Next natural dyed Sun block

My husband and I had a small trip coming up, but before I begin to pack clothes I get my quilting ready, this getting ready started with Eco dyeing the wool fabric with dyers chamomile flowers.
I wrapped them tight in the wool, steamed them a good hour and left them until the next day. I wanted more color on the cloth so I took the wool out of the pot and stuffed it in a large pickle jar (without unrolling it).

I stuffed the jar full of dried cosmos and coreopsis flowers and a little bit of cochineal bugs, poured boiling water over it.

I then set it in the sun to process for a week.

After unrolling it I was left with the yellow flower pattern surrounded by shades of orange.

I carefully cut out the center sun.The rays I cut following the string pattern left on the wool.

Basted it on indigo wool and off we went.

Not to talk about rest areas but this one on Interstate 80 in Iowa was beautiful.
Iowa had a wonderful quilt history and it is celebrated through out the State.
This is tile inside.

There are tile quilt blocks inlaid all around the outside of the building.

With needles and thread circling.

We stumbled across  beautiful art fair. This man is from Peru and spends the summers here with a host.
He is a master weaver and sells his weavings all summer to make money for his family back home.

Look at his hand-carved wooden gear on his loom. His weavings were beautiful.

Another artist I met was Leslie. Leslie is a master gardener and dyes silk scarves using natural dyes.

She dyes once a week from her garden.
(Hi Leslie, wish I could have joined you!)

We did a little caving. Walking through not crawling.

This is a limestone cave.

Way deep in the cave was this beautiful turquoise pool of water.

We also spent a couple days with our good friends who live on the Mississippi.

The weather was beautiful, I only wanted to sit on the dock and watch the river go by.
A great photo op for my now finished first Sun.

And my almost finished second Sun with third one solar dyeing as we speak.

As the Sun set on the river it was time to get ready to leave, it's back to the real world.
Thank you Jack and Donna, see you on the flip-flop!!