She Caught Me

My life is changing.  Not in a bad way, at all.  I'm not done blogging either.  

I just have to figure how it all will fit together.

I've been having tons of fun.  I've started a website for our business.  I'm actually really proud of it because I know NOTHING about coding.  It was very confusing and weird but it doesn't look completely embarrassing.  

RustedThread.com

There's still more for me to do but at least it's a start.  

Yesterday, my daughter and I went to a "Drawing Jam" run by Lynda Barry, who is amazing.

That's her brain on the left and mine on the right.

It was a blast.  My daughter got to discuss her drawing with Lynda Barry,  

Here she caught me taking her picture.

I STILL haven't finished the last square of my quilt top but I'm close, just as close as I was last time I posted.  Today I finish our chicken coop, tomorrow I kayak.  

I just need time to sit down.  :)

Worth it!

I still haven't finished my quilt top.  But for a good reason!  We ran a test indigo dye class with friends.

 

We have dyed on our own but really want to share the fun with more people so we experimented on some of our friends

 

Don't we look organized?  

We happen to have amazing, creative and fabulous friends so it was bound to be fun even if we did everything wrong.

  

We set up a Shibori (tie dye) station.

When collecting scissors, marbles and other fun stuff starts to feel like work, I'll let you know.

To me it just looks like treasure.

Why else would I take a picture of rubber bands?

We had some Shibori half way put together to share some techniques.

There were samples to show and, because I just have to be me, library books for reference.  

The library is an amazing resource,.yo.

 

Then we were ready to get serious. 

This is about the time that Miranda (of Miranda Beyer Photography) started taking pictures.  You can tell which ones are hers because they are beautiful.  She specializes in newborn baby pictures but every picture she takes looks awesome, she has a great eye. 

I make my own Kombucha but I happened to have a bunch of Nessalla Kombucha for some guests.  I decided to forgo getting my bottle deposit back so we could use their growlers to tie fabric around. 

When I see what folks made using the bottles...

...all I can think...

 

...is...

  

Worth it!

We tied.

We dyed.

We untied.

We revealed and then...

...we smiled.

 

Check out these socks.

We were all in it together.  Here three people are undoing the shibori stuff because we can't wait to see...

This!

This yarn is ombre dyed and knotted so that it achieves a kettle dyed look.  None of us quite knew how to do it but Tanya was willing and excited to experiment.

And it worked really well.

Here are three pieces made by a woman who said she wan't a crafty person.

 

...seriously...

What was she thinking?  Her work is awesome and creative.

Another woman who said the same thing.

I'll never believe them again!

Everyone felt really comfortable trying out new techniques.

Indigo is a great medium to play with.

A great and messy day was had by all.  We plan on offering an indigo dyeing class this fall in Madison WI.  You can follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter to get an announcement closer to the date if you're interested.

Now get out there and make a creative mess.  I will too.  I'm gonna finish that quilt top, dang it!

Busy

Some of the things that have been keeping me busy lately. 

Dying with rust.  That will get it's own post soon.  It's totally fun.

A name tag challenge via my Modern Quilting Guild.  I used some of the linen that we dyed with indigo and was inspired by denim badges of the seventies.  Funny how even when I don't use denim, I use denim...sort of.

And my parents have been visiting.  During which time, my husband and father put up a shed and we (Well, mostly they and a little bit I) built a coop and run for the chickens.  It's not quite done yet but it's incredible sturdy and I'm thrilled with it.  

We did it again

We just couldn't help ourselves.  

The dye was right there and so many things that could be blue, aren't weren't.

We're mostly thrilled with the shibori stuff.  

This...

 Made this!

These ...

Made this and...

This.  Plus that's me goofing off a bit and wearing a shirt I dyed last week. 

Gratuitous doily close up - not the last one you'll see today. 

This...

Made this.

Told you there would be another.  I have a thing for crocheted doilies.

This...

Made this.

Every time I see one, I buy it.  Every crocheted anything you see was made by hand.  There is no crocheting machine.

The yarn was exciting too.

Little yellow flowers rained down on us from the tree the whole time.

We have learned so much about indigo.  We'll be doing this some more and we want to share it with more peeps.  If you are near to Madison WI and are interested in joining an Indigo Dyeing Day, send us an email, We'll totally send you all the details when it gets closer to the date.  It'll be in the fall.