Preparing to dye

The quilts are all cut out. I had good reasons for pushing on with them - we move into a temporary (for six months) new home at the end of this week, and I'm thinking that the best way to adjust to a new home must surely be to have a substantial sewing project to get stuck into! The light in this house is also just so good for selecting colours. The biggest reason, though, was to stop myself from packing up everything in sight too far in advance.

Packing up is this week's big project, but I'm thinking I can still squeeze a dyeing session in over the next two days. (This house and I dye well together - we have our established patterns and procedures). Cutting out seven quilts seriously depleted my skin tones down to a handful of snippets, so I'm going to try for some of these colours today, along with some nice browns and lighter neutrals. This has meant a detailed study of 'The Historical Record of the Dyeing Experiences of Ruth de Vos' in order to come up with a list of dye recipes to try. The results are still always hit and miss, but that's half the fun.