Some experiments were happening late last week with fabric dying and painting. I have an idea for a baby quilt that I wanted to test. I have always been inspired by people going out in their yards and finding useful things growing there so I thought I would do some testing of the things I found in my yard.
I also had a bunch of leftover cotton muslin from making some curtains so I had a blank slate to work with. Eliot is always game for foraging, too.
The first step was dying the fabric. Since I was feeling lazy I didn't do everything the way I probably should have. First I simmered the plant material in about double the amount of water for an hour. Then I strained it and added some vinegar. I put the liquid in ball jars with the fabric, mixed and let it sit overnight. After re-reading the dyeing suggestions I probably should have put the fabric back into the pots with the liquid and vinegar and simmered for another hour. Next time I will try that.
I had mixed results. The grass and iris were too weak - but the pink flower and the Celandine gave me a nice strong color. I took the fabric that didn't dye and did some experiments with making my own fabric patterns. I'll post more about that tomorrow.
2 comments:
I'm sure you are being, but careful with the celandine! (It's become the bane of my yard: it's really caustic! And one of my gathering mentors is more cautious about that than pretty much any plant...)
What fun to experiment!!! Can't wait to see your baby quilt idea....oh, and glad you got your tomato plants in! We need rain!
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