Duvet Cover Part 2 (or maybe 3 or 4)

 Thank you all for the wonderful well wishes for our anniversary!  It was fun hearing from so many people about their long relationships.  So few of us these days!



We had lunch and exchanged cards.  You will not believe what happened.   Read what the card says and it is even funnier.  We even bought them at different stores! 

After lunch we went to Dick's Sporting goods and looked at some kayaks.  Found this nice set up, but didn't buy anything.  Still looking.


OK.  Back to fabric.

I soaked the back of the Fish Duvet Cover in soy milk and iron sulfide.

And I had Frank chop up a dowel and an old implement (like a shovel) handle.  But obviously not small enough, because it would not fit into any pot I had available.  And I had to sacrifice my old turkey roaster.

I figured if I become famous for my incredibly beautiful ecoprints it will be worth buying a new one come Thanksgiving.

So here I am, I wrapped some leaves from Paula's yard and my yard.  Paula contributed a gorgeous purple leaf crepe myrtle, sycamore, hackberry and tallow.  From my yard came some bush I  can't remember, a palm frond, two caladium leaves and two huge iron plant leaves.

I wrapped my eco-bundles and they are currently boiling away in the turkey roaster.

I had an amount of fabric left over so I took my dye pot, smooshed it all into the bottom without rinsing out the mordant.  I added some ice from the freezer on top and sprinkled some Fire Red, Bright Yellow and Skye Blue Procion dyes over the top.

Now I am waiting.............the boiling needs to go on forever!

Face - Summer Breeze

I think I will call it "Summer Breeze".  It looks like a gentle breeze is blowing her hair around her face.  The challenge is Monochromatic. 

I was whining to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color and she slapped me around a bit with some suggestions about how to look like an artist even though I am not really an artist.  Magazines and the internet offer some faces to study that would help me look like I had some semblance of talent.

It was scary, even scarier than drawing, to think I had only one chance to mess up this fabric.

I remembered that I had that lightbox!  Yes.  I gathered some photos and a few faces from the internet.  A few places on the fabric suggested faces to me, so I tested out line work and shading on the fabric.  Not sure I really chose the best spot, but I did suck it up and made a choice. 

I tried to catch the hair.  And a shadow on her face.  Not sure I made it.  I can see where it wold have been better placed.  I do, however, like the stitching.  Freemotion of course.

Frank thinks it is amazing, but then he has to say that.  Although he did not like my choice off the darker binding. 

I really do like it.  The only problem was that I couldn't find the blue washable pen so I went with a mechanical pencil.  I hesitated to wash it out because I didn't want to lighten the dyes already on the fabric.  At first I scrubbed it with a soft toothbrush and some shampoo.

Still, the marks showed.  So I tossed it into the washing machine on gentle with the regular detergent.

Some marks came out, but not all.  And the dyes did lighten a bit. 

I will know better next time.  Duh!

I do like it though.  I do.

....and McGee happened!

Yes, McGee happened.  I should have known nothing was gong to be safe within the confines of the backyard with McGee present.  I offered to send him to Sophie in New Mexico, but she was pretty sure she didn't want a McGee.

Too bad, I could have used the respite!

Since I had just read a piece about someone who does ecobundles overnight by boiling the goop and leaves, wrapping it and letting it cool over 12 hours, I figured I would go with what I had.  McGee, be damned!

This is what I ended up with.  Too bad those squirrels dumped out most of my goop, it was a nice batch! 



The piece was originally white, well, it was Ecology Cloth which is a nice non-bleached heavier muslin used for backs and such.  Carrie loves it for the baby quilts I make for her friends.  Everything I say makes it seem like a heavy cloth, but it is not, it is heavier than Kona though.  It has a nice sturdy feel, and needles well in the machine.  (How's that for quilt talk?)




She gave me about 15 yards for my birthday.  Turns out it is just perfect for this ecobundle stuff.  I used a piece just over a third of a yard but under a half yard. 

This photo I tried fixing with Photoshop but decided it changed the color too much.  It looks like it was rusted, but in reality the color is more muted and brown.  Which reminds me I have a new piece for rusting, it is a saw blade about a foot or so long.


I was talking to LeeAnna of Not Afraid Of Color about the beautiful face she painted on one of her hand dyes.  It is amazing to me how someone can just sit down and do something like that.   I can see in my piece where a face would form.  I can see the eyes and the nose and the chin even.  But to trust myself to actually draw it, not so much.

LeeAnna gave me some advice I want to try and see if I can get a decent face out of the process.  I need to get out my lightbox.  I wish I could take a class from her or just sit with her, it would be good to see things right there in front of me. 

But lets see what I can do here.  Cross your fingers!  Wannabe Artist Alert!

I am hooking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall posts!  Check out what others are doing this week!

Me vs. the Squirrels.........and the Snakes...........

Every time I walk outside from the patio to the yard, I pass this:

It freaks me out every darned time.  This is what it actually is.


It just catches the corner of my eye, and for all it's worth, looks like something it's not.


I would never have bought something that looked like a snake!



I have been "maturing" some acorn tops, walnut shells and leaves for about 3 months.  It was happening, much to Frank's dislike, in a tupperware piece sitting on the bathroom countertop.  It was time to brew something up.


I had a half yard of Ecology Cloth ready to stew.  I poured my goop, as Frank says, over the cloth and rolled it back up in the tupperware.  Because I own McGee, I put it outside the fene in front of the garage door.  I went to lunch with Ann.  When I pulled up in the driveway, 3 squirrels ran off with several nuts.  They had turned over my container spilling its contents down the driveway.

So I moved it to where only McGee can get it, DiNozzo will keep those pesky squirrels away!

You would think it would be stinking by now, but I think the tannins have kept it preserved.  My hands smell woody, nice actually.  And it is encouraging that the driveway is stained!

 

Ecobundle 2 - Organic

Here are the links to the other posts.  Next time I need to label the bundles.  I kept getting these confused.   Oh, and I am going to link to Nina Marie's Off The Wall Friday.  Go see what others are doing over at her place.

Original post

EcoBundle Oranges

Unwrapped 1 and 2 

Reveal Bundle 1

Also silk.   long piece rather than fat quarter shaped.

 Close up of the middle section

 Not sure what we are seeing, but this one might have had some mold.  Most likely toxic black mold!

 I cut the holes in it before I wrapped them to see what it would do.

I might need to fray them some more.

 this is the other side of the second photo

Here is the other end.  Spots.  Hmmm.

Here is the middle section.  Browns must be from the acorns and bark.

Here is the entire piece .  WOF.

That is Width Of Fabric for the un-initiated.

EcoBundle 1 Reveal

 (I don't know what happened to my post.....I posted pics and all this morning!)  Oh well, lets try again.

After tumbling in the dryer for a while last night, they slept together in the dryer.  It was not planned to happen, but I forgot to get them out.

So this is what they look like in the morning......which by the way is better than I look in the morning.

I think I need to do this in two posts.  So look for both of them.

This is silk, remember.

Bundle 1 - with the orange slices.

 Look at the colors!

 And the lines from the wrapping!

 And the orange slices!

 And the re-bar rusting!

Hre is the whole piece.