Irrigation Fields 1 

New Piece

Irrigation Fields 1. 8.5 x 11.0 inches. Compost Dyed cotton dots on black cotton fabric backing. Machine stitched, timtex core.

Silk Noil Cotswold Blend 

Firey Fall Foliage 

Oh Dear

I think it's official, I have the flu, and it's not going to be pretty either. Who knows where I picked this up at, I've been out a lot this past week, and around enough people to pick it up.

It looks like we might get snow tomorrow! I'm so excited, I love snow. It's pretty brisk outside right now, I wouldn't want to be stuck outside tonight. It's been so warm here I think a lot of people are going to have a hard time acclimating to the temperature change. Like they might have to put clothes on.

Bittersweet

I'm really enthralled with my bittersweet, that I bought at the farmer's market. So it's no wonder that I bought beads in that colorway. I showed them to John and he asked me if I was going to make a bittersweet bracelet. Yep, yah betcha! I have some more beads, rounds that'll go nicely with the colors.

Glass beads for my Bittersweet Bracelet. Hubby gave it that name, he's a real sweetie. 

New Store Front?

Well it looks as if The Prairie Fibers Company will finally have a place to call home - that's not living in my home! I'm hoping we will be open in about two to three weeks, I may have to live a week without a bathroom, good thing the gas station is catty cornered across the street from me huh. Aside from more lights, furnace and a bathroom, and a serious cleaning it's move in ready.

The back half where the classes will be held needs to be finished but that's minor, mainly hte ceiling which is way the heck up there, needs to be painted, the tin ceiling has been stripped and primed already.

The store has lighting, but it desperately needs more. So I will be going shopping for lights here real quick like. Good thing my hubby is handy with this sort of thing. The woman won't rent the entire building out to me, she will only rent half of it, if I want the whole building I will need to buy the building. So buy the building I will.

My friend Brenda Backman went with me, she was pretty helpful in looking the place over, sometimes it's really hard to do this when your also trying to talk to the owner. I have so much work to do to get ready for move in it's unbelievable. I'm still questioning my sanity.

More later.

One view, looking towards the front of the store. 

The future store front! 

My friend Brenda and I thought this sign - a country cemetary - was rather humorous. After all why would anyone want to dig in a cemetary??? 

More watch parts, this time stop watches. The guy made a mistake when he started talking about the watch club! There's a club??? I'll have to get all of my female friends to go with me now. Somehow I'm starting to think I missed my calling in life, I'm not sure what the fascination with watches and clocks are but I have one. I guess I should have known this sooner, if you look around my house what do I collect? Clocks! An interesting collection for a person who doesn't wear a watch or cares about time. 

Buttons Buttons and More Buttons! 

The last hold outs of summer. 

Thunder Thighs

I'm trying to figure out how I managed to gain twenty pounds in the past two weeks. Maybe it was those two boxes of Hostess Ding Dongs I don't know, but gain weight I did.

Red Maple  

Its Gourd Season! 

Wayward posts

I finally figured out why my picture would not upload, I had saved the pics in a CMYK format instead of RGBY or whatever it is. I can't remember right now and don't want to take the time to open photoshop again to fin out. But I did discover that the format of the picture would help, some what.

I"m off to nurse a sinus headache now, I think it's from being in front of the computer too much today. I did get another bobbin of yarn spun up though, I'll have to take pics. I have about a half pound of the orange cotsworth silk noil blend left to spin. One half pound yeilds about three bobbins worth, so I should end up with six bobbins. I'm planning on a two ply yarn when all is said and done. I'm hoping to knit it up into a shawl for myself.

Finally! I've been having a hard time getting this picture to upload. 

Sunrise. Actually this is a test post. 

Something to Crow About 

To Crow About

Mark Making with Nature: Surface Design with Natural Dyes

I'm not sure why the image isn't loading. I'll try again, maybe I need to look at the coding or something???

Another View

More Paint

I put on two layers of metallic paint, Jacquard Lumirie Paints. I blotted some of it off so you can still sorta see the base coat. I am almost done, need to finish lining the rest of the box with paper, and get the minature book done.

Another Layer of Paint

More paint, more paper, more glue, more sanding, and maybe some more paint and paper. Eventually the box will be done!

Cigar Box Swap

Here are some in progress pics of my cigar box for the swap I'm in, it was due last week. Needless to say I probably won't have it done until Monday - for mailing that is.

Yellow

When I ask students which colors they think will be the easiest to get, when dyeing with natural dyes, invariably they always say Yellow or Brown.

Oh how I wish this were true. Want red, blue or purple? I'm your dyer then, want yellow or a deep deep brown, better find someone else to do your dyeing for you! I don't know why but I always get a dingy yellow, it doesn't seem to matter what techniques I use, how clean the pot, the perfect temps for the perscribed period of time it always comes out blahhh. I'm thinking it HAS to be the water then. I'm going to try yellow with some distilled water to see what happends, who knows maybe i"ll get a strikining golden yellow.

I'll keep and probably use these quills for something, but dingy yellow wasn't want I was aiming for this weekend.

A failed attempt at yellow quills. 

Bittersweet 

On Surviving Winter

Well unless you live in a cave somewhere with absolutely no contact what so ever with the outside world then you know that heating costs are going to go up this winter. So the question begs to be anwsered how do I keep warm. It's very simple:

Wear lots of clothes!

I keep our house at 58 F. That's right I keep it at 58 degrees F! In the morning I get up, around 6ish, to fix hubbys lunch make the coffee and let the dogs out to do their chores. In the winter I turn the heat up to 62 F and let it run one full cycle. I then turn it back down to 58 F and don't turn it back up until 5 or 6 in the evening. I let it run one full cycle again and turn it down. Sometimes we will turn it up before we go to bed one more time. I personally cna't sleep if it's warmer than 62 F in the house. My house is heavily insulated with woolrock, an insulation material that was used around the turn of the previous century. Woolrock maintains it's temperatures beautifully. I can go several days, w/o running the furnace before the house temp hits 50 F, ask me how I know and it wasn't our choice either.

So by now you either think I'm nuts, full of it, or both. I'm only nuts. I'm also cheap (frugal). And I really hate getting sick, warm buildings in the winter breed disease.

So how do you keep warm Kimberly - we have to ask???

Wool, wool is our best friend. We both wear turtle necks or long sleeve tee shirts, wool shirts or wool sweaters. When it's warmer out we wear cotton long sleeve shirts, flannel or heavy cotton twill, over our tees. We wear lots of wool socks, and I've been known to wear a wool hat indoors on occassion. My head is usually cold but the rest of me is hot. I wear wool socks starting now until spring thaw, I buy them and I also knit them myself.

As for staying warm at night, flannel sheets, wool blankets, thick heavy comforters - get the picture. If you wanna stay warm then cover up!

I heard one source state that the recommeneded lowering of the furnace temp be to 68 F, that's sweltering! Personally I don't take that as a serious drop that would amount to any type of savings in fuel oil and natural gas. 62 F is a serious drop and should create a serious savings. But hey I don't make the rules so what do I know right! I can say this it's only been in the last 50 years or so that we've had these ridiculously high indoor temps during the winter. Prior to that people froze their arses off in the winter.

Yellow, Finally!

I finally got a yellow on the quills. So being inspired this afternoon I'm going to dye some quills with indigo and overdye with the Osage, to see if I can get a green or teal color. The replacement batch of quills is working wonderfully.

Quills have an almost magical property to them. You can pull quills out of the same exact location on a hide and the quills for one side will dye beautifully, the quills from the other side dyes marginally - if they take color at all. I have about 5 ounce of quills that flat out refused to take any dye at all. So I need to come up with a project that uses a lot of white quills1
Now to figure out how to store these once sorted by size.

Finally yellow gold quills. Three - four day soak in alum. Then a soak in a highly concentrated Osage Orange bath. I soaked the quills overnight. 

I'm not sure which dog wants to die today, I can only guess - probably my sheltie - Angel the deamon dog - But there was my beloved Cotswald Silk Noil blend top all chewed and strung out on the floor. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr 

More evidence, she - Angel the deamon sheltie- must have stood on her hind legs, the chewed sock was still on the chair! 

Another view of yesterdays sunrise. Who knows maybe I'll get out of the house today to take some of the sunset. Right now it's pouring though, and it's deliciously cold! 

Some collage assemblege materials. I'm in a cigar box swap, it was due last week, better get busy! 

It's Party Time!!! Time to create some beautiful fabrics and papers.