a blue day

Yesterday was a

blue day

and ... it was a day full of magic !

Eight ladies and a nice teacher, Elly Poldervaart, explored 

(along the edges of)

the  v a s t  realm of indigo.

(surely that is too much to fathom in just one day,

I think you can study years on that !) 

After the introduction

Elly started making an organic indigo vat,

according to the instructions of "Indigo-guru"

botanist and chemist Michel Garcia

A look inside the magic pot !

We then all started with a length of  thin woolen fabric (etamine)

to fold, clamp or stitch shibori-wise.

(it was very silent then ...)

(totally forgot to take pictures of my own stitching)

We had a good lunch

(although we didn't have "time" for that  ;-) ...)
and started "dipping" after that,
or
continued stitching, like me

Checking temperature,
checking pH
and putting the first one in.

Tah-daaaaaaah

There it is
yellow, green ... and then slowly
BLUE

After that ...
it started raining !!!
(and no small drops)
So everything was moved a bit, to the bicycle storage
(Elly's studio is in an old school building)

Slowly, one by one
the magic blue cloths appeared !

Hmmmmmm ...... unpicking the threads
took quite some time and effort !

In the end we could put in
some more items that we brought with us.

Then, too soon, it was time to tidy up and put all the work on the table

Thanks Elly
it was a day of magic !

At home waited Man with yummy lasagna
(another treat !)
and some more rinsing and unpicking
...........

My green silk strip
and ...

moons !!!


What a day ...

BLUE  !!!

Solstice

Today, the shortest day

(at least here ... "down under" my friends have the longest day)

so time to post my Solstice piece.

Winter Solstice

I finished it yesterday evening,

right on time !

I was so happy to receive that indigo dyed thread

(that I sent as white thread to Birgit)

it was the best colour, together with a bit of yellow

to make the stitched "rays" between the "points".

This piece has a tail :

the Kaffe Fasset strip at the bottom

was longer than the (20 cm) side

and I left it on because I didn't know how to proceed, yet

...

Then I found another (blue) strip

that was just as long as the extending end

so I just stitched the two together !

A coincidence (?) that we found something else 

with a tail, this morning ???

You may know that we have two cats in the house.

(they're daughter's, but live at our house for the time being)

About a week ago I suddenly discovered

mouse droppings

in the kitchen and the living room !

The cats are staying in that area at night

(otherwise they sneak up to the bedroom

and we won't be sleeping very quietly ...)

But apparently, our cats are
too well-fed,

too lazy,

or just a bit too old (15)

.....

These last few days we took away the cat food at night,

cleaned the counter top very carefully,

and closed all the cupboards 

where there might be something to eat 

.....

Finally

this morning : there he (she) was

another tail

!

(hmmmmm ... too well-fed for sure !

*

 On this shortest day

we went to Amsterdam

to say a last farewell

to the old mother (97) of a good friend.

They gave her the most wonderful goodbye :

there are some wonderful musicians in that family

and during the ceremony they played several times,

what a special way to remember someone dear !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehc4IIKQ4bg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-imw0fq5C4

a little further

Step by step

or rather stitch by stitch

the Solstice cloth is "growing"

Just looking

A "Megamendung" ray (yes a piece from Jude) 

with more swirls on the face.

And then, when I came home from a trip to Rotterdam,

there was a package from Germany !

Birgit had already announced it would soon arrive !

In it were yummy goodies for Christmas

and some of the snippets I sent her

that she would dye for me in her indigo vat !

(must make another picture tomorrow with better light !)

A lot of vintage lace, cloth and doilies

even some indigo moons !

To use for stitching and felting

;-)