Dyeing with Michigan leaves

Last weekend my husband and son went hunting, I was a "deer hunters widow". I filled my weekend with everything textile!  I began the weekend collecting maple, oak, purple plum and eucalyptus leaves.

Rolled them up in pre mordanted wool and steamed them for a couple of hours. I left them in the pot over night, the next morning I took the string off and loosened up the roll, lightly securing each roll with pins.

I brewed up a batch of madder root, then simmered the wool rolls in it a couple hours, pouring some of the dye down the middle of the roll.
Left it over night to soak.

 

                                                             
This is the results after washing. Looks just like "Autumn in Michigan".



I especially love this one, the eucalyptus leaves look like little pumpkins.
Can't wait to start hand stitching on it!

Purple plum leaves take center stage in this piece.

Red maple leaves give a beautiful blue/green.

I also played around with commercial Halloween fabrics, making some fun holiday table runners.
You start with 1 1/2 yards of boarder stripe fabric and cut a few 60 degree angles, then sew a few rows together and can end up 3 or more table runners. If you Google "60 degree boarder stripe table runner" there are videos to walk you through it. This fabric I bought after the "weekend" for next year:) Love the vintage look with the moons.

This years runner with fun funky witches boots with dancing cats.

Once it's cut its very easy to piece. I machine quilted it.

One for my daughter.

I started this table runner a couple of years ago, (commercial pattern). Wool pumpkins and stars on a black cotton pieced background. I machine quilted it, just have to finish the hand work on the binding.

ESCAPE TO SOUTH WEST SOUTH DAKOTA!

As many of you know I'm very busy taking care of my elderly parents, working and helping with our grandsons. A few weeks ago "the stars all lined up" and my husband and I took our RV and headed West starting with the Bad Lands.

We love the rugged land. Desolate but beautiful in it's own way.

Driving through the Bad Lands you encounter all types of wildlife, in this picture we have prong horn antelope and of course, prairie dogs.

 

This was the view from our campsite at sunset.
 

Traveling in the Fall is such a wonderful time (if you don't have children), it's cooler, way less crowded so you get the best camping spots and no lines any where!

Camp set up, dinner finished and I'm enjoy the view while hand quilting on my solar eclipse block.

Two days later as we head out of the park I collect dye plants along the road. Wild sunflowers,

rabbit bush, and sage.

Next stop the Black Hills, our campsite on a mountain lake.

Spent a couple days here, I loved, loved the peacefulness of it all!
Hand quilting on my wool flower dyed quilt.

Lots of mica in the Black Hills,

I collected some to use as embellishments on wall hangings.

Dye plants ready, sage, juniper branch, aspen branch, rabbit bush and sun flowers.

I brought my dye pot along, soaked the wool in the mountain water over night,

laid out the plants,

rolled them up and steamed them for a couple hours. Then left them to set a couple of days in the pot.

Next day we left and went to Spearfish Canyon.
It's the most beautiful canyon I've ever seen. The road goes through the canyon following a mountain stream.

So beautiful, parts of Dancing with the Wolves movie was filmed there.

This cliff was at the end of the movie in the winter scene.

Our campsite,

with a creek running through it.

A short hike to rock cliffs to photograph my block,

filling the moon in with lots of "moon texture", mountains, craters and lunar rover tracks left from man's first visit!

Next morning time to wash out the wool, in a stream with a waterfall, oh my gosh I love it here, I was not ready to go home.

On the way home is this huge sculpture of a Native American women with a morning star shawl.

The average person comes up to about the tops of her moccasins.

It's located at a rest stop on the top off a hill. At night it's light up with LED lights on all of the star points.

My favorite souvenir, the wool cloth printed with a aspen branch with leaves.

Thank you Sandy for showing us this area in 1996, we've been back several times and still love it just as much as we did then!