"Shape Shifting: Using Shibori to Mimic ......."

http://www.interweavestore.com/Quilting/DVDs-Videos/Shape-Shifting-Using-Shibori-to-Mimic-Pieced-and-Appliqued-Shapes-Download.html?SessionThemeID=22&a=swe110408B

Dont miss the 10 cents download of 45 minutes of instruction on shibori techiques that mimic pieced and applique shapes!

It was easy to download and pay for with PayPal........and I found it useful learning a bit about what to do, since Ive no trained skill at dyeing, Im learning as I go here.
Malka Dubrawsky doesnt use eco dyes but the principles for the techniques are the same of course, so it may help to treat yourself for the small sum involved here.

 Something kept niggling at me about posh cat here..........then I finally sussed it, it was her face that I didnt much like lol .... so shes now got a slightly friendlier face!

Thought Id show these pieces of fabric below too. The central strip with red splodges, is small strips of the Mahonia bark, removed from the dye bath and laid on linen with afew odd eucalyptus leaves placed here n there. The fabric was simply rolled up and then stood on end in the steamer whilst another dye brew simmered beneath.

The fabric was dipped in the watered down soy milk drink before layering, rolling up and steaming and the marks are substantive, it lost very little when rinsed before drying. The red was a surprise to me, I wasnt expecting that colour, so it must be a different species of eucalypt. It was a sprig in with some flowers I was given!  Infact it didnt smell that eucalyptus on its stalk but once it was steaming , it did! The Mahonia bark seems to hold lots of colour, even though it looked stewed out when I removed some from the first dye bath!

Again the colours are dull here compared to what they are really like.

The thread near the top is actually the builders scrim that the Mahonia coloured such a great shade of sage.

Now our Scrapstore has lots of cardboard inner tubes from rolls of fabric and folks say.......what can you do with them?
Well a friend is turning them into two columns to stand outside her shop and I thought it was such a  clever idea!
(Sorry about my shoes!)
You can see shes used one larger centrally with 7 taped in position around it.
They have been glued onto a wooden plinth.
The whole thing was roughly blethered in Polyfilla, painted and then varnished.  Though I suggested that Paverpol might have been better, so they could withstand our english weather since they are for outside!

 What she has done is pour some sand down inside it so that it has some weight and stability, though not too much. She intends to pack the tubes then with oasis and stand large headed silk chrysanth flowers and bullrushes in the top.
I thought it an idea for party or wedding decoration maybe too?
So just in case you want to know what to do with long cardboard tubes.................hope this gives you an idea!
Of course the best thing for those long tubes obviously.......is to         
                         make them into light sabers..............everyone knows that!