Thread dyed

Here is my ten newly dyed threads drying. I have now started to wined up the thread so that I can sell it. I love these photos with all this colour. I will be keeping some for myself. I dye one or two skeins for myself of each colour.
All of the thread is washed by hand so that the thread does not tangle. I like to have it soak in fresh water over night to be sure I have all the extra dye removed. If the water is coloured in the morning, I risen it out more before dying.
Silly me. After the thread was wound up into skeins, it is placed on a shower curtain ring and hung on the display tree. I placed one set on my head and my son took a photo (sorry it is dark, his finger was over part of the flash). I think it looks like hair ringlets. You must think I am nuts first snow dyeing and now this. Ha Ha good to laugh at our self's sometimes.
Here is the thread I had done before, all hung on my display trees. The new thread will double what I have here and the thread trees will be twice as bushy. I still have lots of wining to do this week.

Dyeing fabric with horses

This is my horse checking out the fabric in his pasture. I have been dyeing fabric in snow banks. I get great texture on my fabric. Now that it is spring, there is less and less snow. This snow bank is some of the last snow we have. There is a snow fence in the pasture, so the snow has gathered here. Last week we got more snow and lots of blowing on Thursday. Check out April 6th post if you want to see more snow dyeing. I hope to take more photos of the finished fabric. I am washing it now.

Painting Fabric Skys and Water

I have been painting cotton to sell at my booth in the market mall at the Quilt Canada (Calgary, AB). I use Seta Colour fabric paint. I have six of these wooden frame to stretch the fabric onto. Most of the time I wet my fabric before I start painting. I also use a lot of water to dilute the paint. Some times I leave the frame flat to dry or I can tilt the frame and get the colours to run into each other a little more.
Here are two pieces outside drying in the sun and wind.

Does anyone have other ideas for me? What would you buy? I love comments it makes my day.

Wool Felted Journal and Roving

I have signed up for a wool felting class. It is at Quilter's Dream (Edmonton,AB) with Darlene Bayley. Above is some of the Merino Wool I have been dying this past month. I love the colours. I plan to take some to the Market mall at Quilt Canada Calgary, AB to sell.
Here is my Journal cover. I started one in class but had some troubles. This is the second one. I needle felted the wool in place using my clover needles and brush pad. The pink wool is one I dyed and the browns are alpaca wool. There is a little silk mixed in some of the natural wool. After needle felting all the parts into place, I did some wet felting. It does look better after some wet felting (more wool crinkles). The buttons are vintage. The journal inside is the log book of the wool roving I am dying.

Tonight I am at another felting class. Darlene has a wool clutch purse done as a sample with some felting on the opening flap. I need to pick out my colours.

Easter Eggs Felted Wool

I have used some of my dyed wool to cover Styrofoam eggs for Easter. I have used my needle felting tool by Clover to get the wool to felt onto the Styrofoam. I will be doing Christmas felted balls in the fall. Last week I took the eggs to my Rug Hooking group and they asked me to teach the Christmas balls in October.
The Bird Dog liked the eggs and wanted to have the eggs.

Snow Dyeing Fabric

I have spent the last two days dyeing fabric outside in some snow banks. Here I am standing around my field of dyed fabric. Like I am farming. Plant then in the snow with dye (fertilizer) and come back a few hours later to harvest.
I have been using 1 meter of cotton that has been soaked in soda ash solution. I like this spring snow bank idea, works only when warm spring day. I lay the fabric out on the snow with hills and valleys.
I start to cover the fabric with snow. Get all the fabric covered. Taking note were my fabric ends.
My dyes are mixed and in squeeze jars. I have 1 Tablespoon of dye and about 1 1/2 cups H2O. I have made some mixes and some diluted solutions as well. I do fly by the seat of my pants and just mix at times. A bucket of warm water was very useful to wash cold gloved hands.
Squeeze bottle dye on to the snow. With some time and the warm sun the dye moves down to the fabric.

I also did some in trays and some in buckets. I did not like this as well but if the air temperature was not warm, I could bring these in to warm up and the dye can still get to the fabric. My snow bank fabrics were nicer than the bucket and tray dyeing. I also hate washing out the buckets - we do not have the water hoses hocked up yet (freezing at night still), so I have to hall the bucket inside to washout.
Here are 12 fabrics planted for dying. This is the snow bank at the bottom of my parent's driveway. There is a few rocks and grass on the top but not bad snow if a dig down a bit.
More planted fabrics in the hay field north of the trees.

I am going to Calgary at the end of the month to sell fabric. I have a booth at the Quilt Canada Market mall. I hope to get much more fabric done. I got 10 done yesterday and 24 done today. I have a few that need another layer of dye to be better.
Purple snow dye fabric. These are all for sale.
Blue snow dye
Orange snow dye.

I have many other dyed and painted fabrics that I am working on. And the dyed thread. So keep looking back this month and in May. I will have to post some in May as my life is very busy now.