MELLOW YELLOW

Here is my first attempt at fabric dyeing. It is Procion MX golden yellow, which turned out more pumpkin than mellow yellow -- um, make that hues of winter squash! I am not complaining because I was tickled at how many shades I got with the different fiber contents. There is white muslin, 2

cts of Aida cloth, cashel linen, cheesecloth/scrim, sheer silk,

buckram, vintage lace and crocheted motifs (some of which were almost brown with age), cheap rayon trim and braid, rayon cord and scalloped ribbon, silk ribbon. I won't lack for Halloween embellishments!

I scoured all items beforehand and followed directions for low immersion dyeing from Ann Johnston's Color by Accident and "Fabric Dyeing 101", a wonderful tutorial and blog by Melissa.

In addition I mixed up batches of fuschia, intense blue and yellow, the basic colors that came with my starter kit from ProChem. All turned out well, and I was especially pleased with the mottling from my crumpled fabric. I stored my remaining concentrates, but didn't want to throw out the dye baths I had just used. I mixed some colors together with no measurements really. This was an experiment and the stuff I had on hand hadn't been scoured first. I was elated when I first took them from their dye baths, so bright and beautiful; alas, much of the color rinsed out, and there was additional fading as it dried. Still the results of these practice pieces was interesting. Yellow and blue (about half and half) yielded soft aqua and seagreen depending on fiber content. A dash of fuschia in the blue gave me from orchid to periwinkle.

As I write, I have about 4 lbs of Moda quilting muslin scouring in my washing machine. Tomorrow I will play again and try to do everything right. It also occurs to me that some of the less satisfactory pieces can be overdyed or painted or treated in myriad other ways to become useable. For my present purposes color fastness isn't an issue, although I do want to learn and practice proper techniques.

SUPER FLY -- stitch for TAST 8

This piece of linen began as something else, so I have one row on this sampler that is not fly stitch. It is the curving line of greenish backstitch woven with two colors of purl loops. Everything else is composed of fly stitch and variations, which I added in rows, not planning ahead. In other words, it was a dull exercise; even the colors were bland, and my hearts were upside down. Maybe I was just feeling off because we had just learned that our beloved teacher Sharon Boggan was ill and would require surgery.

I think silliness took hold with the beaded flies which reminded me of bird tracks. At this point I started having fun. I decided to turn this TAST sampler into a get well card. I stitched "Speedy Recovery" using only fly and the occasional straight stitch. I stitched it freehand, and it looked it. But I could go back later and do it right. Meantime I decided to try stick figures after playing around with a motif that used a combination of plaited and reverse fly stitch. I liked the look of these petroglyph styled characters (that may, however, be an alien in the center) and decided they should be raising their arms in joy, exhuberant with get well wishes -- they should be dancing! A hunting dance! They're going to track some giant, now extinct, flightless bird, and I'm going to leave my grafitti in naive form. Somewhere along the way I flipped the sampler, so my hearts are right side up. Originally they were there just because they could be. Now, of course, they represent our love reaching out to Sharon . I'm declaring the motif on the left side to be a mandala of healing. It is so ancient, part of it is buried. Corner flora symbolize medicinal plants. It's a shame my example of closed fly stitch is obscured by fronds.

I think I'll let the linen fringe beyond the deliberately rough border stitching. I may let the bird take a step or two out of bounds on the right. I'm happy. I'm optimistic about Sharon's recovery. I 'm even pleased with the colors now. I hope I've left the viewer with a hint of the

primitive expression I'm so fond of.

TAST - FEATHER STITCH

Feather stitch, oh feather stitch. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways -- or try to.

A feather stitch by any other name would still tickle -- not to mention give me endless delight. I do love this stitch. It can meander all over the place, it can be light and delicate or substantive. It looks beautiful on its own but also begs for embellishment in myriad ways. Did I play? Oh yes. Here's what I tried going from left to right:

Column 1 - 3 rows of feather stitch

I started smaller at the top and let the stitches elongate as I worked down. Then I turned fabric 180 (upside down) and worked the same way in reverse, larger to smaller. Had I worked the stitches in precise counts there probably would have been a pattern, but I liked the irregular look and thought it might have abstract or freeform potential. I turned the fabric 90 degrees to the right, then worked from left to right, connecting to ends from the second pass. I kept the "C" stitches in line to create a boundary from the next column group. What I really, really liked was the negative spaces that formed from the distorted stitches. It struck me as something organic, the look of something growing unexpectedly and with abandon.

Those incredibly shaped spaces begged for filling. I was going to leave them blank to better show off the experiment, but compromised and did a few so I could try different effects. My inclination was to go for a crazy patchwork and using different colors and textures to differentiate the segments. These are my fillers from top to bottom: 1) woven silk ribbon; 2) cross stitch in #8 pearl; 3) satin stitch in #5 pearl; 4) twisted bugle beads with Delicas; 5)beadpoint with #8 seed beads; 6) horizontal straight stitches in #5 pearl; 6) beadpoint with #8 seeds in a raku-like matte finish to counter the irridescence of the other bead section. I randomly placed a few Delicas and seeds on the tips of the conventional feather stitches.

By the way, I tried some other things with this area, but wanted more variety. I used straight stitches vertically, horizontally and diagonally, first with a single strand of floss in a light color, then darker. It didn't do much. Next I worked the straight stitches in a bright, #8 pearl as seen in the finished (6) above. I liked this a lot; I saw patchwork without the outlines of the spaces obscured. I worked the basic stitches in Caron Watercolours (1 strand), so I thought it might be better to use several shades for the straight lines. That worked well, too. Still I'm pleased with the variations in texture I started, and I like the way the conventional stitches gradually give way to the freeform.

Column 2 - single row of feathered up and down buttonhole

I suppose feathered feather stitch would be redundant. I added extra feathers . I like this effect for pine needle clusters or bamboo leaves. I worked them in 2 strands of silk floss. I like them best left as was, but I had to add a lighter accent because that area looked too dark. I wove a single strand of rayon floss and added French knots.

Column 3 - single row of beaded feather stitch

Since we're practicing stitches, I thought I might practice the bead embroidery too. I worked half up, half down. Embeadery by Margaret Ball was my resource. She gave several methods for the feather stitch. The one I chose turned out to be fairly easy and fast and kept the stitches flat for the most part. A method I'll save for when I want to build up more dimension has the bead strings crossing.

Column 4 -feathered up and down buttonhole

I went for a dainty look with 2 strands of silk floss and some small beads.

Column 5 - mirrored featherstitching with fillers

Left row is done with rayon ribbon shadowed with 2 strands of silk floss. The right side has a base of wool/silk yarn, overstitched with this incredibly smooth and slinky thread I found in New Zealand. It's just called Glitter Cord.

Can you handle another surprise? I took one look at the spaces between the two rows and saw hearts!!! Look closely, there are two large hearts and one small heart in the middle. It was a freak accident, but one I'll want to remember. The smaller one resulted from my habitual disregard for counting on these samplers. Note, I went from a series of 3 stitches to 2 in the middle.

I attempted to place Rhodes hearts in the centers, but all those feather points got in the way. My mettalic cord hearts are a bit misshapen, but they fill the space as do those little straight stitch crosses.

Column 6 - 2 rows single feather stitch

I like to use pearl for this stitch. I think I used #8 or #10. The body of the thread allows for a slight curve at the end when the "feather" is angled. When paired as opposites a diagonal space is formed. With this combination there are many, many possibilities for embellishment. I opted to keep it simple in this treatment , as the columns to either side are so strong.

Column 7 - 2 rows feather stitch joined

Same principle as Column 1, except I went from longer to shorter and kept the consistently spaced (I counted!). What a difference. These are also stitched with Caron Watercolours. I used rayon floss (2 strands) for the French knots and #8 seed beads in the center. If I'd had the right beads I might have gone for color gradation to work with the subtle change in stitch link.