Plans for new work 2017-18

I'm planning two projects for the next three to six months. The first is a quilt, or possibly a series of quilts about my mom. My mom turned 88 this year and we were reminiscing and looking at old photos. As I looked at pictures from a time that I only know from her stories, I was drawn to somehow memorialize her life through fabric and thread. I have been recording her words, scanning old photos and planning a piece that not only celebrates her life, but the world remembered by the fast disappearing "Greatest Generation". As I record her words I begin to underestand how listening is the greatest gift to give another. My mom is in good health for her age, but I don't know how much longer I have with her. This project gives me joy but also fear, for the time of loss somewhere ahead.

Here is photo from my design wall:

Here we are with a quilt that we made together. My mom made the blocks in a quilting class several years ago that was in her "UFO" drawer. I assembled it and hand embroidered imagery from documented crop circles from Wiltshire, England.

My other long-term project is the series on the Tao Te Ching. My next piece is for verse #47:

More Natural Dye Experiments

I continue to experiment with plant materials that I've gathered in my neighborhood. Ivy berries are found on hedges and banks in many yards. Abundant eucalyptus leaves, bark and pods are easy to collect. I found large fennel plants in my backyard, as well as red cabbage that was too woody to eat. The kitchen provided onion skins that I saved over a 6-month period. The range of colors I got from each dye batch varied based on the fiber. Silk organza and wool yielded the darkest hues. Other weights of silk and rayon gave lighter colors. Here are some of the results:

Ivy berries gave a rich pinkish-brown color:

Fennel gave a pale yellow color:

Onion gave a rich gold color:

Red cabbage gave pale purple and eucalyptus ranged between pale brown and a rich dark reddish brown. 

More eucalyptus variations:

It took me several months to collect enough avocado pits and peels for another dye experiment. It made a warm, pale apricot color that, unfortunately, doesn't translate in this photo:

After making juice from our grapes, I used the pulp to make this dark purple color:

I was able to gather enough elderberries from a friend's tree and combine them with last year's harvest in my freezer to make this pinkish-lavender dye:

My last experiment for 2017 is with fresh indigo. The seeds took a while to germinate and grow large enough to transplant into a sunny corner of my garden. The plants are very hardy. They are still growing and blooming since July and my first experiment. 

Fresh indigo dying is a simpler process than the fermented vats that create dark blue. I gathered about one pound of leaves and used an immersion blender to grind them with water in the dye pot. Then I dipped the fabrics into the pot, stirring them for about five minutes. Then laid them out on the drying rack. 

Fresh indigo yieds a teal color. The greenish pieces on the rack have been previosly dyed with fennel, then over dyed with the fresh indigo.

Here are the range of colors I got with different fabrics. The darkest is silk organza and the lightest are rayon, cotton, and linen. I also got darker colors with multiple dips.

My final experiment for this year will be with Pokeberry. While I was on vacation a friend in Bonsall  froze five pounds for me that she gathered on her property.

The pokeberry should yield a dark burgundy color. I also hope to harvest the more of the indigo and process it to make a traditional indigo vat, a long term project that I look forward to realizing.