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.