Blog entry
September 2024
The Japanese indigo is flowering.
I've been experimenting with the Japanese indigo in a few ways. I love the beautiful teals of an ice water blender bath, but a few days ago, decided to extract some pigment for later use, before the indigo content of the leaves decreases too much.
The temperature has been around 90. This is after 1 day.
After 2 days, here is the beautiful metallic sheen!
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After beating and adding some lime.
Now to wait for the indigo the settle down to the bottom...
May, 2024
One rainy morning we discovered this little guy in the kitchen. He was hiding in a corner, surrounded by the cats! Luckily, they seemed pretty puzzled by him. We shooed the cats out of the room, and It was pretty easy to coax him into a cat carrier with nuts and peanut butter on bread.
I put the carrier outside under the cherry tree, but he finished the rest of his trearts before scampering up.
Spring arrived soon this year. Peonies, delphiniums and roses are blooming about 3 weeks early.
August 2020
The outside world is very strange and it's not so dependable right now. Routines have been obliterated, and the ordinary has been lost. In our city of Chicago, each day contains unwelcome surprises.
The backyard world of the garden is true and dependable. There are always changes, mostly gradual and sensible. Every year the garden is a little different, but always a delight.
These Japanese morning glories have just begun blooming. Since the days have been so hot here, the flowers don't last very long. They sort of melt in the hot morning sunshine.
March 5 2020
New batches of madder roots and onion skins soaking in the sunshine.
Checking the color of the madder brew
Hemp and indigo shibori
A bit of bloom
About to bloom!
November 26
Chinese lantern
The plants had to come in early this year. They don't love being indoors, but at least they're alive.
Mikweed pods have burst open.
A little indigo
Happy morning
Our youngest son is coming home today to vist after a really long time.
This is a very happy morning...:)
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In the midst of major tidy-ing up, I came across these little odds and ends of wool yarn. They were dyed with cochineal, indigo, and coreopsis flowers.
May
I dyed some hemp silk fabrics with madder roots and indigo. This is one of my very favorite,most intersting kinds of fabric.
This piece of hemp/silk dyed with madder seems to echo the tulip shades.
The madder patch is thriving
November 2
November has arrived suddenly! It's been gorgeous - chilly and fresh, and tonight there may be a little snow. I've been rushing to plant hundreds of tulip and daffodil bulbs before it gets really cold.
There's so much to be done that I can hardly begin. One thing I have gotten done is to sort through some of the giant collections of silk scraps. Above is a little of the walnut dyed vintage silk.
Scraps of indigo dyed silk
Inspiration on the ground.
October 30 2018
Several limbs of the beautiful old Kwanzan cherry had to be removed. The backyard is very different now. The light is harsher and when I go outdoors I feel more exposed.
At least the hickory tree out front is still full. A pair of downy woodpeckers visited yesterday. I don't know who made this giant nest = maybe squirrels?
Some of the day's work. Handspun wool and indigo.
Clearing out the boxes
For the last couple weeks I've been slowly emptying and sorting through boxes and baskets and stacks of fabrics. Many of them are leftovers from other projects. A lot are pieces that I didn't love at the time and put away, thinking I'd "fix" them someday...
Elsewhere