Tuesday 28 October 2008

My Dying Win And Other Things.

First to reply to a couple of comments on my last post - the little things I used for the concealed hangings are just normal paper fastners - yes the little things with a split pin at the back like your kids made cardboard clocks with.




The title - lol my dying win was just that. Recently Staci from Stuff With Things told us about dying threads and had a draw to win a couple of white and a couple of ecru threads to try dying threads ourself. I was lucky enough to be chosen and my threads arrived the other day, and here are the results. The top two I dyed with coffee and the bottom two i dyed with a tomatoe that was going soft in the fridge. I just squeezed the juice from the tomato on to the threads and left them to dry then gave them a good wash afterwards before drying and winding. I was thrilled with the results of both these dyes. The last one was an ecru thread I had spare and I was in the mood to play then but the results for this were far more subdued than I had expected. What did I use - beetroot juice. It was very vivid until I washed it when it virtually disappeared, it never does that if it lands on a tablecloth or down one of my tops. I put the beetroot juice on cold and was told afterwards i may have had better results if i had boiled it first so might try that when i open my next sleeve of fresh beetroot. After all the results are barely noticable now so I might as well try a redye at some time.



Lastly because the secret stitching I am doing is on 32 count opalescent (and it seems smaller than that) I cannot stitch it at night so I got out I Still Do a couple of nights back and I am pleased to have now finished the corner motif I had been working on. I am enjoying this so with my "Little of What You Fancy" theme for the moment I am going to stick at it.

Thank you all for taking the time to visit me and for leaving comments when you can.



may your frogs stay in their ponds

10 comments:

Chiloe said...

I think you made a mistake with the blog's name: stuffs with things is Marita's blog. Staci's blog is snippets and stash ;-)

Congrats on your win ;) I never tried to dye threads yet.

Clare-Aimetu said...

Well done on the dying, thanks for sharing.

staci said...

Your threads look great...I'm glad you had fun with them :)

Cyn said...

Hi Helen,

The dying looks like lot's of fun!

Enjoyed seeing the progress on "I Still Do". :-)

Cynthia
Windy Meadow

Angela said...

You'd definately have thought the beetroot would have come out an interesting and bright colour.

The stitching looks great and so perfect.

Unknown said...

thread looks great..I haven't tried my hand at dying yet. Maybe soon I will.

I still do looks great!

Christine said...

LOL at the beetroot! It always dyes everything in my house too. Do you think boiling it in with the beetroot might work?
ISD is stunning. Still loving that colour.

Karen said...

lovely floss, your I still do is looking great

Angela said...

The floss dying looks like fun. I just love the motif you stitched on I Still Do, the floss color is fantastic~!

Sally said...

Your thread dying looks good Helen.

Nice progress on ISD.