A lovely Birthday

Thanks to all of you who have been wishing me a Happy Birthday today!

I've had a lovely birthday today. Mostly it was a quiet day. I got up early, spent time reading my Kindle while I had my coffee. Ran errands in the morning while my DH was sleeping (he worked the night shift for the last 5 nights). I dropped off 2 of my Berninas at J&H for some maintenance & minor repairs while I'm out of town. Yesterday I had Wendy & Tracy Trasky over for lessons in binding your quilt. Today Tracy dropped off a gift certificate from the local nursery to help landscape our yard future. Thank you Wendy & Tracy! You are darlings!

The stack of pink boxes were all gifts from my DH. Yes, I know, I am spoiled ROTTEN! The top 3 were Blue Ray DVDs of all of the Star Trek movies, & Back to the Future. Next were 2 books. , & last were a blouse that I fell in love with (from Chico's) when we were in Newport, RI, but I didn't want to spend the money on it, so he went when I wasn't looking & got it anyway. & the big box on the bottom held 2 new jackets, both in spring green (which I love)..

The book below came in the mail, wrapped in pre-mordanted white wool fabric, from my soul sister Kathy Jolman. When I was in Michigan Kathy dyed Easter eggs with onion skins. She had picked small leaves, & laid one on each, then wrapped the egg in a piece of nylon stocking to hold the leaf in place. She tied the stocking on the back side of the egg with a rubber band, then boiled them in the skins from yellow onions (with a little vinegar if I recall correctly), & came out with the must beautiful reddish -rusty-brown eggs with a white leaf image on one side, & a little tie-dye image on the other, where the knot/rubber band had been.

That led to me wondering what if I tried the same thing with fabric. Below is one corner of the quilt that I made (in 1995 or 96) from cotton fabric dyed with onion skins, because of Kathy's egg. It has faded some with time, but I didn't mordant it properly, because I had no clue back then. This led us to many fun dye sessions & experiments first with cotton, then wool. I moved back to Alaska in 1997, & Kathy has continued to dye wool, & now silk with the natural dyes. She has gone to Arizona & study with a Native American dyer/weaver. She has really studied & taken it to another level. This lovely book was written by a gal who was at the same class in Arizona. I think I just may be inspired to spend a few summer days this year simmering a dye pot, & using some of my own native Alaskan plants....

Tomorrow we head to Seattle to see the kids!