text in my newest favorite font, stitching with perle cotton, gesso, acrylic paint & ink
West Bottoms
dragonfly photo taken in LaGrange, TX
Here are the results from my dye bath of carrot tops. The top skein is a 50/50 wool/silk blend, and the bottom skein is 100% Icelandic wool (it's not really felted even though it looks like that in this photo). I'm thrilled with the color! Thank goodness there are tons of carrots left in the garden, so I will have plenty of tops for more dyeing.
And speaking of the garden --- this is what my kitchen counter looks like almost every day now. I have canned and frozen tomatoes; I have made bruschetta, tomato juice, and salsa; I have eaten them sliced as a side dish, chunked on salads, and sliced on sandwichs; and yet they are still ripening faster and faster. Thank goodness for Freecycle, where I have given away bags of tomatoes to elderly people on fixed incomes with no gardens. They are loving the fresh tomatoes, and we are glad that the fruit isn't being wasted.
The mornings have been chilly this week, so I thought maybe Zeke should have some warmer clothes for our morning walks. Above is Zeke, styling in his new fleece vest --- made from a 6 months infant vest.
And every artist's puppy should have some shibori outfits! This is Zeke in his new indigo shibori turtleneck, fashioned from a grey infant onesie. This really fits him well, so I may get a couple more and add them to future dye pots.
I have been back in the dyeing groove the last few days, and today it continues onward. The photograph above is a pot of carrot tops cooking on an outside burner. These appear to be yielding a gorgeous green/yellow. The true test will be later when I add the fibers, but for now I am pleased with the color in the pot. This is the first year that we've planted carrots in the garden, so it's the first time that I've tried dyeing with carrot tops. I will share the results in the next day or two.
Midnight Glow has been added to this page, along with several other individual collages.
The Destinations series is featured on this page, and all eight collages are available now.
And the Island Thoughts series is on this page.
Lots of times when my mom and I are out running errands together in the morning, we will stop in at Panera for a cinnamon scone and coffee. On a recent visit, their customer service was horrible, and even a complaint to their corporate office brought no apology or offer to make things right. This did not sit well with me, so I am now boycotting Panera.
Somehow, before the closet clean-out project was completed, it morphed into a project of cutting the ribbed necks off t-shirts and stitching them into more of a boatneck style (see photo above). So I did about a dozen of those, then started in on sweatshirts and did 3 of those. 
Next thing I know I am saying to myself that I really like this one particular shirt, except that it is a white shirt. So out come the dye pots, and since I can't just dye one shirt, I start skeining yarn and wrapping other shirts in a shibori pattern, until I have a full dye pot.
Then, this morning I decided that I haven't done any dyeing this summer until now, and it was fun, so I think I'll dye some more. Above is the pile of shirts and yarns for the next dye pot.
