Calendar Girls Round 2 & Eco Dyeing

 These first 7 photos are for Jackie to see. The Calendar Girls met on Thursday, but Jackie was ill & couldn't come. These are our Round Robin after the 3rd round.

Mona shared an art quilt she just finished.

Rena just fot this back from the quilter. It was another group effort from one of her other quilting groups.

Carol has been playing with textures, starting with stuff from the baggie in my embellishment class.

the next piece she used oil paint sticks for the center design.

This 9 block quilt had really nice textures.

The veiws around Mary's house were beautiful. We had some fresh snow on Tuesday, 2 days earlier.

These were wild Lupin in the ditch by her house.

This weekend we had really warm weather. 80 degrees! I spent both days out on the deck.

The elderberry bushes are in bloom around the house, & giving off a Heavenly scent. They remind me of Lily of the Valley.

Warren has been doing some hard labor planting perennials & building a garden.

I plugged in my Kindle & listened to Harry Potter (I was very excited to finally be able to get the books on Kindle). I've reread them multiple times, & always wanted to be able to listen to them while quilting or dying fabric, or cooking, etc.

Today, after getting inspired by a new book, & a phone call from my friend Kathy, I decided to experiment with wool, silk, & cotton that has been rust dyed. I picked leaves from the elderberry bushes, Lupin, Lavender, clover, & Dandelions. The wool had been premordanted in Alum (thank you Kathy), the silk & used vinegar for mordant, & the cotton had been rust dyed then soaked in a salt solution, so I figured that was the mordant for those pieces.

I also did a pot of shelf fungus, which I simmered a piece of the wool, then put it into the glass jar, then added a piece of the rusted cotton fabric to the pot after the wool was removed.

Here are the pieces after steaming, that I wrapped in plastic wrap, & will wait a few days to open them up & see what happened.