

The blue fabric was all dyed with indigo.  It’s from our first couple of times dyeing and we have learned a ton since then.  So it’s splotchy and much lighter than the stuff we dye now.  Still love it, though.

Linen Quilt Back

The back is all from skirts and shirts and thrifted clothing.  I love it so much, it could easily be the front of a quilt I would be proud of.  

Linen Quilt Detail

Here are a few detail pictures.  This is my first tie dyed experiment.  It started as a lavender skirt panel.  Because we use thiox, a dye remover, in our dye vats it has some white to it, too.

Linen Quilt Detail

I did get a titch carried away on the edging as usual.  This is my favorite bit.  I love this combination of colors.

Linen Quilt Detail

This is some of the cool piecing that improvisation quilting can leave you with.  It’s why I love it so much.  It’s interesting and surprising.  Even the worst mistake you can make looks pretty dang awesome. 

On Saturday (November 9th, 2013 for future reference) it’s going to be hung up as part of the Modern Quilt Guild Show at the Sequoya Branch Library in Madison.  I’m going to hang another quilt there too, if there’s room.  I’m just not sure which one.  

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More changes

Always laughing
Always looking for reasons to laugh

The Jennifer’s will still work together but we also want to do things on our own.  So now I’m here and the other Jennifer is working on making a website, too.  I’ll share her link as soon as it’s ready.

We have big plans involving indigo and other natural dyes and finding alternative and interesting ways to apply batik designs.

You can follow this blog to keep posted about our classes.

I’ll also post my experiments and classes and ideas and pictures and silly thoughts.

Thanks for moving on over with me.

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Indigo Shenanigans

We’ve been up to some shenanigans at Rusted Thread.

Rusted Thread Indigo Dye Sept 2013-60

 Here are some pictures from a private Indigo Dyeing Event we threw recently.

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We were lucky enough to have the amazing Miranda Beyer Photography there and I’m so thrilled with her pictures.

Rusted Thread Indigo Dye Sept 2013-50

This is actually a lot like what our Indigo Days class will look like on October 5th.

Rusted Thread Indigo Dye Sept 2013-49

Everything is so beautiful and all the participants left feeling so proud, as well they should.

Rusted Thread Indigo Dye Sept 2013-46

Rusted Thread Indigo Dye Sept 2013-45

Rusted Thread Indigo Dye Sept 2013-43

Also, if you are just dying (not dyeing..this time) to see us, come to the Willy Street Fair next weekend and look for us!

We’ll be on the 1000 block, peddling our wares.  I hope we see you there!

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It’s awesome. Oops.

First, the results of the avocado dyed pieces.

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On the right, a dish towel that was in the dye bath for 24 hours.  On the left. a cotton napkin that was in for 48 hours.  The color  on the napkin is darker but also very uneven and I am not thrilled with it.  You can kind of see the darker part along the top.  And the silk scarf, up above them both, was in until the water got nasty – maybe three days-ish.  It’s “meh”.  But it was when I bought it, too.  I just wanted to play with silk.  I have a pile of avocado skins and pits growing in my freezer because, although it’s very light, the pink is really lovely on the 24 hour piece.  I want to do more!

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In the meantime, this quilt needs a backing.  I decided to go all linen for this quilt.  I’ve never done that before but I can just imagine how delightful it would feel to be wrapped up in it.  I  thought it would be fun to piece the back, too.  Another first.  Big beige pieces, though, because I want the blue side to be the star.

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I really screwed up on this one.  Because crazy piecing fabric together is one of my favorite things to do, it’s neither made of large pieces nor less interesting than the blue side.

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It’s awesome.  Oops.

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I had to force myself to keep these big and plain.

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It goes way faster but is it worth it?  The next challenge will be to find a way to enjoy sewing them all up and not going overboard.

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Altered, Vague, Slippy Slidey Thought Space

I picked my color to finish this quilt totally unconsciously.  After taking pictures of my options,

I put the grey linen pants in a pile all by themselves without even realizing it.  Everything else was stacked on a chair together.

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 So, after publishing my blog post, having lunch, and bopping around my house doing the stuff I do, I came back to the quilt and I decided on the grey linen pants.  That’s when I saw that I has already separated them out from all the other fabric.  My unconscious mind makes better decisions than my conscious mind.

 IMG_1275.

And then, since I was in that sort of altered, vague, slippy slidey thought space I get into when I make stuff (you do too, right?) I found myself going off into an internal rant.   Usually, my rants are totally in my head and don’t come out  to play because I’m in the middle of making something that needs my attention or I’m trying to get to sleep.  Usually trying to get to sleep. This one happened to happen near the laptop and I typed it out.  I would love to hear your thoughts about my thoughts.

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They’re about those quilters who say they make a mistake on purpose because only God is perfect.  Why is that impressive?  For one, it sounds like they are saying the opposite of what they think they’re saying.  “I’m so good I have to purposely make a mistake so the shit I make isn’t utter perfection.”  Please!

The bigger point for me, though, is that if they have got quilting so down that they’re perfect; they are doing it wrong.  If anyone is just knocking out more perfection, it’s time to move on.  We are not machines, it’s a sign that’s it’s time to get a new freakin’ hobby.  We should be always learning, always striving for new ideas and stretching ourselves.  Making mistakes on purpose to see what happens.  Not because we’ve got such a big ego that we don’t think we can make mistakes unless we do it on purpose.

Life:  If you’re always doing everything right. you’re doing it wrong.

That’s a first for me:  A rant that ends with a tag line.

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Moving on.

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Doesn’t this look nasty?  It’s a pot of water and avocado skins and pits.  My evil plan is to simmer them for hours, strain the water into a jar, add a piece of fabric, put that out into the sun and see what happens.  I just bought myself Eco Colour by India Flint and I see more fun with the compost pile in my immediate future.  Stay tuned, I hear avocado skins dye things PINK!

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Thinking Out Loud On The Blog

Kayak trip cancelled due to perfect weather.

 

The forecast called for rain and the trip required earlier than normal waking.  So when I did finally wake up and saw the forecast was wrong, the weather was perfect and we cancelled the trip for no reason, it was too late to get moving.

 

 

Bummer.

But, looking on the positive side, I had some time to sit down and sew a bit.

I finally finished that last quilt top square.

 

 

Woohoo!

 

Oh yes, you have to suffer through at least one gratuitous close up.

That’s how much fabric was left over.  Not much.

Which is another bummer because I need more fabric to make the squares all fit together.

WHY did I make those napkins when this fabric told me it wanted to be a quilt?!?!?!?!?

I do love my napkins, though.

 

Anyhoo, my lack of indigo dyed linen led to me making a bunch of silly looking piles of fabric under my smallest square to try and find something that worked.  This one is dyed light blue with indigo but has a print on it which might be distracting.

 

 

Linen lavender remnant of a jacket.  But also thicker than the other linen in the quilt.  Hmm.

 

A linen/cotton blend skirt.  Beige.

 

Olivey-brown linen pants.

Linen shirt.

 

 

Other pair of linen pants, grey.

 

Hmm.  I guess I’m just thinking out loud on the blog here.

I often get a different view of something after posting it here.

The extra fabric I pick will also show up here and there between squares to make them fit together.  I’ll let you know what I pick.  Either I make a point of it all being blue or I have another color peeking out here and there.

 

Win win, I’d say.

 

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Thinking Out Loud On The Blog

Kayak trip cancelled due to perfect weather.
The forecast called for rain and the trip required earlier than normal waking.  So when I did finally wake up and saw the forecast was wrong, the weather was perfect and we cancelled the trip for no reason, it was too late to get moving.  
Bummer.
But, looking on the positive side, I had some time to sit down and sew a bit.  
I finally finished that last quilt top square. 
Woohoo!
Oh yes, you have to suffer through at least one gratuitous close up.
That’s how much fabric was left over.  Not much.  
Which is another bummer because I need more fabric to make the squares all fit together.  
WHY did I make those napkins when this fabric told me it wanted to be a quilt?!?!?!?!?
I do love my napkins, though. 
Anyhoo, my lack of indigo dyed linen led to me making a bunch of silly looking piles of fabric under my smallest square to try and find something that worked.  This one is dyed light blue with indigo but has a print on it which might be distracting.
Linen lavender remnant of a jacket.  But also thicker than the other linen in the quilt.  Hmm.
A linen/cotton blend skirt.  Beige.  
Olivey-brown linen pants.
  
Linen shirt.
Other pair of linen pants, grey.
Hmm.  I guess I’m just thinking out loud on the blog here.  
I often get a different view of something after posting it here.  
The extra fabric I pick will also show up here and there between squares to make them fit together.  I’ll let you know what I pick.  Either I make a point of it all being blue or I have another color peeking out here and there.  
Win win, I’d say.  
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Left Alone With the Dye Vat

It all started out so innocently…

We had all this indigo left over from our dyeing day and thought we’d knock some more out.
We were deep into experiment mode.

A little of this
A little of that.

Everything looked so awesome!

I’m starting to appreciate the hippy dippy tie dye look that really, as a Madison resident, I should like already.

Cuz it’s dang pretty
Dang Pretty.  I mean that’s just beautiful.
 
Then, Jennifer had to go home and I was left alone with the dye vat…
My conundrum was that I don’t own any white napkins; I sew my own out of funky colored cotton and linen.  I had already dyed any of my light colored dishtowels.

Then I had this sudden realization:  I can always buy more undershirts!

 

I also threw some of my regular every day clothes in there.

This shirt was looking very faded and worn
Not any more.
 
And this white shirt was too sheer – I never wore it.  
Honestly, I only bought in the first place it because it’s a large (the XL was too big) and I’m a sucker for vanity sizing.
 
 
 
That’s ombre dyed, people.  Thanks to Tanya, I know how it works.

Perhaps I went overboard.  I started at about about noon.  It felt like I worked for an hour.  When I went into the house, it was 3:30.  No wonder I was so hungry.
I learned a ton about how indigo behaves and ways to tie things and about good ways to get different hues.
I love learning new stuff!! 
And I had the chickens for company.  
I did exactly this much to finish my linen quilt. So…basically nothing. 
Also, all my clothes are now blue.