Icy Tennessee

This is my week #4 journal quilt - another one about the weather - I MUST be getting old.

Playing with Natural Dyes

A piece of unbleached muslin dyed with yellow and red onion skins, red cabbage and acorn cups.
I don't use onions in my cooking - but I found that in the bottom of the onion bin at the grocery store there are loose dry onion skins. So I brought a few of them home for the dye bath.

I also dropped coffee grounds on top of the rolled fabric. They did nothing!!!!

Mordant - a substance used to set dyes in fabric. Reading thru the information people very graciously sent me - I found suggestions to use salts, vinegars, acids and metals. And because this for me was 'play' - I used salt and silver - two items in the cupboard closest to my stove. The silver I used are the decorative non-edible silver balls used on Christmas cookies. And I think they worked really well - as the darkest stain on the fabric is a cluster of little circular shapes.

Mr. Putti-Tat Bojangles

When I was a kid - I joined the local 4H club. As a project thru 4H, I adopted an adult male cat from a local shelter - a cat that was scheduled to be euthanized. He was a beautiful American Shorthair Tabby = I named him Mr. Putti-Tat Bojangles. So, I liked Tweety bird and the song!!

We called him Putt (pronounced poot).

As part of the project I had to go to a breeder's home, help her care for her cats and dogs - she bred Russian Wolfhounds - and learn about caring for cats, cat breeds, etc. Oh, and I remember I had to assist her at a local cat show.

On one of the trips to this lady's home, my mother came in to meet her and sat on her very low-to-the-floor couch. One of the wolfhounds came into the room, a very tall skinny dog - walked over to my mom, turned around and 'sat' on her lap - the dog's legs never left the floor. My mom leaned back with an 'oh my - what is this thing!' look on her face. I still laugh about this memory.

So out of this 4h project, I think I received a ribbon - but I also received a beautiful, loving cat. Putt was a great cat. But he developed a urinary tract blockage to which male cats are susceptible. And, unfortunately, I did not understand what was happening when he broke training and began urinating on the floor. So he died. It is important for all owners of cats to know that if your cat breaks training - something is wrong - take them to a vet immediately!!

2010 Journal Quilt Challenge - Week 1 Happy Birthday!

Well, for 2010 I have joined a weekly journal quilt challenge on facebook - just wanted to share my first one - My husband was born on 1 January - so I painted his baby blue eyes at age 74 and also painted his mom holding him using the photo from the newspaper in '36 that told of him being the 2nd one born that year - there was a Baby Gray born 12:02! My darlin' husband was born 36 minutes after midnight. But it was his picture in the paper!