@#$%^&*!!!!!

My sewing machine is suddenly refusing to sew; Picasa ate the photos I uploaded for this post and as I have automatic delete on the camera, I can't reload them; it is less than 2 weeks till Symposium and I have masses of stuff to do - aaaarggghhh!

More dyeing

Today was fine and sunny and without much wind, so I decided to do some more dyeing for Symposium this afternoon. I like this one - it was a "leftover" piece - a metre of fabric that I poured leftover dye onto. You can see that I was working with darker and brighter colours today.
The other "leftover" piece - I had some red, orange and black left that I didn't want to pour onto the first piece, so I dug out a metre or so of plain (and I do mean plain) terracotta coloured fabric, one of the pieces I inherited with the business, and dating back to when a previous owner dyed a lot of plain flat colours. I like it better now.
And this was what I was actually doing - more Blended fabric, this time in brighter, darker colours. Because I was too lazy to rinse the pieces (as it is, I hang them to dry, then wash them, dry them and iron them), the preponderance of navy blue turned the yellow into light green. Oh well.

Colour blends

Most of the fabric I've dyed is cut into fat quarters. Above are some of the ones I liked best.
There were acouple i particularly liked so I left them in 1 metre pieces.
This one required poodle supervision.

Feast your eyes

Vicki decided to use my harvest photo as the subject of the palette exercise she's doing each week - here's the result. Thanks, Vicki!
Aerial view (ok, upstairs window) of yesterday's dyeing fiesta. The weather was right - fine, and not too windy. This technique has to be done outdoors. I have to dry the fabric pieces before washing them.
Second batch...
and third. I dyed a total of 14 metres but still have a squillion colour combinations that I'd like to do.

These will come out quite a bit paler when finished - photos soon.

Contains actual dye content

But first....the Living Stones flowers have opened.
Today's harvest from the garden. My peppers (capsicums) have done well this year.
Today I did some actual dyeing. This is silk georgette and was meant to be navy on one side, yellow on the other with a resulting green in the middle. It didn't turn out that way.

I decided to dye some fabric as the backing for my tutor's quilt - something bright and in-your-face to offset the sombre tone of the message, and the limited palette it's made in. I saw these colours on a skein of wool in town yesterday and decided to use them for the backing. I laid the colours in stripes rather than combining them all over the fabric. Not sure if I like it.

This piece was for all the leftover dye from the above projects. For some reason the bright green isn't showing up well. I like this better!

Is the answer 42?

I'm not even sure what the question is. I read a post at Rhubarb Whine's blog that really struck a chord with me. Some of what she wrote :

"2009 to date has been very introspective. I have found my inner dialogue is full of question marks.

Is this really where I want to be at this stage of my life? Am I doing what makes me truly happy? Am I being honest and true to myself in my daily living?

Such examination of feelings to date: inconclusive, although, for the most part I am quietly astonished at the direction of the answers."

I am also in this state of disconnectedness (if there is such a word). I don't seem to be achieving much, either workwise or creatively. In fact, I'm not sure where a lot of my day goes.

Is there a general lack of contentedness (i am liking ".edness" words today) out there? Is it true that we need a change every 3 years? Why do I need them more often? (that's rhetoricaledness, you don't have to hazard an answer).

And while I'm filching stuff from Rhubarbwhine's blog, I also loved the banner above. Which is above because I can't get it to move below. My superpowers are clearly not up to much today.

Post #560

These "living stones" (Lithops) are about to flower. I find these little succulents fascinating.

Updates (because there's nothing new) - Thanks to all of you readers who send messages of support about Grizabella. She continues to get thinner and still wants to hide away but has flashes of her old spirit. I lost her this morning and didn't find her till lunchtime - in the storage cupboard under the stairs. This is not in the "cat" area of the house - there's a kiddy gate across the doorway to keep the cats and dogs separate. Her mother Seven ignores this and jumps over it every day as she mainly lives upstairs, but Griz seldom did. I had not expected her to be anywhere else as she is not strong enough to jump the gate - however, I have discovered that she is so thin, she can pass right through the bars. I don't want to take her on that one way trip to the vets while she continues to show such spirit, so I've cordoned the cupboard off from the dogs and will keep an eye on her. (Did I mention that I had searched the back yard and "cat" area of the house 3 times before finding her?)

The striped mohair wrap from a couple of posts ago is finished, but the photo I took was so out of focus, I didn't post it. Another day!

Finished...sort of

Sometimes the weekends are busier than the weeks. Today I've put together this queen-sized quilt top to send to Australia for the bushfire victims. Some lovely quilters over there will sandwich and quilt it . It's just a simple nine-patch alternating with plain blocks, and I made the blocks large so that it wouldn't take me days to sew it together. As it was, I didn't finish it till 3pm.
And after I finished that, I had to put the last panel on my tutor's quilt for Symposium, so that I could send a photo and the dimensions to the committee who is arranging for them to be hung. This panel has lined up exactly with the middle panel horizontally, which wasn't planned - I'm not sure that I want it like that, but it can stay that way for now.