Daily Notes- February 24th

                                      

Test squares from the dye test samples from California (the darks in brown and green), my own bleach discharge lavender and some brown onion skin on lime linen (gives the cloth a lovely burnished look).  This is the one missing from the wall behind the ironing board.   I don't like the lime to the far right.  Ignore that.  I may remove the top four squares.  Go forward with the 16 patches. We'll see. I change my mind frequently. I could also appliqué over a section and then cut from the back to make an uneven edge.  That is most likely what I will do as I really love hand appliqué of long sections of cloth. Or insets.

Yesterday at Goodwill- the second one we visited after lunch- I found a four dollar small crockpot.  With a brown ceramic liner.  Tall but not very wide.  Perfect. For an upright rusting tin can to stand and still close the lid.  For the walnuts that have been waiting.  My daughter had gifted me her old pot with a pristine white ceramic liner.   I just COULD NOT stain it with walnuts.  And I did want to make the ink out on the porch or in the garage and not get smells or odors inside a closed Winter house. I am ready to get to work on making ink.  And dying cloth on the rusty can.

A while back, Grace (Windthread) mentioned a blog called Mending Grace (I think) written by a woman dyeing and making cloth with household discarded cloth and things she found while walking her dog.  I had never in 12 years of thrice daily walks with my Riley- found any cloth.  He did find a deflated clown ball which Riley ate (while I was not looking) and then distressed (in his intestines) and discharged on another walk to my shock and awe to see a clown's face emerge from his ....well, you can imagine how it was for a novice dog owner. Very hilarious now but....not so much in the moment. I actually thought I had gone insane. Seeing things etc.

Back to cloth:  This Mending Grace had a small crockpot and a black walnut and some strips of cloth that she pleated very carefully around the can and then bound with string and then set it out to simmer in the crock pot for four hours I think.  Then it sat in the cooling crock pot until the next day.  The result was quite brilliant.  The tedious pleating- genius.  I tried it with what I had- a rusty can and iron water. String but forgot the pleats (head slap)  A silver shadowed grey.  But now I want to go to the dark side of the walnut bath.

My eyes are dry and sticky- very tired.  I need eye drops going forward.  And I need to test the new Goodwill crock pot to see if it heats and stays heating.  Then get the walnut bath going and pleat cloth on a rusted soup can. And I might need a nap. Or just an hour or two on the couch with my eyes closed.  Temps in the 50's today.

I have my compost bucket to dump into the bins and more shredded paper to add to the third section and then I'll scrape up some snow to top the shredded paper so it doesn't blow all over the yard (has happened). I didn't get to do it the last warm day- because I jammed the shredder and had to wait for G to figure out how to unjam it.  He did.  Good Man.  He also figured out why my car had the check tire thingy lit up.  Even when we added air to the tires.  Not that I am driving the car during the Snow Months.  I am not.  I hibernate.