Neighbor Gary has extended his vegetable garden along my fence, cucumbers and peppers. He needed more acreage, so I suggested he just continue along the fence.
When the sage flowers fade, this lovely housing is what they leave behind
Then natural dyeing happened, to the tee I got the blueberry juice on, and, since I had only a few blueberries, I added in a bag of red onion skins from the freezer, similar color.
I just simmered everything together for several hours
Then rinsed off the debris from the shirt, till the water ran clear
I'm going to do white sashiko stitching, with swirls around the original blueberry stains
It's a pinker color than you see here. I didn't use a mordant so we'll see how colorfast it is in practice. The color is pretty solid, not patchy, surprising, since I didn't use any preparation.
Later I left the share of chocolate dipped cookies next door and visited, lovely people, and how I wanted to be home and not have to talk...Aditha is going to replace the curry plant which died, from her flourishing collection.
And I came across a old Lubitsch movie from a novel I'd read many times, Cluny Brown, what a gem. Funny, old fashioned in a "nice movie" kind of way, stars galore. Perfect lightweight summer watching.
I seem to have found a whole lot of this era of movies, from the black and white period, mercifully not "colorized". So I may see more.
Sashiko stitching today, bit of knitting, maybe stitching on my vest which is patiently waiting.
Happy day everyone, with art from survivors of colonial oppression. Art saves!
I must confess that I've never heard of the Cluny Brown novel or movie! Glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteBoud, your blog is always a wonderful surprise! The dying with blueberries and red onion skins is quite interesting and a first for my eyes. The colour is quite lovely!
ReplyDeleteArt saves and art speaks of its reasons for conception. A most primal and sublime form of communication.
ReplyDeleteWe see a lot of these old movies as the husband often has the TV on the Turner Classic Movie channel on cable. Well, we don't really watch them, they're just on but I'm always amazed by the enormous homes and the totally impractical clothing the women wear.
ReplyDeleteI like to watch old b&w movies occasionally. One is my favorites has always been "All This and Heaven Too", based on the book by Rachel Field. It also starred Charles Boyer.
ReplyDeleteHello Boud, You are an inspiration publishing your blog daily and each post interesting in its own way. In this post I admire the path you’ve taken with the tee with blueberry stain. Your creativity is top flight! Thank you for your kind comment on my blog today. Best regards to you from Seattle. John
ReplyDeleteI don't know "Cluny Brown," but I love a good black and white movie. I see that Jennifer Jones needed Mr. Selznick's special permission to appear.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course the dyeing with blueberries and red onions what I meant.
ReplyDeleteSteve I thought about you while I was watching it. Thinking you'd appreciate the whole over the top production. This movie dates to before United Artists broke the stranglehold of the major studios over their stars, so it was a contractual arrangement to get someone away from their home studio for a movie. David Niven told some hilarious Lubitsch stories in his memoirs.
ReplyDeletePam I vaguely recall that one. I'll check it out when I'm in next the mood for a b and w.
John, thank you. Just enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYour dyed shirt turned out great! I have re-dyed faded and stained clothing before, but using commercial dye packets. You've inspired me to try some natural dyes next time. Always plenty of turmeric (yellow ginger) on hand; it grows abundantly around here. Also some interesting purple berries that I could collect and test out. That should be fun!
ReplyDeleteTurmeric is failsafe and pretty much permanent without a mordant. Most berries work too, as we often find accidentally.
ReplyDeleteYou need a lot of berries to yield enough color. Go for it. Tell us how it goes.
Indeed tumeric is a great dye on wool and gives a brilliant yellow. I wait to see whether it fades quickly. It sounds like another busy day but uplifting in its creativity content.
ReplyDeleteJoust thinking that we needed a new copy of the Alastair Simms Christmas Carol and ordered in colour. We haven’t watched it yet — waiting for Christmas. A really good b&w would have been nice too, but our pirated dvd wasn’t playing well, and since we’ve seen it dozens of times in b&w, we ordered colourized. Watching Scrooge is a Christmas tradition.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes like to watch the old b&w movies but tend to marvel at the over-the-top acting that often happened. Seeing the comment above about Scrooge - it's not Christmas here unless Resident Chef sees that movie. We have the colourized version but he still prefers the b&w.
ReplyDelete