First Snow (Dye) of the Year

was nothing to write home about.

I decided to focus on blues (sky) and greens (grass, leaves) as I have several 'tree' pieces to do in the coming months.  I mixed my dyes -- Dharma Trading's "Sky Blue", "Golden Yellow" and "Lemon Yellow" -- and then combined the three for an olive green per my wee book of dye recipes.

I put the prepped fabric in the bottom of each of two large plastic tubs, piled on fresh, clean snow, and poured on the dye -- blue on one; olive green on the other.

Then I went off to Red Deer for lunch with friends, a series of errands (including picking up the Winter Issue of Stampington's Art Quilting Studio featuring articles by my dear friends Kathie Briggs and arlee barr)...a visit to a new LQS in Blackfalds (Peaceful Patch Quilt Shoppe -- all of 3 weeks old!), grocery shopping, music practice...and got home 10 hours later.  By that time all the snow had melted and I had 'water dyeing'...and colourful but very ordinary fabric.

Sky Blue on Snow

So.  "Always we begin again," as St. Benedict would say.  Today, I did just that.  Mixed up more 'Sky Blue'.  Put more prepped fabric into the two tubs.  Topped it with fresh, clean snow.  However, this time I decided not to mix up the green in advance.  Instead I put blue in the snow of each tub.  I left one as blue alone -- and added both yellows to the second tub.  (Notice how the "Golden Yellow" looks orange next to the "Lemon Yellow"? It's not really, though, in the end.)

Sky Blue with Golden Yellow & Lemon Yellow

I left to help my friend C finish the decorations at the Community Centre for tomorrow's 'Santa Days'.  We followed our hard work with a sumptuous lunch at the Mirror Hotel's cafe and then virtuously walked it off by trekking across town to Messinger's, where I got my monthly chicken breasts, pork loin and lean ground beef -- and special bacon and a plump roaster chicken for Christmas.

By the time I got home and got the meats in the freezer, four hours had passed.  No problem! The snow had melted, but not completely.  I dumped each tub into the sink in turn, rinsed the respective fabrics, washed same in Synthrapol and dried 'em in the dryer.

Et voila!

Blue skies smilin' at me...in muslin

in crinkle cotton

and in cotton velveteen

Ditto for the grasses/ leaves -- first, muslin:

then crinkle cotton:

and finally, cotton velveteen:

As my friend arlee would say, "Yumpth!" -- or words to that effect!

Now for the evening's entertainment -- Quilt Cam and more hand stitching on my Final Assessment Piece (yes, the embroidery floss I ordered Monday arrived today!)  The perfect ending to a perfect day.  Now, where did I put my coffee?

P.S. Only 13 hours left till 8 a.m. Mountain Standard Time December 8th...when I draw for that book on fabric books.  If you want to enter, hop to THIS POST and follow directions!  :-)