Well, I just had to take a picture of this bug I saw on the hibiscus in the front yard. It was just too colorful. It was only about a centimeter long. I have absolutely no idea what it is and don't remember seeing anything like this before! (Update: this is the scarlet and green leaf hopper and is not something we want on our hibiscus!)
Finally made one last attempt at getting the piece done for my art quilting friend. She had picked out a beige color from my swatch book and wanted a gradation on one piece of cotton (about a yard sized piece) to go from that beige to a lighter beige ending in a yellow. My first attempt ended in the ugliest piece of fabric I have ever dyed but was retrieved by a quick overdye in blue.
Today, I took a piece of non-PFD Kona cotton, didn't prewash -- wanted every kind of finish possible to resist the dyes!! I painted the whole piece (which was ironed and dry) and a medium thickness print paste and let it sit for about 15 minutes). Last night I had made up the requested color (7 parts golden yellow to 1.4 parts intense blue and 1.4 parts mixing red). I also made up a 1% concentration of tangerine (one of my very favorite "pure" colors). After the print paste had covered the whole piece, I painted it with the pale tangerine (the whole piece). After I did that I started at the bottom with about a 2% solution of the mixed color, painted a bit, thinned it down to about 1% and painted some more. I continued to thin and paint until the whole piece was covered with some of the mixed solution.
I waited until the piece was just about dry and then painted Afterfix over the whole thing and let it sit for an hour, then rinsed. I don't know whether it will be pale enough for her (I think this Kona may have been mismarked as it dyed really well as opposed to what I was expecting and what I have gotten in the past with non-pfd Kona). It certainly is a gradation from beigey brown to soft yellow and I will find a use for it if she doesn't want it. You can still see brushstrokes but I think it is more interesting that way myself. We shall see.
For some reason, it was very difficult to take a picture of this piece of fabric. It looks much better in person than in any of the pictures I have taken -- don't know why that is.
This is a picture of the piece sitting on my dye table. The streaking isn't on the piece but is what remains of color on the piece of poly fleece that it is sitting on -- very distracting!
This is the piece after it is done. I am sure it will be too yellow for her but I am done with this as it is not at all interesting! I think it actually looks better in person than in the pictures as the contrasts don't show as much.
Just more flowers from my garden which loves all the rain we have been getting.
The roses will get a chance to relax as it is a little cooler. There is just a profusion of color everywhere these days.
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