One of a kind

I have recently put a couple of one of a kind scarves on etsy.  I have had them around a while and they need homes!   Both are experiments, which are always the most interesting.

This is one of my favorite fabrics, a very textural woven silk.  I dyed it a mustardy gold color and printed on it.  On the lower side edges I have attached beautiful glass beads strung on linen.  They add a nice weight.  I also scattered the beads on both sides of the bottom, and left the lower edge raw.

You can find it for sale here

I also experimented with indigo earlier this year.

 I dip dyed a length of charmeuse, and then discharge printed it.  The effect is very subtle, it's hard to see in these photos, but in real life you can see the plant forms.  I lovingly hand rolled the hems and applied beads along the bottom edge.  They are a beautiful blue but I can't remember what stone they are.

You can find this scarf here

new listings on etsy

 midnight-blue silk chiffon scarf

lithium sunset silk charmeuse scarf

pretty pale purple poppy scarf

purples

I picked this beautiful bouquet from my garden last Saturday, perfect for photographing purples.

I am in pursuit of the perfect purple, which is hard to reproduce.

 These items are in my West Branch shop, and the pillows are also in my  online store.

It's been pretty quiet lately in the land of retail.  I am taking the long view when I'm not worrying and getting ready for the christmas rush.  I am making pillows.  Many, many pillows.  Most are this cute 12x16" size so they are easy to ship.  I will be putting them in my online store soon, I think they will make nice gifts.

I also decided to renew my ads on Iowa's public radio, but I need to work on my ad's text.  I am not good with words!  If you are reading this and like my work and are good with words and think you can help me I will give you a prize.  Feel free to e-mail me at sshinnick@mchsi.com.

I haven't sewn clothes in over a year but I have some linen that I will be sewing into simple long tank dresses.  Look for them online in a week or so.

My daughter Izzy and I visited one of Iowa's few remaining remnants of native oak savannah prairie, Rochester Cemetery in Cedar County.  There is an informative article from the Des Moines Register here.

We were a little early for the spring wildflowers, but I found a great source of oak galls for natural dyeing under the huge scraggly trees.

We also met the neighbors.

April showers sale

cute baby rompers,  $28 each

I am having a sale in my etsy store and at my store in West Branch until the end of April!  I will be at the store Saturday 11-4 (my regular hours).  20 percent off everything!

Cedar River quilts

no. 1 info and more pictures here

 If you have been to my store in West Branch you have probably seen these.  I did them a while ago when my husband and daughter did a cleanup on the Cedar River with our state's DNR Project Aware.
I followed along on maps while they did the dirty work, and the maps inspired this series.  My husband, Colin Gordon, is now immersed in map making.  You can find more info on his work here.

no. 3 info here

no. 2 info here

I have listed these in my etsy store, and in West Branch you can see more quilts in the series.  They need homes!

I also found this on a walk this week.  I have never found a whole robin's egg before.  It was on the ground beneath a big Cedar, so there was no way of returning it to the nest.

poppy pillows

I am finally getting some pillows in the store!  More to come.
Most of my pillows will be cotton, but I have had several big square silk scarves previously printed, and no one wears big square scarves right now, so I am cutting them up.

indigo

2 cotton scarves

                                       I am experimenting with indigo.

scarf detail

various blues possible with successive dips

binding 

When dyeing indigo in a cold rain I think about Japan.

one of a kind length

This is the fabric I showed you here
I may list it on on my etsy store in the near future.  It will be my most expensive fabric yet!
It is in my West Branch store on Saturday's 11-4.

spring runners

runner or curtain or wall hanging here

I finally got these runners listed on etsy

runner or dresser scarf or wall hanging here

things I've been working on

This is a length of linen I have loosely printed in 2 colors.
It turned out great, I will have pictures soon.

These are some shirts I am printing.
They turned out green.

These are the shirts rolled up to steam.

This is a scarf I just listed on etsy

I will also have some new printed clothes in the shop Saturday.

first flower

an oldie

my first flower this spring

but most of my world still looks like this

luckily I like bark

purple things

 some things I worked on last week

little lavender sachets that you can hang on a doorknob

purple scarves

finding pieces of dyed but not printed fabric

I also cleaned the studio a bit, which is a miracle if you know me.

windowsill and another flower

Here is another of my flowers

I started out trying a white, "bride" type flower.  It turned out really stiff and weird so I pulled it apart and painted some parts of it and reassembled it .  I had to add stamens because I love stamens.  It still seemed blah, so I tried some vintage brooches on it.  All it needed was some sparkle.  You can't tell from the photo, but the plastic pin (which makes me think of a butterfly) has rhinestones!

What is on my windowsill:  a little pumpkin from last year, one of those plants that don't need dirt, a forsythia sprig, and a piece of silk dyed with some bark off my old grape vine.  It has a nice color, but I want to see how lightfast it is so I have bound it and placed it in the sun.  I also wrote what I dyed it with on it with a sharpie.  Dye samples are really unhelpful when you don't record what you used.

But they will make nice flowers!

leaf dress

This wonderful dress/top/jacket found a home today.
Thanks Jane!      

It is silk chiffon, which I have dyed and printed.  The pattern was adapted from a 1980 or so disco dress.
It's sort of like a leaf.