A bit here and there

I’ve been living up to my blog name this week, dipping into various projects, as mood / inclination, light, time and inspiration have struck: bits of progress on several projects but nothing major on anything.

Last week’s pomegranate dyeing has dried with some surprising results, in particular the nylon lace which started out white and silver. Originally looking very cold, it has resulted in really warm tones, the silver becoming almost gold.

I’ve wound some of the hanks of perlé on to cards, a quiet, mindless task that I can do while talking or watching the telly, or it can become quite meditative, untangling my thoughts as the tangled threads become smooth and ordered, and appear far more appealing to stitch with.

I’ve also started putting the lining of the dress together with long machine stitches, with the intention of using it as a toile. The long stitches will make them easier to take out if any alterations are needed. I have used small tacking stitches to put the zip in, just so I can get the fit right. It really needs a concealed zip, and the lining will be hand stitched to the zip so the fabric doesn’t get caught in it. (This is something that can be a real pain, especially if it’s on the back and you can’t see where it’s caught.)

It still needs a couple of seams doing, the back princess seams, the side seams and the shoulder seams. No rush, as I don’t know when I will see the friend it’s for. I’m considering sending it by post but not sure if I’ll be able to tell on-line if the fit is right or not, nor sure that I trust the post to get it there and back to me. So, I’m stalling a little with it so I don’t have to decide yet! For some reason my photos won’t all download, so sorry, no pics of this.

I’ve also started doing a little more than just thinking about the next travelling pages for Scunthorpe Embroidery and Textile Association next week. The title is:

I noticed the piece of cushioning that you get at the bottom of soft fruit packs feels almost like fabric. It has a regular pattern on it, similar to Aida, and I thought it could be used to stitch on to. I’ve got black and red pieces, and having started reading “The Strawberry Thief” by Joanne Harris this week and liking the book cover design, I realised that the red could be used to cut out strawberries. Reading further into the book last night there’s a reference to the “Strawberry Thief” design by William Morris. I love his work, but haven’t researched it for years, so that will also reference the title for the travelling pages.

When I was learning to draw we were encouraged to work from life rather than photos, so I brought in a couple of leaves from the garden as well as taking a photo of the strawberry plant.

So far, it’s just a quick sketch to get shapes. I was thinking a stylised strawberry plant, but haven’t drawn up anything yet.

I’ve cut out a few strawberries, and some leaves from the flower wrapper that I used for my tulip leaves for the Grasby Embroiderers Exhibition at The Old Rectory in Epworth. It’s much stronger than tissue paper and took machine stitching well when backed with silk. I’ll try hand stitching into it.

Nothing finished this week, they’re all works in progress.

Dyeing with pomegranate

I went to peel a beautiful large red pomegranate early in the week, only to discover it was going soft on one side and the seeds going brownish. It looked most unappetising, much to my disappointment.

I remembered that I’d used pomegranate (with lemons and manky-looking oranges) to dye some fabric quite successfully back in April 2014. I found the instructions on my blog post – Natural dyes – pomegranates.

I boiled it up for an hour, and strained this mess into a Pyrex casserole dish.

Then I added a white fine cotton blouse, covered it and gave it 10 minutes in the microwave; I left it to cool overnight.

The blouse has come out a lovely pale caramel colour. The photo doesn’t look as good as the reality, as with most of the photos at the moment the light is not good.

I added more water to the mush and boiled it for an hour before straining it, and adding lots of bits of fabric, cotton, linen, silk, embroidery anglais, and some perle threads, including some mid-blue ones. As an afterthought I added some of the scraps of Procion dyed turquoise from the dress lining of last week’s blog post – Brave, and lucky. Then I covered it, gave it 10 minutes in the microwave, and left it to cool overnight.

Rinsing in the kitchen sink.

I gave it a good rinse in the sink.

The turquise has left a couple of faint marks on one of the other pieces, so I separated the wet fabrics into the neutrals.

And the blues. As back in 2014, the silk has taken the colour most. They just need to dry and be ironed.

The turquoise hasn’t changed much, just slightly greener. (Artificial light below, the one above is nearer the wet colour, in daylight.)

As well as the lovely soft colours, I like that the fabric doesn’t need pre-mordanting because the pomegranate contains natural tannins.

Strange times

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Green red cabbage
Slow stitch from Alex’s Scunthorpe Library Group

I have been thinking about restarting writing my blog for a while, but haven’t had the time or inclination to get my head around the updated App.

I previously had got so frustrated when I’d spent time writing and inserting photos only for the whole post to disappear. Nothing changes I have just spent 2 hours writing and inserting photos, published, saw something that needed tweaking only to find the whole post gone, except for the title,when I updated. Aaggh. Nothing in drafts or binned! To be fair somethings did seem much better and more intuitive than when I last used it.

I will try again!

I broke my right upper arm on Saturday, no pot, just a sling and the need to immobilise my arm and shoulder for the foreseeable.

So my many plans for this stay at home time that I had last week have mainly been kicked into touch. Finishing some of my UFO’s, starting new projects, things in the house and garden many impossible to do one non dominant handed. So drastic times call for drastic measures.

In pain and short on sleep, I’m finding it difficult to sleep upright in a slightly reclined chair, my concentration is not good. I love to read but can’t stay focused for very long, but found the perfect solution with a friend’s daughter’s blog yesterday. Sally Flint it’s entertaining and informative, shame I’d not looked at it before the library closed. Although I have plenty of books to read here at home. Time will come.

And at silly o’clock this morning when I couldn’t sleep I caught up with Alex’s blog and the post Green Red Cabbage prompted my following comment.

They were all beautiful, using the past tense as they have mainly gone to new homes. So many to choose from, being greedy I wanted them all! But eventually settled on 2, one the green red cabbage, so delicate and not quite my usual green. The other, walnut, a play safe soft brown. I’ve started the green, some really pleasing bits, (see above) with ideas of how to continue, but on hold for the moment as I’ve broken my right arm.
When I can get a bit more comfortable I’ll start the walnut one and challenge myself to stitch left handed – it really will be slow stitch.

They were all beautiful, using the past tense as they have mainly gone to new homes. So many to choose from, being greedy I wanted them all! But eventually settled on 2, one the green red cabbage, so delicate and not quite my usual green. The other, walnut, a play safe soft brown. I’ve started the green, some really pleasing bits, with ideas of how to continue, but on hold for the moment as I’ve broken my right arm.
When I can get a bit more comfortable I’ll start the walnut one and challenge myself to stitch left handed – it really will be slow stitch.

Reading both of these blogs gave me the impetus to start writing mine again. Most mornings I write to sort my head* and writing left handed is so slow and laboured that it certainly isn’t ‘stream of conscious’. Blog writing is a completely different thing, but something I can do left handed. Fingers crossed it’ll work this time. *Julia Cameron – The Artist’s Way

Natural dyes – pomegranite

FOR SOME REASON THE PHOTOS ARE  ALL IN THE WRONG ORDER IN THIS POST – SORRY

I’d got a couple of manky looking pomegranites, some dried up lemons, and a few shrivelled oranges in the bottom of the fruit bowl. I’d read that pomegranites can be used for dyeing, and on further research found that they don’t need a mordant. I boiled up all the fruit for an hour, strained it, split the fabric in half and micro-waved it for about 10 minutes, and left it to cool. I also reboiled the mush with more water for another hour, which gave me a much paler dye bath, and again micro-waved it for 10 minutes. Left them both for several hours before rinsing out the excess. I also did a load of cotton strips in the two baths mixed together as there still seemed a lot of colour left.

First dye bath and fabric on the left, second on the right.

Rinsing of second dye bath.

Second dye bath cooling

First dye bath cooling

Dry fabric and threads

Hubble, bubble, toil and trouble

Dried fabric

Damp fabric from first dye bath

Strained dye bath.

Soaking a mix of cotton, silk, muslin and some cotton thread.

Looks pretty revolting, but smelt wonderful.

 

The finished results are a pale, creamy yellow, the first bath slightly deeper. The silk has taken the colour better, a lovely warm gold tone. Not sure what I’m going to do with it yet, but a couple of ideas simmering.