More Ice Dyeing and a Little Nature

I may be wrong here but think this is a Carolina Locust.  There were a lot of these in the field where we went today to take care of some chickens for a friend of my husband's.  They are the least destructive of the locusts.

This is a Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly.  It has been skittering around out front and I finally got a good enough photo to identify it.

Here are the ladies whose eggs we swiped right out from under them.  

I did some more ice resist dyeing yesterday and completed another two shirts and four yards of fabric.  This is 1/2 of a piece of Egyptian cotton -- I did a two yard length and folded it into quarters before scrunching it and putting on the ice and dye.  When you open it  up,  you have a mandala.  The dye goes through the four layers quite evenly so may try more layers to see if I can get something even more interesting.

This is the other two yard piece which was a sateen.  The dyes I used were Pro Chem's Grape, Leaf Green, Intense Blue and a little Turquoise.

These hadn't been ironed yet and they are so much fun to iron!

A t-shirt using the same colors -- not quite a bright as the fabric!

A long-sleeved t-shirt using those same colors.  These are the Basic Editions t-shirts that I used to get at K Mart and hopefully they will have them again as I would like to get a couple of turtlenecks.  

I should note that I still haven't used up all the ice in that $2,99 bag and have done six t-shirts and  6 yards of fabric.  I only put on a layer thick enough to cover all the fabric.  I think I have one more session left with the remaining ice -- it was a 20 lb bag I believe.

Bugs and Butterflies!

I'm in Charlotte for a few days enjoying the beginnings of fall down here in NC.  I took a few odd pictures before I left the beach (where the weather forecast was also awesome for the week).  This is another of those Long Tailed Skippers although you can't see the long tail here but look at those colors for a normally drab small butterfly!  He was sitting on the lawn next to our hibiscus.

I thought he was a rather handsome insect even though he was intent on eating our hibiscus.  Warren shooed him away after I took this picture.  I am now collecting bugs of all kinds I think!  

He is a grasshopper of some kind -- maybe just the common green grasshopper.  An interesting factoid is that all locusts are grasshoppers but not all grasshoppers turn into locusts.

I call this one Robobug as it looks like it has a suit of armor on its triangular head  and is strangely robotic. Found on our third floor porch.  It is definitely an insect!  It is what is called a "true bug" and I believe is a Leaf Legged Bug.

I am hoping to get to the Raptor Center while I am here in Charlotte as I do love those birds!  In the meantime, I am reading, working on hand quilting and scanning ancestral pictures.  It is notable (for me) that it was just a year ago that I met Colin Firth the first time.  Too bad the movie he made in Wilmington still doesn't have an American distributor. Hope it doesn't go right to DVD years after it was made like his last American movie!

Miscellaneous Butterflies and Bugs!

 Down at Ft. Fisher, I saw this grasshopper standing quietly in the sand and took a few pictures.  I am used to green grasshoppers so had no idea what this was.  I believe it is called a Mischievous Bird Grasshopper but could find no reason why!  I think it is depositing eggs here in the sand.  Its face seems also to be covered in bits of sand.

Another view of the grasshopper.

 Before we headed on our boat tour, I spotted bunches of Skippers on the bright  yellow flowers in front of the USS North Carolina from which our tour departed.  These are two pictures of this small butterfly in the Skipper Family.  It is either a European Skipper or a Fiery Skipper -- not sure on this one despite the decent pictures.

These two pictures are of another Skipper -- the Long Tailed Skipper as you can see from the above pictures.  I think I misidentified a butterfly the other day and it was one of these.  I was fascinated by the tail and the greenish color of the body.

There were lots of these butterflies on the flowers and I was pleased with the pictures despite their tendency to flit a great deal!!