Three for a Girl

 

 

Lyla loves the stitching I did for her room before she was born.

 

 

Great Aunt Florence does it again

Great Aunt Florence has come up trumps again. I needed just one blue button from her button tin and when I searched through the blue ones I found a whole set as well. These have now been moved to my treasures jar. I love the idea of buttons that she cut from clothes that no longer had any wear left in them will now go on garments for future generations.

 

 

"Longest Day"

I wanted to try doing a long landscape piece. I was going to put a farmhouse and sheep on it but it seemed to cry out for something bigger. The foxgloves this year have been awesome and they were my starting point. I rolled the fabric around my fingers to get the shape. I had completed most of the flowers when I realised the fabric I had used was not the right colour.

 

The hunt was on then for some new colour fabric and after about six visits to charity shops in Herefordshire I found the perfect blouse. The challenge was to get the dark pink in exactly the right place when I rolled it. I left the leaves fairly loose and added tiny seed beads to the inside of the flowers.

 

It is framed in my living room now and will live with me for a while.  

 

 

The results!

Here are the results of our day in Lismore. The twisting with the elastic bands was the best result with the baby gros. I am really pleased with the colours of the embroidery silks when I remember how boring the original colours were and I have already used the greens on a 2nd washing line. I have found a use too for the lace in a mixed media piece that I have started.

 

I can't wait to have another go!

 

Dyeing Day

I had a wonderful day in Lismore with my fibre friends from the guild. We took cotton garments to dye using ice. We first washed the garments at home. When we got to Lora's we soaked them in soda ash for 15 minutes. 1 cup of soda ash to one gallon of water. This solution can be covered and used one or two days after but no longer as it turns to ash. I took two baby gros, some lace and some embroidery silks that I wanted to try. I just scrunched up one of the baby gros and the other I twisted very tightly and then bound with elastic bands. This one had a much more interesting colour finish even though they were next to each other. I have since done more dyeing and the best twist is from one shoulder of the garment. This gives dyes in slanted bands.

 

Using rubber gloves and a face mask we placed them in a container over a drip tray. Lora had catering dishes I have used a dish drainer over a bowl. We covered all the fabric with ice and then shook dye over it. Lora had placed a level teaspoon of dye in a small plastic bag and we cut off one of the corners as his gives better control of the Procien dye powder. I used Intense blue, Veridian and Emerald green over my garments. When I used the dish drainer at home one bag of ice was enough.

 

Then it was just a matter of waiting until the ice melted and our treasures were revealed. I loved the colours of all the glistening ice cubes. I left it overnight then washed it with warm water and soft soap and rinsed until the water ran clear.  I am particularly pleased with how the embroidery silks turned out and I will try that with other colours in my stash that I don't like. I must be more careful of how I place them next time as they did get a bit tangled.

A fine day for drying

I fell in love with some of the fabrics in Lyla's baby dresses and wondered how I could use them. I decided to do a stitching of clothes on a washing line and use the dress fabrics for the clothes. The trousers are made from the dress Lyla is wearing in this photo. I had to inclue a butterfly as that is important to all the girls in our family as we know when we see one that Mum is close. This stitching is winging its way to Kirsty and I will now do one for Tina.

 

 

Never Again cardi

I bought the yarn for this cardi in Spain. It is a 50/50 cotton and acrylic mix and I loved the colours.  It was an absolute pain to knit so I swore I would destroy the pattern when it was finished. I am pleased with the final result and really like the rib which is called beaded rib. The 1st row is all knit and the 2nd row is purl 1, knit 1 on an odd number of stitches.

 

The cardi was knitted all in one to the armholes. You then put that aside and knitted the sleeves on 4 needles to the armholes. The sleeves were then joined into the body and this involved manipulating lots of needles. The raglan sleeves were pretty straightforward but I kept forgetting to cast off.

 

This process reminded me of the 1st time I had knitted the top down gilet and now that is one of my favourites. Time will tell.