fiberhart

It's a good day- despite the gray clouds and rain!! Although I've been dyeing fabric for my quilts for the past four years, I'm taking an online class on Shibori dyeing that starts today. Couldn't wait to get going, skipped the elliptical after I got up (promising myself that I'd take Sadie for a walk when I was done).
We dyed three pieces for this lesson: a rainbow on silk velvet (which is FABULOUS!), two colors on dry silk habotai, and whatever trips your trigger on cotton. I'll get to see the silk later today, it doesn't cure as long apparently. I managed to pull this off with only minimal mess, although I love having space dedicated to dyeing and painting fabric. The funny stripes on the velvet are purple, which teacher Marjie assures us will be the spark to make the rainbow sing. The other picture shows my work area, with the three pieces in the background. Those extra large ziploc baggies are great for curing!! Now I'm going to try to figure out how to get our heatlamp in there. . .
And, I kept my promise to Sadie. We went walking on the nearby golf course, which fortunately only had a very few hardy golfers out. We got sprinkled on some, but it wasn't that cold, and the wind not bad at all. It is wonderful to see- the grass is greening up, new growth is on the trees, and even the sage has tiny silver-green leaves coming. The birds were singing- we passed one tree with a woodpecker hammering away. I walked all around that tree, trying to get a glimpse of him- never did see him, but you could hear him for quite a distance! After close to an hour, Sadie was pooped, so we headed home.
I have a quilt of Dead Horse Point incubating in my head. I have some good pictures taken when we were there a few years ago, and some ideas from the machine embellishment class I just finished. And, I want this one to be abstracted- emphasize the sinuousnous of the river, and all the rock layers. I think I am going to try to freehand draw it from my photos- something I've never had much confidence at. I'll post my ongoing processess.