Friday, July 31, 2009

WOOL DYING & GARDEN PIX ~ ~ ~

Three days this week, I managed to get some dying time in ~ dying takes me a long time ~ don't know why ~ it seems when I read Gene Shepherd's blog that he gets 10 yards dyed before his breakfast!!! Me, it's an all day process but of course, I'm doing office work, laundry, reading email, etc. Here are the fruits of my fragmented labors!!
If you remember from an earlier post, I was washing fleece for a sheep class. Well, I decided that I should try dying the fleece as well ~ I'm thinking it turned out pretty swell!! The colors are beautiful and can be used for flowers, landscaping, crazy hair colors ~ all kinds of things!! I'm pretty happy with the results!!

On the sidebar to the left, I have posted two shows that I'm doing in September ~ Quailcrest Herb Fair and In the Spirit of Friends. Since those shows are back to back, I decided I better hop on the dying bandwagon and get started so I have some nice things to sell. When we were in England, I purchased dyed fleece from Heather Ritchie and have used it sparingly ~ now, I will have it to offer my customers ~ just something a little different!! I spread out these two pieces of blue so you could see the variation of color that came out during the dying process ~ I love a marbled look and these are two good examples!

Fortunately, we have had some nice rains this week ~ the gardens are looking pretty good! Black-eyed susans are everywhere ~ I'm sure you all know how they spread ~ and the Rose of Sharon bush is in full bloom! There's a bit of white obedient plant showing at the left.

With almost everything I've planted in past years being pretty aggressive ~ this garden is looking pretty wild! The stone paths that Sonny worked so hard to install can almost be seen in all this profusion of plant life ~ he would love an orderly garden but this gardener just can't quite get a handle on that!! So what we have is a cottage garden ~ wild and spontaneous ~ maybe a reflection of it's designer!!!!!

This little bouquet greets guests on the garden gate ~ I hope it says 'welcome' to all who enter! One of Sonny's customers says it reminded her of going to her grandmothers house ~ since she was 40ish and I'm not, I tried to take that as a compliment! On Monday, there will be fresh flowers in the little pottery pocket as I am having a group for lunch and a house tour. Some have been here before but others are new ~ mostly hookers, I think ~ so that will be fun! I have to get groceries yet this morning and then we'll come home Sunday afternoon from the lake so I can start preparing the food ~ and now I have to go down and try to make some sense out of the wool room ~ when I'm in dying mode, there is wool and dyes and stuff everywhere!! You wouldn't even believe it!!!

The rain is going to let up soon so it should be a nice weekend! My son and family live in Seattle and when I talked to him on Wednesday, he said at that precise moment, his car thermometer said 111 degrees!!!! They were really suffering as no one has air conditioning out there since they don't usually need it! He said you couldn't buy a fan or a window AC anywhere ~ they were living in their basement family room and opening the door to the wine cellar to get some cooler air!!!! Today it looks like it will be around 85 there ~ they should be a lot happier with that!

Have a good weekend ~ see you next week!!

13 comments:

JoJo said...

I love the look of your gardens, Alice. I'm hoping to eventually make my backyard look something like this.

Looks like you had a productive day dying wool. Pretty colors.

Unknown said...

Beautiful wool dyeing job , I especially like the eggplant color, but it is all wonderful.
I love the cottage garden look, not to stiff and formal is my choice.

katie-primitivewoolens.blogspot.com

April DeConick said...

Alice, dyeing is all process for me too. Guess I'm not as organized as Gene!

I love your gardens. Are you in the midwest or northeast?

Alice ~ Folk Art Primitives said...

JoJo ~ just plant the most invasive flowers you can find and in a year, it will look like this!!!
Thanks, Katie ~ eggplant is the name of that color and I like it too!!
April ~ I'm in the center of Ohio ~ where it's been a drought or a downpour this summer!!

Rugs and Pugs said...

Alice ~
Your wool and fleece colors are gorgeous. So soft and old looking. And your gardens look great. We've gotten some much needed rain "up north", too. I also have black-eyed susans coming out the the wazoo - so very pretty right now. What, pray tell, is an obedient plant?
Have a great time at the lake.
Pug hugs :)
Lauren

jane augenstein said...

Alice, your wool colors are yummy, I really love the green!
OMG your garden is to die or dye for! LOL The stone pathways, the flowers your house.....GORGEOUS!!!!
~Jane and Gilly~

Linda said...

Alice your gardens are just perfect. I love all your wool. Too bad I'm not a little closer for your lessons.

WoolenSails said...

The wools are absolutely yummy looking. Beautiful colors in wool and in your gardens.

Debbie

Kim said...

Alice---in and around your house always looks so beautiful and welcoming!!! And oh my! LOVE the wool!!! I have a canvas on the way.....an easy one....squares and circles from Searsport....look out! I'm gonna be a hooker soon!! :o) {{hugs}}

Gayle said...

The wools you dyed turned out SO nice! I've never tried to dye roving - was it hard to do? Did you put it in something so it wouldn't GO everywhere?

Alice ~ Folk Art Primitives said...

Hi Lauren ~ my 'obedient plant' is not ~ believe me! It's the tall spikey white flower and now there is some blooming that is pinkish lavender ~ but it spreads everywhere!!
Gayle ~ I just put the roving in the dye pot on top of the wool ~ it didn't go anywhere ~ just stayed where it was supposed to ~ very 'obedient' unlike the flowers!!
Thanks for all you compliments ~ I love the feedback, readers ~ it lets me know there's somebody out there who is interested ~ thank you so much!!

ShabbySheep said...

Your dyed wool is beautiful, your garden is beautiful. I love your house! WOW!
BTW, it takes me all day to dye too. Especially when it's so hot outside!

Mary Stanley said...

Love seeing your home and garden-so charming!!!
And I love those blues that you dyed-my favorites. Wish I could come take a house tour!!!