Splendidly working on SSSA

Yup that's right!  I've joined in on the Splendid Sampler Sew Along hosted by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson.  You may have noticed the sidebar link.

Here are the ones I've completed so far.  All those tiny pieces have been challenging (blocks are 6 inches finished), but what a way to use up small bits.  As you can see, I'm sticking to a black, white and yellow colour palette.

I've completed blocks 10, 11 and 12 but they are not pictured.  Block 13 was just shown on Sunday and is in the construction stage.  I'll end up having quite a collection when this sew along ends in March 2017. You can check out the Facebook page here to see what others are doing.

Till the next time, may your creative ideas see fruition.

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

Who knew that you could get the image of a leaf onto fabric without a lot of dye.  A while ago I attended a workshop at Sorrento Centre here in British Columbia lead by Catherine Nicolls.  Using a variety of inks, paints, stamps and pigma pens, we marked up our fabric and ended up with some wonderful renditions of leaves.  Here are some of my results.

I'm now charged with the task of turning the printed fabric into a "practical" item.  Homework for our next gathering this October.  Hmmm, gotta think on that.

We also experimented with eco-printing.  We used silk blend scarves, eucalyptus, amaranth, and maple leaves.  First we soaked the scarves in a mixture of water and vinegar (sorry can't remember the ratio), laid the scarves out and placed the leaves along one half of the length of the scarf.

 Then we folded the scarf in half lengthwise, rolled it round a skewer and added it to a pot along with an old railroad spike.  See...

Next some onion skins were added for good measure...

Water added and set to boil overnight.  We kept going out to see what was happening if anything.

After getting them out of the pot, this is what they looked like before unwrapping.

 And then it came time to unwrap.  Here is half of mine.  You can see that the portion of the scarf that was most exposed is darker and shows the resist of the wrapping tape.

Here is a closer look.

 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting.  I'm off to see if my creative muse will talk to me today.