To dye badly!

I was not happy with today's dyeing! I haven't rinsed it out yet but I have that feeling that the pieces are going to be mundane and ordinary if not downright boring! I could be pleasantly surprised but more often than not when I feel like this I'm right. I think my choice of colours was the problem. I used Cerise, Raspberry and Intense Red which gave me a good range of Red/Pinks and then Navy, Electric Blue and Royal. Should have had some turquoise in there as the purples and mauves were on the muddy aubergine shades and not clear! There were a few 'pretty' colours but I don't want pretty colours. I like brights and intense! However we shall see. I've not had a piece yet that I haven't been able to save by overdyeing and often some of the muddier colours become my favourites as they provide such foils for the brights I love. Trouble is its too hot! And I think my brain is becoming affected by the heat. Today I put on a pair of prescription sunglasses and immediately thought 'oh my God, my eyesight is disintegrating at the rate of knots!' Everything was streaked with light and these were sunglasses. Took them off and found out that one of the lenses had dropped out! See, I'm not all there!

Had a suggestion for one of yesterdays UFO's which was to leave it as it was! Thank you Sharon B for that as it is a suggestion right up my street. So that's one sorted! Love it! Today's offering is a piece that I started in a workshop to demonstrate using nappy liners with mixed media. You may not be able to see in the close up but I used wisps of dyed fleece as well as paper and fabric scraps. The stitching is done in a metallic thread. I really must continue with this piece as it has such possibilities.

I love these two colours, violet and yellow together. I used wax crayons to do some rubbings on the nappy liner and then melted it into the base fabric with an iron on hot and using a silicone sheet. The stitching so far is just an ordinary zigzag stitch using turquoise metallic thread. I shall finish across the piece in a similar vein but after that I'm not sure which direction I'll go in. I fancy some beads in there, especially some rolled flower petal beads. (See an earlier post for details) Writing about these UFO's is proving to be very liberating and inspiring me all over again. For the Topsy Turvey Forest piece I'm going to stitch eyes all over it. Eyes of wild animals looking out of the undergrowth. I got the idea for this while I was sitting in the garden last night drinking a glass of wine and meditating. There was a cat under a bush and all I could see were the eyes looking at me and suddenly the idea came to me. I didn't leap into the air crying Eureka but almost! Tried to say YES out loud with a mouthful of wine! Wasn't a good idea and a waste of good wine! Off to read A Taste for Death by P D James while I wait for the dyes to wash out. Well first I'm going to rinse them and put in washing machine and THEN read book! Have just got to an exciting part!