Hey there! I hope you’re all hanging in there wherever you are. I’m working at home while in theory home-schooling my children (in fact they’re upstairs playing, if anyone yells I may go up, but otherwise? Uh-uh.)
At least there’s no danger I’ll go short of projects… A while (a long while) ago, I tried out some natural dyeing, and ended up with a few bits of dyed linen and calico. I didn’t make anything with them straight away, so they just sat in a bag making me feel bad.
Being stuck at home with all. my. stash is a real incentive to start working through it, though! The pieces were all odd sizes, so I thought I’d make a set of napkins – they didn’t have to match in size or colour, after all. So I did, and I’m very happy with them. We don’t use them, obviously, because kids. LOL my life.
Because the original pieces were all a bit of an odd shape I was left with a lot of biggish scraps, which I really didn’t want to stuff back in a bag, so I decided to have a go at a mini-quilt. I started out with my favourite Ohio star, and then had enough strips to add a sawtooth edging and, magically, an indigo ombré border. There was just enough for a pieced binding (seriously, there’s none of the indigo linen left at all), and the scraps weren’t even worth keeping for stuffing.
I hand-quilted my favourite baptist fans over it, and I was so happy with it that I sent it down to my Mum for a late birthday gift. I had been supposed to make her a top, but never managed it, and then couldn’t get the fabric. It’s now happily up on her wall!
I’m definitely going to do some more natural dyeing in the future, the colours sit so harmoniously together even though it wasn’t planned in any way. The blue is indigo, the nude colour is the second round of an avocado seed dyebath, when the dye was pretty much exhausted (the darker pink napkins are the first go). The yellow is pomegranate skins, and the coral purchased madder powder.
Take care, and stay safe,
X
cotton city studio 