Hearts and Flowers

I like how there is such a value contrast within the folds of the hem of this faded table cloth material and I had been anticipating using some of it. Some areas have a softer fade. The heart is silk satin I dyed. Palace of the Soul is now covered with fabrics and three quarters basted together. I am eager to remove those last pins so that I can add detail.

I like the 3D fringe of this part and I may add other colours of frayed fabric to enhance that.

I have cleared my table and will focus next on completing organizing my old basement studio, which is going to be where I will do more dyeing experimentation.

Last week I had an opportunity to learn a new stitch - only I decided not to count and just to eyeball it and see what happened. Even though it's not a correct interlaced double herringbone, I enjoyed myself and like the results and can see how I could alter it in many possible ways.

And I received year three of my blog in book form in the mail - I like having a hard copy for quick reference and to remember where my muse has gone over the course of a year.

Label Experiment

Not all experiments work out, or they would just be called 'successes'. I'd heard that you can back a full sheet Avery sticky backed label with fabric and run it through the printer, so I got out a piece of my natural dyed silk - some of the materials I had used to dye it related to the photo collage I wanted to print on it (third photo) which shows an Arbutus tree leaf decomposing and seeming to float into the air where the tree it came from is pictured against the sky. I call it 'Return to Home'. I was careful to trim any stray threads and get the fabric smoothed down and it went through the printer just fine and I printed a second test photo in sepia on it. But when I went to remove the fabric from the sticky label - well you can see it didn't work. What a mess to clean off, but I did remove it all in the sink with a scrub brush and the pictures went with it - although the fabric now has a pink colour where the photos once were. I do have sheets of fabric that I purchased as printer ready, but that fabric is plain white. I have also heard that backing fabric with freezer paper can work, so I might try that in the future. The last photo shows a recent weaving I did that I've pinned to a wool backing - a thrift store find that happened to be the exact colour I needed! I've added strips of silk along the bottom as a fringe and now it's ready for some stitching.