and the winner is.officially Becky!

Thanks to everyone who commented. I had no idea that hand dyed Perle cotton would be such a big hit!

Because of your enthusiasm, I'll be dyeing more in the  future, so if you send me a self -addressed envelope with about a dollars worth of  postage on it  (2$ for all you internationals) and  I'll send you a fat sample as soon as the dye season begins. Write "warm" or "cool" or "Surprise me" on the inside of the envelope so I can accommodate your color whim.

Email me for the snail mail address.

web work

I'm warming up to dismantling and redesigning my aged website but it's been a long time since I taught myself the most basic HTML.  I don't think online galleries should have a lot of bells and whistles; the work should speak for itself. Less is still more, but my naked hand coding may not longer be enough to get the job done.

I don't want to use an "app" for the remodel, but I must remind myself of the hours of frustration I spent tracking down the one misplaced or mis-typed character that would spoil an entire website so I'm looking for new tools to learn; suggestions are welcome but I do not speak mac.

There was a time when I ventured to build sites for other people, but I could never figure out how to cross the great, lava filled void between what they thought they wanted and what I could deliver - never mind what to charge for my feeble magic tricks.  Like this one..


(If you followed the link to the main gallery, which of these pieces would you like to see on the block for my next silent auction?)

a giveaway - UPDATED!

I was supposed to be doing paperwork this morning, but instead I dumped out my thread basket on the pretense of making some direly needed order.

I did a bit of hand dyeing thread last season and find that I just don't like working with perle cotton.
This bunch was hand dyed with Procion MX dyes. That pale blue on the upper left is Tencel.

 So, leave a comment and Friday tomorrow night I'll see if I can't persuade Sweetie to pick a winner for the lot of them.  International participants are welcome! The package won't weigh much.

UPDATE!!  Holy Cow. Who knew so many people liked Perle cotton??
 I'm cutting off the giveaway tomorrow night to give all you early adopters a fighting shot at winning.  And I guess I'll be dyeing more, but it will have to wait until it warms up outside..the only way I could figure how to dry it was stringing it wet around the deck canopy. 


Below are the DMC six strand cottons that came from the same dyefest.
I really love these and have used most of them up in recent work. This is all that's left, but in a week or so I'll be offering 13 yard hanks as a regular item in the shop.

Store bought hanks are 8.7 yards and one never seems to be enough. Since these will each be one of a kind (I hand paint the hanks) 13 yards seemed to be a more user friendly amount and a lovely kinky number.            Stay tuned.

low

Sometimes it's just us and Don Draper.

well shod

I am so tickled to have finally found a pair of shoes! This may not be a big deal for the majority of you, especially those who are afflicted with shoe-itis.  I know you are legion and there is help if you want it.

It's not that I cannot afford a new pair of shoes (within strict limits to be sure) but I am very fussy and hard to fit. I think I have been looking on and off for maybe three years; since the Sketchers started splitting around the toe.

Having given up finding anything in all the shoe emporiums around here, I went to Bass Pro Shops yesterday and headed for the clearance rack, always my first stop.

As I watched a tall, warrior looking woman clad in black leather picked this pair up and inspected them. For all her grandeur, she had tiny feet. I said "They'll never fit you". She looked at them rather disdainfully and put them back and strolled away, chains clanking.

I snatched them up, scuttled off to the nearest bench and tied them on. As I had hoped, they were made for my feet. I clapped my dear old Sketchers in the box, walked around the store for a while and then checked out. Good for at least another five years if I switch out to sandals as soon as the weather permits.

Seth

Since there is no end of snappy sayings, I could on making these, but I have to stop.

There are other things that I want to do.

Not more important things, just different things.

time tattered

The shawl has been around a long time; whipped up in haste from three yards of panne velvet that had to have been half price somewhere.

The machine appliqued flowers added on years later when I started dyeing cloth.

It used to be my go-to wrap for anything after dark.
The vintage damage is evaporating and I'm not going to try and stop it.

This also reminds me that free motion machine appliqueing damask over a substrate with some softness/depth gives wonderful dimensional results.
The quicker and dirtier the stitching the better.

pool trouble

You know how you should never badmouth your good used car or covet some other set of shiny wheels while old faithful still gets you there and back?

 Yesterday I went to the aquatic center at the park not five minutes from my house and spent a solid hour wearing out my lane of their Olympic sized pool and woke up none the worse for the first real exercise in ages. Delightful.

My blue heaven

This morning I was greeted by the sad sight of our pool down about a foot of water. The hard freeze that lasted most of the week has taken a toll on some point in the pool infrastructure. The liner is fine, but the  hoses that run under the decking have not been replaced since the pool was put in.  We put off replacing them for many years now, but I think brand new hoses would have not stood up to the kind of cold we've just been through. The leak is slow so I'm hoping it's not the tank. At any rate, come spring, it's gonna be a mess but I WILL see my blue heaven restored.

1999..my guys getting it done

Jim & Jake

and the winner is.....

Karoda.....

be in touch.

lenses updated

I probably should have taken more time moving the circular viewfinder over the UFO before selecting this segment.  Even then I was enamored of the pink french knots and the fragile piece of gold/pink damask.  Enough..

It's too easy to keep going, but once the piece is cut from the whole it can quickly become distorted and I want to keep the circular shape/boundary so no text for this one.

lenses

I've taken one of the hoops and used it to isolate a section from an unsuccessful UFO in hopes of rescuing this small segment rather than trashing the whole piece.

But now I'm screwing up my courage to venture out in sub-freezing temperatures to go to the aquatic center and see if I remember how to swim.