Happy Easter

Hey, Friends!

Remember a few weeks ago I was so excited about being a “winner winner, Chicken Dinner?”  Well, now you can see why I was so excited.  Brenda from With thy Needle& Thread was waiting until the new May Wordplay was released, and then she would send it to me!  Woo Hoo! How lucky am I? The great selection of fibers is even more beautiful in person, and the May Wordplay is just as great as all the others.  Thank you so much, Brenda! 

Several of you were anxious to see what I was going to stitch on the fabric I stained with black walnuts last week.  I decided on The Primitive Needle 1632 Angel.  I wondered if it would ‘fade’ into the stain too much.  I did only use black, buttonhole silk from an old lot I had bought when doing embroidery on Crazy Quilts.  It’s a bit heavier weight, and shows up a little more. How do you think it’s going to look? 

Since it’s Easter weekend, our little family will be gathering for a non-typical meal at some point.  Mom asked if I was going to dye eggs, and I told her I doubt it.  Somehow the brightly colored eggs just didn’t seem like what I wanted to do.  Then over at Posie Gets Cozy (Doesn’t she have gorgeous photos?) I saw her Flowered Eggs.  I knew I had to give the onion-skin dyed eggs a try.  I had mentioned to someone the other day that I had dyed linen in an onion-skin bath before.  It's pretty hard to believe that white eggs turn to this luscious shade of almost brown egg color.  Mine didn’t turn out as great as hers, maybe because I decided to use cheesecloth, but they are just fine for us.  I hope y'all have a wonderful Easter celebration -- eggs or not!

Thanks for stopping by, today and always.  Your kind words are always appreciated!

I'm grateful for a taste of real spring!

PeaceëLoveëJoy
and Happy Stitching
Charlene♥SC

March Ends with a Lamb, too!

Hey, Friends!

Last week I did some experimenting with walnut stains.  I have a few old, dark, flaky, walnuts, so I put a couple in a plastic, carry out salad dish with water and put them in the microwave for about five minutes.  Then I plopped in a piece of light colored fabric.  I left this to soak overnight.  The next day, I lined a cookie sheet with foil, turned on the oven to about 225 and let it bake for an hour, turned off the heat and left it in to cool.  Here are the results before (top) and after pressing.  I did pour on a little extra of the liquid before baking. 

Spring is really in full on progress.  Pixie is enjoying a while on the deck – see the red dogwood in the background?  There were not nearly so many blooms last year.

Thanks for stopping by, today and always.  Your kind words are always appreciated!

I'm grateful for my fur kid, Pixie!

PeaceëLoveëJoy
and Happy Stitching
Charlene♥SC

Scissors, Dye, and Hare!

No, not a new 'do' ... 

It was a delight to find in my mailbox on Wednesday scissors I had ordered from Yuko in Japan in February.  She and her son have been ill, and one thing after another caused delays, but she was quite generous in making up to me for the delay.  Thank you so much, Yuko, I love the scissors!! 

I was surprised to hear from several of you that you hadn’t heard of using onion skins for dying fabric.  There are lots of natural things that can be used, like beets, some grasses, pomegranate…but those really do seem logical.  Here’s a link that lists lots of them by color.  For my purposes I haven’t use the fixative methods, but it’s good to know!

Edited to add link to Lesa's Kool-Aid dying recently! 

On one piece of the onion skin dyed linen I’ve been stitching the Hare Family, some freebies offered by Paulette at Plum Street Samplers.  I think they’re just right for the bathroom.

Thank you for coming by today, and for any words you'd like to say!  I appreciate your kindness! 

Peace~Love~Joy
and Happy Stitching!

Charlene

Stitching or Sleeping?

Edited to show dying results:

April 14 was the New Moon and time for a TUSAL update.  Can you see the hint of spring in colors?  Want to join in, click the link above?

I’ve been trying to make myself go to bed earlier these days, hard as it is because I LOVE to stitch and watch TV.  Most of the shows I watch are recorded, so that does help some, but not being able to stitch longer puts a damper on my fun!  I do still love to sleep in on the weekend – at least until 8:ish, but I guess the up-side is that this morning, Saturday, Pixie just couldn’t hold it any longer, so we had to get up at about 7:00.  Are you asking why the earlier bed time?  Well, I’ve been lazy at getting to work on time, and they say it helps with appearance (puffy, dark circled eyes and even weight).  I’ll let you know if I see any improvement…

This week I’ve been stitching a spring freebie 2010 Carrot from The Cricket CollectionI stitched it on one of the pieces I coffee/tea dyed last week, too.  Isn’t it nice?  Speaking of coffee dying, did I show you the results?  Here's the linen and below is the tie back. 

Have you heard of dying with onion skins?  I only had about four yellow (skinned here) onions, so didn’t think it would cook up very well, but I put them in a dish with water and into the microwave for two minutes last night.  This morning I took a look, and the water was a golden yellow color.  I grabbed a piece of fabric and dunked it in, nuked it for two minutes, swished it around again and nuked it for three additional minutes.  We’ll see what we’ve got a little later. 

I only did two pieces - the larger is the one that got nuked (right below), the smaller got put in the vat above for a couple of hours (left below).

It has been so long since I’ve gone shopping, but I have no decent work clothes, lots of stash, but no work clothes!  So I’m going to take this early Saturday and go see if there’s anything out there to cover this fat behind… and I may as well do a quick search before I leave to see if there are any needlework shops along the path I’ll be taking; right?  Probably not since they’re few and far between and I have THE Best right here at home – but maybe a thrift store?? 

I did find a few things to wear, so we'll count that a success...but four thrift stores - found nothing! 

Thanks for stopping in today, and thank you for all your kind words!

Peace~Love~Joy
and Happy Stitching!Charlene

Back to Spring

After more than a week of summer weather ~ although nice after all the harshness of winter, it really is too soon~ it has returned to spring here in South Carolina!  We got the much needed rain to wash away some of the deep pollen on Thursday, then Friday followed with sunshine and cooler temps ~ about 50 now with expected highs of low 70s for the weekend.  Perfection!
Just found out, Edgar is having a Blogiversary give away over at his blog, Blacksheep's Bit of the Web.  Hop over for a chance to enter! 

I’ve done very little stitching since the retreat.  I did finish the Brooke’s Sewing Alphabet ‘D’ for Darning (with exception of beads) and the StitcherHood’s Scattering of Moments. 

Today I’m having a go at dying some linen and fabric.  It all started because I need some tie backs for the drapes in my LR.  I got these lined, deep red ones for blocking the icy winter winds we had, but now it’s time to let some sunshine in!  I had some faux toile in red and white left over from a pillow that I thought would be pretty, but it was just TOO white.  I’ve done a little dabbling with coffee/tea staining before, so that’s what I thought would work – and it’s drying now. 

SinceI had all that ‘dye’ I figured, Why not try the Twisted Stitcher, Vonna’s method?  So, I added a tea bag to the left-over coffee grounds and put in a couple of extra cups of water and let that drip into the remaining coffee.  Deep, dark, and rich.  Then I put two pieces of 18ct aida and three of 28ct evenweave in the bath.  I shifted them around, wadded them in different shapes, and left them for different amounts of time. 

Next they were piled onto the foil-lined cookie sheet.  I had preheated to about 225 since my gas oven gets a little hotter than some, and set it to 15 minutes.  Waiting for the first results now.  They were a bit dark in some places, so I sprinkled a bit more over each one, decreased the temp a little, and put it back in for 10 more minutes.  Next will be ironing to set the color, and then onto the clothesline for drying.

I'm very well pleased with how they turned out.

In today's mail I received a PIF from Audrone.  It's a very nice little covered notebook with a beautifully stitched fence with sunflowers growing over it.  I am so surprised to get this, and very appreciative!  Thank you, Audrone!   

   

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I appreciate your visits and love to read your comments!  Hope you'll stop in again very soon!

 Peace~Love~Joy
and Happy Stitching!Charlene