Dyed threads with Inktense

I mentioned yesterday that I'd been playing about with my new set of Inktense paints. These are the skeins of white crochet cotton that I experimented with dyeing. I painted two skeins with a mix of yellow, red and orange, and a third with blues and green.

The results were mixed, but overall positive. As you can see, the colours aren't in-your-face vivid, but soft and rather pretty. I probably could achieve bolder colours with applying a second layer. How I'd dyed these was to use a water spray and mist the skeins first of all. Then I applied the Inktense and allowed the crochet cotton to dry out on top of the radiator. Then, as the Inktense needs a decent amount of heat for the dye to set, I carefully ironed the skeins. That worked with the orange-yellow skeins, but when I wrapped the blue-green skein around the plastic holder some dye did come off and stain my fingertips. Maybe I hadn't ironed that as much as I should've? Never-mind, it's good enough to use on my banner, the one I started on Wednesday at the Stitch Art workshop. Speaking of which ...

I'm making progress. I took this picture earlier on today, and since then I've used chain stitch to embroider 'Let Cities Grow' and am continuing to add more leaves and vegetation. I've been sewing while listening to podcasts, and I think I might start on 'The Archers' now as I've several episodes to catch up with. Yup, that's my idea of an enjoyable Friday evening. Stitching, relaxing, nibbling on a chocolate mini egg or two. Other people can go out clubbing till all hours. I'll stretch out on the sofa instead!

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Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to. Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate. Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden. I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday. I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different. There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city. It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery. There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery. My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

Another week's flown by ...

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