Snow Dying

About 18 months or so ago, I bought a starter pack of procion dyes. It’s been sitting in the cupboard ever since as I don’t really have anywhere to deal with masses of wet fabric or even to leave buckets lying around. However, the Feb issue of Popular Patchwork had an article on snow dying with children by Gillian Cooper….2 days later, we had a proper snowfall!

After a long tramp through the snow with the sledge, I found an old sheet and soaked it in the soda solution. Once ripped in 4, the girls and I managed to find 4 containers and I got busy mixing up potions.

Isabella had fun filling the buckets with snow then had to take half back out! We added a piece of fabric to each then piled the snow back on before we dribbled dye from the pots over it all. Gillian had recommended pull-top water bottles but we made do with disposable cups. Then we left it all outside, for 2 days actually as the next day was busy. Then Isabella and I tipped the snow out, chipped some ice off the frozen fabric and rinsed it well before shoving it in the washing machine with a colour catcher or two. We did try to be patient but it seemed a very long time until the dryer had finished its’ cycle and we were able to shake out the 4 pieces and see what we had:

After admiring, we just have to decide what to do with our creations!

February???

It’s been a busy few months since I was last on here…to be honest, most of December and January passed in a blur. The only sewing I did was to fulfil orders, for things like pencil rolls, sketchbook covers, bags and a kindle cover, with one postcard for a swap. I did begin a couple of things for myself but as they are for myself, that’s also the reason they are on the backburner!

However, at the beginning of this month, I seemed to find a bit more energy and got down to work. I decided to follow the Craftsy.com BOM so have made the 6 blocks frm the previous post.

I’ve also made a bookmark and atc for a swap:

And a postcard:

Here’s the gorgeous one which Maria sent in return :

As you can see she managed to cover all 3 possible themes for this swap – environment, leap year and Valentines!

I’ve made a new cot quilt for a friend, using a gorgeous pattern from an old issue of Homespun:

I made some extra boats (by design of course!) so they will be perfect for a tiny baby quilt at some point!

I also made this large cushion quilted on both sides, originallyfor the sofa but my teenager says it’ s her’s!

Craftsy BOM

I took a notion last month to follow the Craftsy BOM. It’s totally free and gives 2 blocks per month, following their online class structure of videos and printed instructions so a good way to test that method of working. These are my first 6 blocks, using up some of my stash!

New life

Just to prove that we do “normal” stuff too – here’s the results of the acorn Isabella was given at the Sea Cadets open evening in September, when the Juniors were planting their’s up. It’s been sitting on the kitchen windowsill since, apparently doing nothing until 2 weeks ago when a long shoot suddenly appeared and now we have 7 leaves! Once it’s grown rather a lot more, it will be planted out at the unit and will hopefully survive the rabbits!

Don’t look if you’re squeamish…..

Home education means that no two days are alike. This week so far, we’ve had our usual Monday race between trampoline, gymnastics, the park and dance classes. Then on Tuesday we visited Rochester castle then the Guildhall museum for a workshop about the River Medway. On Wednesday, we had the last session of this term’s forest school at Capstone Park, which was where the fun really began…

This week, Ranger Rob had arranged for us to be supplied with shot rabbits for the children to prepare for the pot!

 Isabella had been admant that she was NOT going to do this but she did agree that she’d go with me and stay within the “school” boundaries. Actually, she was fantastic. A lot of crying to begin with but she did the whole thing, all the time talking to herself along the lines of “I don’t know why I agreed to do this!” then running off to play with 2 rabbit feet in her hand….

at one point I found myself calling after her to “Bring my kidneys back here now!” And just how I’ll manage to erase the memory of her holding the head in one hand, stroking it and telling it how sorry she is that it’s dead but at the same time watching the ranger demonstrate the next bit, well…

The demo rabbit was cut up and sauted in a pan over the campfire with onion and green pepper – tasted brilliant in a roll! We’d also taken the obligatory sausages, bananas and marshmallows so it was quite a feast.

Much to my surprise, we were able to take “our” rabbit home so it got wrapped in our used sandwich bags…Isabella could barely wait for Daddy to get home and gave him a minute description (her older sister left the next room when it got too graphic!) Then I had to get busy researching online and today we have not only casseroled the meat but we have begun the tanning process with the hide and have the claws soaking in whiskey! (Well the instructions said alcohol and this was the strongest we had!)

And if you think these photo’s are not for the squeamish, honestly I haven’t shown the worst – Madam took more of the head this morning before she let me dispose of it…

New Chair

Well, not exactly new but this is the first of our 6 dining chairs to be given a makeover and has been claimed by little one. My upholstery skills need a little work, but it is my first attempt!

11/11/11