Happy New Year Everybody!!!

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and thank you so much for being my blogging friends and coming to look at my blogs. I have learnt so much and it has made my favourite hobby of patchwork and quilting so much more enjoyable sharing it all with you.

Today I have been working on my mum's belated Christmas present of a silk scarf. This was very difficult and not as easy as I thought it would be. Lots are lessons are being learned along the way. Stretching the silk was tricky I had never done this before on a long silk scarf but I did manage to succeed by doing one half, then going onto the next half.

The gutta from tubes were a pain in the butt... when you are not used to it your fingers do ache a bit squeezing the gutta tubes. After reading the book about silk painting from one of the books that my Jim has bought me I realised that its better working from little squeezy bottles with the clear nibs. Now I'm learning, I will know for next time. Some of the lines were blotchy and a bit shaky but due to the scarf being a modern piece perhaps I will get away with it.

the gutta lines have dried and I fixed these with the iron. Hopefully Friday I will be able to get the chance to start filling the inside shapes with colour of silk paints so fingers crossed.

While I had the kitchen to myself and due to the delivery of my Omega Dyes I just could not wait to have a go at fabric dye-ing. I had a go at dye-ing some fabrics in the microwave.

Some of the pieces were successful in the colours of greens and turquoises perfect for my patchwork coat that I'm wanting to make. Just one small piece of material got a bit muddy but it doesn't matter, that cloth can be used in the area of the darker colours.

I soaked the cotton cloth in salty water first before sprinkling the dyes in between and squeezing the fabric and dye inside the plastic bag helping this to mix. After reading the instructions again I realised you can also mix and sprinkle in a tray to cook in the oven, I will have a go at this next time when I'm ready to have a go at some more fabric dye-ing. This is certainly fun and addictive.

I bought the greeny fat quarters downstairs that I bought from the Malvern show and gave these a quick iron while I had the ironing board out. When my dyed pieces are dried tomorrow I will match these fabrics up and have fun cutting them up. Some fabrics are too nice to cut up I just love them so much. I will try and take some photos tomorrow and Friday of how the dyed pieces look.

The picture at the top is a hare painted the other week in watercolours and acrylics.

Happy New Year Everyone!!