Happy puppy

Huzzah! Dudley came home this morning. He's understandably sore, but just about dragged me to the car for the ride home. Boy, a golden retreiver sure looks dreadful with his belly shaved. Just waiting on biopsy results. It's good to have him back. Thanks for listening!

Updated the blog

If you've visited before, you might notice a new look. I also added labels to everything, and was a bit surprised to note that the category 'Discharge' had the most entries, by 10 to 4. And I enjoyed looking back at my earlier work. It's supposed to be in the 50s tomorrow, Thursday, so I'm planning to fire up the hot plate outside & do more discharge. Tonight I must get more stitching & tying done in preparation. And it's time to mix up some new dye stocks, or else work on taxes. Hmmm - which will be better? Maybe my reward for getting taxes done will be to start dyeing again. Oh, if I had such self-control!
Time to mess with the black fabric.

Doggie recuperating

Keeping this brief -- spoke to the vet twice today. Dudley has had his spleen out, and two bits were sent off for biopsy. Getting fluids & checks on blood count, etc. Maybe home Friday with luck.

More stress

Not a dye-related post, but had to vent. My poor puppy is in the hospital tonight. He barely got out the door to do the usual this morning, finished and then laid down on the spot. Long story short: a mass on his spleen, internal bleeding, hopefully he will be strong enough for surgery in the morning. So I posted this picture of his furry self with his pink piggy in his mouth, chewed-off tail & all. Prayers, crossed fingers and toes, touching wood all gratefully accepted. Thanks for listening.

Another discharged piece

Hi - not lots of time, just wanted to post this picture. It's black radiance fabric with some shibori binding & capping, discharged in Thiox and overdyed. The cotton side is on the left, silk is on the right. Thanks to Carol Soderlund for getting me to this point!

More discharge samples

We had lovely weather for February here in Pennsylvania - up into the 50s and 60s. So I got outside and did more discharge, including sampling the Robert Kaufman products in bleach. Here's a picture of the two:

The sateen is on the left - it's still very lustrous, the 'Panda' cotton-bamboo blend is on the right. The lines on the Panda are very crisp. No time for more. Hope these pictures inspire! - Lisa

Discharge Samples

Just received fabrics from Robert Kaufman. The photo shows four fabrics, labelled by maker and fabric type. All were tied the same way and were discharged in a hot (but not boiling) Thiox bath for varying amounts of time. The Radiance (cotton-silk blend) is pinned back to show both faces of the fabric. The Panda is a cotton-bamboo blend. I sponge-painted a large piece of it (50+" square) with Thiox in print paste, and washed it out in the sink. It has a lovely softness, and I understand will get softer with more washing.

I have these fabrics on my website in both black and PFD white, except the Blank black, which is available from my local shop, Quilter's Remedy. See the links at right to go to the DippyDyes site or to their site. Robert Kaufman wants purchases of $1500 per year for me to keep getting wholesale prices, so if I can sell some yardage to other dyers, it will help - thanks.