So, I had wanted to post about my trip to Skye and Loch Awe, the beautiful Scottish winter, spring and summer skies.
 I had wanted to post about my helper cat Miro who purrs his head off when I give him a piece of tissue paper to sit on, keeping him away from disrupting my fabrics. This same good natured cat who was so grumpy when I put the indigo vat in his sunbathing spot. He took his position and stared at it!!
I had wanted to post about making dye from ivy in my garden and about the other promising plants.
I had wanted to post about the inspiration I got from India Flint's work, the plants I bundled in silk and the surprises emerging after a few days or a week. 
Well, I start with introducing my helper Miro.

Indigo in Miro's sunbathing spot!

I had the opportunity to go to some fabulous workshops to do with natural dyeing. One was with India Flint this year in Newburgh. Look at http://www.indiaflint.com 
This was a wonderful experience!
We made river books with drawings, poems and plants. There was so much, I'll be writing more about that soon.

One smaller part was creating a paper and fabric book which I damaged by giving it a gentle squeeze when wet... can you imagine?!! So at home I put it on the floor in my studio for drying and repair. Miro was eying it up straight away. He likes to sit on it and scratch, not a happy cat when the door to the studio remained closed.
Here is the piece repaired and stitched together again with green tea dyed silk and linen, not perfect but I am happy.

In the meantime having withdrawal symptoms I ordered India's book on Bundle dyeing from the Blurb website. http://www.blurb.co.uk/books/5423526-the-bundle-book
I can't wait to see it appear in my letter box!

As promised more on Shibori here. This time I used an embroidery technique, making tiny stitches on a light ponge silk scarf.

With Valentines day round the corner I decided on some different sized heart shapes.  Using parallel lines of stitches I created the heart outlines following a template I had made.

The idea was clear. I would pull the threads, prepare a madder dye bath for a lovely rich colour and dye! With the expected result of a red scarf with white/red hearts, very romantic!

Oh Oh only...I had not pulled the threads, so there was no colour differentiation! Everything was red.

New plan! Pull threads overdye the middle and tie dye ends with logwood... 

Result a rich purple and red valentines scarf.

I really like the outcome of my mistake and will repeat the same in future in a more deliberate manner.

The last two weekends I have been busy with shibori techniques. Here is one end result example. The colours, a blue purple and a rich warm orange red are my favourites.
There are a few more pictures underneath, showing part of the process.

I had fun creating this and I like the effect. I will be posting more on shibori soon.

So happy to start my blog. I am addicted to natural dyeing. 
The first post will be dedicated to the maple leaf. I had so much fun gathering them last autumn.

This is an example of eco- printing with maple leaves. The t shirt was prepared with alum and a tea dye bath.
Tea is full of tannins and this helps to prepare the cotton to absorb dye from plants. 

The tea already gave plenty of colour and this turned out a bit brown/beige. 

I then simmered the t shirt in a madder dye bath changing the colour to a lovely pink. I rolled  maple leaves and other plant bits in the fabric and steamed it.

I am impressed with the colour and the print I got from dark red maple leaves.