TOO BUSY TO BLOG

Okay, the fact is . . . I have been too busy to blog. There's just not enough time in the day to do all the things I want to do. Been having too much fun dyeing, felting, stitching, spinning and knitting to sit myself down at the computer and update my blog, but the guilt finally got to me when all of a sudden it was February. Here are some of the fruits of my eco print dyeing from January.

Oh, and then there were the many forays to the local consignment clothing stores to find inexpensive treasures, like a beaded and embroidered linen top, that I deconstructed and began making into a dress, adding some of my dyed panels, doing decorative stitching along the seams of each of the five panels. My idea was to finish this before my trip to Maui in two weeks. Oh, well -- I'll take it along and stitch on it.

Another project -- a true labor of love -- is continuing to take shape. These were the various panels of eco printed fabric that Michelle and I exchanged in January. I finally pinned my shawl together and started hand stitching it together.

I began adding many new stitches, embroidery, and handmade appliques.

I decided I needed a backing, so I dyed some silk charmeuse in a brew of black tea bags. The result was a perfect beige piece of fabric which goes quite well with the eco printed pieces.

The final part of the construction was an edging. I took a panel of eco printed fabric and made long strips and hand stitched those around the entire shawl.

The whole idea here is to do the entire piece with hand stitching -- no machine involved.

Still a work in progress. Much more stitching to be done.

Can't wait for our little stitch group this Monday (Feb. 7th) to see what Michelle has done with her pieces.

Another thing that was on my mind for the longest time was to make some pieces of undyed nuno felt so that they could be used for some of my eco print bundles. I got around to this last week. And here are a couple of the results.

I've been up in the hills and down around the nearby creek collecting eucalyptus leaves and other plant materials. I'm sure people wonder who that weird woman is, because what could be so interesting about those dried up leaves on the ground.

And here's piece of wool that I bundled up the other day and put into the dyepot. I especially love this one.

Feel better for having blogged a bit. Now, back to spinning - a bag of luscious pygora calls to me, as does a new episode of Grey's.