Last pictures before we leave

Last weekend was beautiful out, so my husband and I packed a picnic and went up north. The golden rod is perfect for dying, but since I have no time to dye, I can only take a picture.

I was so surprised to see these alpaca along the back roads at a farm and since they seem to go with the theme of my year I took their picture. (I think their alpaca).

These are the looms my husband and father made. The one on the left is based on a traditional Navajo loom, you sit on the ground and weave (I'm sure I will not be able to walk again after sitting for a week). The loom on the right is a new style, which you can sit in a chair and weave, that one my husband will be using. (I should have had him make me that style also, but no, I wanted a traditional style!)

This is all of my natural dyed yarn, rolled into balls and ready to go. I also have some gray and charcoal black commercial dyed yarns packed to go with it.

Well, we leave Friday for out "west" (Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico). Our R.V. is loaded, not only with food, clothes, 2 looms, and yarn but I've also packed my quilting to work on, my full size wool quilt and new wool quilt blocks I've begun. I hope to share with you some pictures of my workshop the beginning of Oct.

Antique Copper Tjaps

I just received my antique copper tjaps (hand made in Indonesia) I ordered from Dharma Trading Co. There were 300 different tjaps to choose from, one of each kind (and they were going fast). They are beautiful and quite heavy, I can't wait to try batiking with them, that wouldn't be for quite a while. So right now they sit on my piano looking beautiful.

Experimenting with natural indigo

I've spent the past week dying with natural indigo, using a variety of different fabrics, some mordanted, some not. The mordanted fabrics/yarn were a much richer color. Reading from left to right, wool yarn mordanted, wool fabric mordanted, wool/silk blend mordanted, wool suiting non-mordanted, raw silk non-mordanted, cotton I first batiked than dyed indigo non-mordanted, I haven't boiled the wax out yet. I'm not happy with the color , I think I'll overdye it first with a chemical dye.
Well, it's now time for me to put away my dye pots and focus on packing for my trip out west and my Navajo workshop. I started dying my yarn and fabric last April with my daffodils and ended with indigo. I enjoyed going out early in the morning and putting on the dye pot before work and will miss it. Although, the golden rod is almost ready to pick and dye with and calling my name, as will be the black walnuts and acorns by the time we get home. I may have to fire up my stove then. I also hope to bring home a few new dye plants from out west to try. I'll still be sharing more with you until we leave Sept. 14.
My favorite September poem:
The Garden in September

"Now thin mists temper the slow-ripening beams
Of the September sun, his golden gleams on gaudy flowers shine,
that prank the rows of high grown hollyhocks and all tall shows...

Robert Bridges

Batik class photos

My hand-carved stamps which we use for the class. Pine needles from Africa which we use to splash little spots of wax on.

Ernestine applying wax to her fabric.

Beth putting her waxed fabric in its first dye pot.

Debra doing a African technique called squeezing with squitters fill with left over dye.

Some of the steps to batik fabric, white fabric with 1st. wax, dyed with green, waxed again and dyed with blue, then wax boiled out.

Some of the finished fabrics, their all dripping wet, they will have more contrast when they are dry.

Wet fabrics, this wall was a great place to photograph the fabrics, except they cling to it.

Yasmin (sp?) with her mother rinsing out fabric.

Wet fabric, which I believe when dry, is a plum color.

Rubbing off left over wax after boiling and rinsing with cold water.

A piece of my faric, dry, that I batiked a while ago.

African wax batiking

• Thursday I'm going (the other side of the state) to teach a 3 day workshop on African wax batiking. In 2000, I was fortunate to spend a week with "chief" from Ghanna, Africa who taught me to batik. When he left, he gave me all of his hand-carved stamps. The following are some of my quilts I made with my batiked fabrics. Next week I'll show some of my students work.

Batik sampler. This quilt is a sampler of many of my hand carved stamps. I dyed the lattice strips at the same time as I was batiking.
Kenya, Africa 2002. I made this quilt after my trip to Kenya. The white, blue and gold background fabric I batiked. I bought the center "maasai" batik panel, giraffe, hut fabrics while in Africa. Also, the hand-carved stone elephant beads.

Lizard table runner, Nigerian symbol.

My newest quilt, the purple and gold batik are Nigerian symbols. The mask panel a friend brought me from Ghanna, Africa. The right side outer boarder is traditional quilt fabric. I dyed the yellow lattice strips as I did the batiking.

This is a hand carved door my son-in-law gave me from Nigeria. The top panel is a pineapple, then an elephant, then another pineapple. Someday is will be installed in our dinning room to my garage.

Natural dyed wool quilt

Wool dyed with cochineal (chopped up female insects of tropical America). Cream, plaid wool over dyed, yarn, wool in the first dye batch, yarn after the dye is almost exhausted.

Indigo dyed, left to right, wool fabric, wool yarn, wool yarn first dyed with onion skins than over dyed with indigo (a beautiful turquoise, with shading of the colors), wool yarn first dyed with onion skins than overdyed with indigo, quickly put in the bath and taken right out.

Some of my wool fabrics.

This quilt was made with all natural dyed wool. Deb and I dyed it together (and learned together) when she was living in Michigan. She is my favorite dying partner. Whenever we get together, we still do some type of fabric dying. Each block in this quilt was made as my husband and I traverled around the country in our RV. Each block represents some of our favorite sites. Some represent Alaska, we flew there , then camped and traveled with our friends, Deb and Warren Hardman. As we traveled I worked on the blocks, she worked on hers. Now, I hand quilt it when we are traveling and camping. I have the outside boarders left to do. The boarders represent the 4 seasons in our yard and all of the critters living there. I'll be sad when this quilt is finished, I'll miss working on it, although I am beginning another one.

Top boarder, winter with snowflakes, chickadees, and holly leaves and berries.

Bottom boarder, spring time.

New plants, new colors

Madder root make a wonderful salmon color dye on wool, the dye will go along way.

This yarn was first dyed with onion skins than overdyed with madder root, it has wonderful color variations (in real life), it has the same colors as the snap dragons.

Some people have moose and bear walking around their yards, I have "Peter". He is not afraid, and is always with me as I am dying my wool. He ate all my sunflowers but does not like the taste of wool (hits too close to home).

Last month my family came home and we all went camping, the picture is of me teaching the youngest grandkids how to make sand castles. They liked hitting them with their sticks best.