Saturday, August 30, 2008

Wine and Erubescent Rose Treasury

by Utilemud - simply gorgeous!

Vermeer Treasury

Vermeer Treasury by AmberAlexander and if you've haven't seen her watercolors they are gorgeous!

Logwood Purple

The dyed wool air drying out on the skirting table. This table is 4 x 16 feet, each section being 4 x 8 feet. This allows me to lay out a whole fleece and be selective in the skirting process.

I'm not sure why the color in the photo below came out so grayed as the wool wasn't this color! This was pre-rinsing. The shot above is after rinsing and while the wool is drying out on the skirting table.
White Jacob fleece, well mostly, before the mordant vat.

I've been working on this Jacob fleece for a couple of days now and I have to say the purple turned out devine! I can't wait to card some of this up and give it a spin on the ole spinning wheel. I'll have to dye some silk carrier rods to go with for creating a small bit of art yarn for a yet to be determined project - say like faerie hair! I have more fleece in an alum vat and will put it on to dye tomorrow.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Indigo Prairie Seeds


Indigo and cochineal dyed silk fabrics tied with a lovely pink silk ribbon (also dyed with cochineal) Available in my Etsy Boutique.

New Goodies

Slowly I've been updating my Natural Dye Boutique I seem to be fighting the computers, or the internet the whole way today! With patience and persevernce I've managed to load some new Prairie Seeds Natural Dye Packets to my boutique. I was hesitant to use that word at first but it fits, most everything is one-of-a-kind and made of lucious silk or wool!!! Watch for more goodies as they are going fast!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Bird Nest

John and I picked pears yesterday, I was able to find a tree via freecycle that needed picking. I found this beauty on a lower branch as I reached down to pick a cluster of fruit.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Faerie Wings

The last peak until the final assembly! But I couldn't resist the wings are beautiful, but they are NOT done yet I'm going to couch some constructed threads to the surfaces of the wings to give them strength and dimension then I will attach them to a fitting that can be snapped onto the faerie body.

The back side of the wings consist of angelina fused to painted misty fuse which is fused to painted silk organza and is againg fused, with painted misty fuse, to hand painted papers! I then stitched the elements using a rayon thread to match the angelina and a shimmery copper metallic on the paper side (bobbin stitched).

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Another Peak


I dyed the silk velevt ribbon with cochineal - a natural dye - it compliments my hand painted silk fabrics and ribbons beautifully. Now no more peaks until Lynn recieves her faerie.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Web Site Updated

I decided to update the Prairie Fibers website this morning let me know what you think~! I may update this blog later this afternoon, first I have tomato juice to go make from garden fresh tomatoes no less!!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Hand Painted


Hand Painted vintage seam binding tape! This is for the faerie dress. For more details on the faerie swap see my blog Wild Hyacinths

Faerie fabric



I've been painting fabric for a faerie I made for a swap!

Newly Painted Feet


I changed the color of the faerie here's a new picture of her feet. The big reveal will be after Lynn my swap partner recieves her faerie.

Steel with a Twist Treasury

SandFibersSurplus made this yellow treasury. I've made it into a YELLOW treasury!!! Yah know if I make the whole colorwheel by the end of the year that'd be so cool.

Creature Comforts Treasury

Leazinke created this wonderful treasury.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Faerie Parts

Remember I said I wasn't happy with the way my first faerie was working out? Well I made a new Faerie, here's a picture of her hands and feet! I'm pleased with this body form and will decorate it tonight, right after I'm done making pickles!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Faerie update

Well I wasn't happy with the way my other Faerie was coming along so I decided to use a pattern for the body out of Patti Culea's book Cloth Doll Making. The body is now painted and is air drying as I write and while a bit bigger than I had wanted at least it'll come out the way I was hoping the body should look.

Later tonight I'll assemble the body, make a decision on the face, and then start embellishing the Faerie and her clothes. I'm working with the water theme still and that's all I'll say. Come August 25th I can give the big reveal. I will say this fingers and toes are hard on a pint sized Faerie!

Faerie Hands???

I'm participating in a Faerie Swap over at Etsy Cottage Style ( a .ning.com social network) and the challenge it to keep it under $15. No problem there, the big problem is deciding what to pull out of my stash to put my Water Nymph Faerie together with, since Faeries are small there are a lot of options when looking in ones vintage piles and in ones scrap fabric pile.

Here I've been making hands and arms with natural dye painted cotton fabrics. Oh and you cannot listen to just any ole music while working on a Faerie, one must listen to Faerie inspired music, GOOD LUCK!!! So I've pulled out some classical piano music loaded it onto my computer in hopes of further inspiration. If that doesn't work I'll go check out some Tasha Tudor and or some Beatrix Potter from the library.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Blush to Bordeaux


Blush to Bordeaux silk carrier rods~!

All about Roses!




Roses it's all about the Roses I say! Someone swiped my roses out of my front yard, no kidding, they cut them down flush with the ground! So I'm consoling myself with some rose colored inspired silk carrier rods to make my own garden! I have extra's of these beauties, scent free of course, and am offering them up in my etsy shop!
I'll post what I've made with mine later tomorrow, I've been toying with spinning some bulky art yarns with these rods and then stitching them to a lovely garden inspired surface with an overlay of embroidery.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Natural Dyed Wool Fabrics


Ok blogger is having issues with loading images so I will try this again later!

Natural Dyed Wool Fabrics

I will be listing Natural Dyed Wool fat quarters, fat eights, and much much more in my Prairie Fibers Etsy store later today as I have more than I can possibly use! The colors are wash and list fast, the fabric is felted and very soft to the touch. I've been using these as my base for needle felting, since they are pre-felted the base is nice and sturdy.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Purplelicious Treasury

NKP Beads made this really purple treasury, I've been in a third of color wheel, treasury wise, this is so COOL