Dandelion Days to celebrate Spring

Sunday I took a little time for myself and warped my loom, the dandelions are ready and calling.  I'm so looking forward to using all the different dye plants in the coming months.

I first wove in a wet wool fabric strip then a row of dandelion blossoms, then another row of  wool.

This is how the first rows look. Yesterday I added more dandelions, and as they wilt I'll keep adding.
It is so peaceful working at the loom.

Last week I also picked dandelions to dye print some wool fabric.

Their so cute, how can you resist.

I rolled them up tight and placed them in a pot with water,

put the lid on tight and steamed them for a good hour. The next morning I placed it in a plastic bag and left them under a heavy pail of water for a week. (checking for mold everyday)

Sunday I washed and hung it out to dry.

The prints are so cute, I love how the little edges show a darker print.

 with Mothers Day flowers.

 

Dandelion lotion, is next on my list to make. Found on The Nerdy Farm Wife blog, (sorry I couldn't link it). She has a great blog with different recipes for herbal soaps, creams, etc.
This lotion is for dry, chapped skin, dandelions are very, very  healing.
First let the flower set a couple of days on paper towels to get the excess moisture out.
Make sure you pick flowers with no pesticides or fertilizers on them.

Next fill a jar with them and add sunflower oil ( or what ever oil you like)  to cover. You need to infuse the oil with the healing properties of the dandelions. You then can set the jar in a double boiler and simmer for a few hours. I thought I'd try it in a crock pot. (This is as far as I got).

If your not in a hurry you can put the jar in a dark cool place for a week or so to infuse the oil..
Next week I'll show you the rest of the procedure. If your ready sooner check out the Nerdy Farm Wife.

And one more thing don't forget the dandelion greens, they are very nutritious.  You can cook and eat them with a little butter, or just add fresh in a salad.


If you notice my blog pictures are getting grainier and grainier and no it's not my camera. I have blog site problems.
I'm working on getting this fixed.

Earth Loom

If I wasn't a quilter I would be a weaver, I've played with it off and on throughout the years but always stayed with quilting, my first love.  Nothing better than curling up in a chair with a quilt in your lap and my hands stitching away.

While on Pinterest I saw a cute idea of small looms made for kids with them weaving flowers and grasses through. The idea kept rolling over and over in my mind until I came up with the idea to build a large loom and through out the Spring, Summer, Fall season I will weave in wool fabric strips followed by different dye plants and twigs that are in bloom at the time. By the end of Fall we'll see what we have, will the wool be moldy? will the plants have dyed the wool? will it be beautiful or a mess? It doesn't matter I think it will be fun!
So with the idea in mind I grabbed my husband and up goes the loom.

For the structure he had some old tee pee poles no longer use able for him.
He cemented them in,

a tee pee pole for the bottom cross bar and a curvy maple stick for the top beam.
 

I choose a spot where I could see it from my kitchen and studio windows, where it was sheltered a little from the sun, (there's a red bud tree growing in front), and last but not least where it isn't too close to trees with birds sitting in them.

Tonight I'm mordanting the wool, cutting in into 2" strips and this weekend the weaving will start.
A strip of wool and then dandelion flowers.


 

Back in Oct. 2007 my husband and I went to Shiprock, New Mexico for a week long weaving/natural dyeing class with a Navajo weaver. We camped on her property and were fully immersed in the Navajo way. Before we went my husband built us 2 looms, mine a traditional Navajo loom where you sit on the floor to weave,

and my husbands where you sit in a chair and weave. The better choice by far.
Before we went, starting with daffodils I natural dyed all our yarn to take with us.
The looms now hang and set in my studio, a reminder of wonderful times.
I posted about this experience Sept. and Oct. 2007 if your interested.

In the rafters of my studio I have an 8 harness table loom that my daughter and I wove on when she was young.

This past weekend I also started planting a few seeds, I'm way behind, there should be seedlings coming up already. A few I started, white sage, very hard to start, not native to our area but I'm giving it a try.

Lady's Bedstraw, a red dye plant.

Mormon tea, a orange dye plant. We learned about it at our class in New Mexico where it grows wild. there they call it Navajo tea. Made into tea it taste like chamomile tea.

 

I also planted calendula, a yellow dye plant but I really planted it to use for lotions and creams. A herb used for healing.

My hubby and I planted 12 raspberry bushes.

6 rhubarb plants, just starting to break ground.

My madder root plants are finally getting going, everything is so late this year.

Our youngest grandson made his First Communion this past Sunday. We had a nice family gathering to celebrate his day.

Earth Day dyeing

My husband bought me this beautiful pot of flowers, filled with purple/blue blossoms. I love their cute little purple centers, (the picture doesn't quite show the true color).

For my own Earth Day "party" I clipped off flowers, laid them on some wet pre mordanted  wool,

rolled them up tightly, put it in a plastic bag and placed them into the freezer.

India Flint www.prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com, recommends with purple/blue flowers that they be frozen first, then dyeing the cloth with the juice. I'm trying to print the flower design on the fabric, I left them in the freezer for about a week, now their out and under heavy books, I'll repeat the process a few more times. Hopefully in the end I'll have fun purple print fabrics.

I also rolled some up in pre mordant raw silk.
In a few weeks we'll see the results.

At night I've been hand- quilting on my wool,

two years ago I dye printed these little dandelion flowers,
It's almost time for them to be blooming in my yard.

Easter Decorating

I'm at work today trying to recuperate from Easter weekend. It was wonderful but exhausting. I had 20 for Easter dinner and the kids egg hunt. One of my favorite parts of hosting holiday dinners is the decorating, (keeping fun ideas for kids in mind).
I started with the candle for the table, a cute idea I found on "Pinterest", A glass vase, the bottom filled with jelly beans, marshmallow Peep rabbits surround a candle set in the middle.

I set it in the center of my cake stand,

surrounded by hot-rod rabbits made from Twinkies, pretzel steering wheels, and Life Saver car wheels (another idea from Pinterest). For the gluten-free kids I made a chocolate cake and cut out a few car shapes. They loved them.

 

Sitting on the (finally shut off)  wood stove in an antique pink dish (that was my husband's great-grandma's) was a rabbit my girlfriend made me years ago..

Somehow it worked even with the neon yellow grass!

Outside to greet everyone I changed out my flower pot by taking out some of the winter greens and berries, adding in fresh pussy willows and eggs. Soon I'll be replacing all with flowers for the summer. I can't wait. 

Last week at quilt bee my friend showed her quilt she just finished for her grandsons high school graduation, made with his favorite sports t-shirts and some pictures of him playing sports transferred to fabric. Keeping this idea in mind for my grandsons, luckily quite a few years away.

Tomorrows my birthday and Earth day so I will be celebrating (a little after work) in the studio natural dyeing with some flowers my husband bought me. See you soon and have a great day!

I missed seeing the Blood Moon in all it's glory but this morning there was the full moon reflecting off the ice in the bird bath. At 24 degrees we have a lot of ice patches still around.

The past 2 weeks I have spent every minute of my free time Spring cleaning the house and outdoors raking the yard. By Saturday hubby and I will be finished and ready to enjoy summer.
I also spent a little time cleaning this quilt I made a few years ago called "The Florida We Know". Every winter for the past 30 years we've taken the our kids vacationing in Florida. We spent most of our time at different beaches swimming, snorkeling and of course collection shells. I made this piece using some of  the shells.
I still had a few more pieces that the grandkids collected that needed to be sewed on.

Horseshoe crabs and a blue crab. Before stitching them on I coated them with a thick coat of white glue, inside and out.

The crabs are so fragile and this seems to give them a little more strength.

They dry clear.

The grandkids also found sharks teeth along the beach near their old home.
(I didn't coat the teeth)

Quilt Guild with Kim Diehl

Last night at Quilt Guild our guest speaker was Kim Diehl from Utah. She taught classes for 2 days and put on a beautiful trunk show last night of  her quilts.  Kim has written several quilt books and designed several lines of fabric.
The following are a just a few of her own design quilts she showed (patterns are available in her books).
 

Starting with this beautiful heavily appliqued and pieced quilt.

This is just a simple pieced quilt with great applique boarders that turn it into a great piece .

Her applique designs are beautiful.

A intricate pieced center with applique boarders. Love the corner treatments.

Another applique boarder, wonderful on black fabric.

This quilt was so much fun with the great color choices and applique running all through the blocks.

I never would have picked this background color but wow it is sharp.

I believe this was one of the classes she taught, one way done all in cottons.

and another way done in cotton with wool applique.
I love the use of both fabrics.

Another quilt pieced with cotton fabric and appliqued with wool.

I'm not a big pink person but this is a beautiful "Summer" piece in muted colors.

A little Americana.

More pieced with cotton and appliqued with wool.

This was one of the guild members work. A cute Easter quilt with great paisley fabric boarders. I believe this is a commercial pattern.