Dyeing with Poinsettia flowers

The holidays were over and it was time to see what colors could be coaxed from my red poinsettia.

I laid them out on silk and wool (all premordanted with alum and cream of tarter).

Some of the red brackets I froze a few days ahead of time, I laid them out on silk. The dyes started coming out immediately.
Some I rolled up around narrow PVC pipe.
(not a great idea as the writing from the pipe printed on the fabric.

Some I bundled how I normally do. Some I dipped in iron water before bundling. I tried many different methods including spraying them with vinegar.

I lit a fire in my studio and put a large pot of bundles on to steam.

Steamed some of them a few hours then left them over night. Some of the silks with the frozen flowers I just left bundled placing them under a heavy bucket of water to process. I left them all a week before I washed them out.

These have been washed but are still wet.

The wool: the red brackets became dark green and the leaves yellow.
The colors remind me of how red maple leaves in the fall print.

This silk I believe I sprayed with vinegar. When it dried it wasn't quite so red, darn.

 

Silks with the frozen red brackets. I believe the one on the left was sprayed with vinegar. I didn't do well labeling them.

The collection.

Tuesday night as I drove home from Herb Society, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a Meteor falling from the sky!!
At first I thought it must be fireworks with the red glow, but no it was a meteor, when I got home the internet was lit up with people and cameras who saw it.
Last night I "recorded" it for my moon journal quilt. The background I indigo dyed with a resist moon, I hand stitched in meteor's path, the moon beams and crystal stars, with the meteor itself being a piece of mica I collected from the Black Hills of South Dakota.
(This is setting on an antique quilt for the picture).

Another journal piece I made from this summer's eclipse!

 

     They both will be added to the journal quilt. My first stitched moon recorded was in 2010. No plans yet to stitch it all together, I'll just keep stitching more blocks!