Won't Dye Until Next Year (if I can help it)

These are my favorite pieces from my last round of fabric painting. It has been in the mid-80's and sunny in central PA for a long time. Lots of time to dye. But the temp. will drop tonight & clouds will come in and my prepared for dyeing fabric has run out so that's that. I'm kind of glad. I get kind of loopy being out in the sun for hours at a time. The piece on the top was done with a mix of Setacolor brown and gold sun paints. The design was made with cutouts from kid's foam sheets. The piece on the bottom was made with the same colors and I used leaves from my favorite Japanese maple. The tree has been quite sick for a few years. Each year we cut out the dead wood and hope. I love this tree and I NEED this tree.

I tend to dye in small doses. Each piece is rarely more than 14 x 20". I tend to be a bit messy when I create these fabrics, so I cut my losses & do small pieces. Its quite irritating to have a beautiful piece, only to ruin it by spattering it with a different color as I do another piece. Another reason is my teeny back yard. The whole yard is 30x45' with most of that given over to garden.

Now, each piece I have created must be heat set. This takes a huge amount of time. And its extremely boring. Needless to say, I have a whole summer of fabric that needs to be dealt with. I need procrastination therapy. Off to iron!!!