hibernation 24 hours later

And still coming down.  This is practically a whole winter's worth of snow for us all in one day.  I'm going nowhere for a while. 

hibernation

There used to be an old man who would come into the library where I worked and if you said anything at all to him he would reply: "fine, fine, thank you, fine."  In the winter he would wear two hats, a stocking cap topped with a shabby, but still slightly dapper, fedora on top.  

That metaphor of wearing two hats…  It's been a month since my last post.  Slipping into silence and hibernation.  But really…  I am fine, fine, thank you, fine.  And it is sleeting outside my window.

  

this and that

This is continued from here.  I had been happily stitching thread beads on this, thinking of faded summer blossoms and seeds popping all over the place, but it got a little monotonous and needed something else.  So I'm adding a bit of the un-over-dyed color back in as falling leaves.  It's mirroring what is happening out my window and has also given me a bit of practice at needle turned appliqué.

 And this...  I wish it was a dress.  There might be enough fabric here for a skirt or a tunic.  My photos are not doing this justice at all.

I'm not sure what this fabric is.  I got it at a second-hand shop.  It drapes like what I would call challis.  It has a nicer finish and is heavier than muslin.  I thought it might be cotton but it may have at least some rayon in it.  I layered this with pecan leaves and bound it around a fallen tree branch.  But then (duh)  it was too big to fit in a pot to simmer or steam except for on the very ends.  It sat outside for nearly six weeks.  Every time I did a dye experiment I poured the dregs and nut hulls over it.  That included black walnuts, pecan hulls, acorns, oak galls.  It got rained on.  It got dirty.  It sat and sat outside in the late summer heat.  I actually forgot about it for a while which was probably a good thing.  I just love this section above that was on the outer part.  You can see marks from the binding strings and the pecan leaves.