rusty nails, a dyed miracle and stitchery

Im still in weaving mode and have finally worked out what I want to do with all the fantastic-ly dyed 'colour catchers', that Ive been throwing in my washing machine to prevent me accidentally dyeing my clothes! They collect stray fabric dye in the most amazing ways so I began to keep them and the top pic is one that has been cut and then woven together, then has small running stitches working round all the edges into the centre. So I intend to do lots of these small blocks now and then will arrange them together on a backing of some kind. I stitched with fine rayon threads and it was so relaxing doing it.

Ive tinted the lace on my moon too you'll notice and I like that effect, so will inlay that on a woven block at some point.

Ive bought shed loads of kimono silk offcuts on Ebay, from Japan.... am sure there MUST be somewhere in the Uk that sells offcuts like these lol but trust me to find them in Japan! So now I have to wait about a month to get them! But they would make a lovely woven sky I thought.........

Now the fabrics here were a wonder indeed.

I had a  jar of dull pink sloe berry dye bath moulding away nicely by the cooker and kept thinking I should use that for another dye bath, so threw it in a big steel pot, added afew broken stems off greenery  from a xmas bunch of flowers. No idea what plant leaves but waxy and dark green. actually I dont think they did single thing to the pot lol

Then I wrapped white and cream fabrics round already rusty 4" nails and misshaped rusty bits, with afew of the same leaves in the wrap too. Tied it with elastic bands and shoved it in the dye pot for an hour or so's brewing. 

Amazing! The vibrant pink dye bath turned rich purpley black and this grey mauve is what came out! The upper pic was cream fabric, the lower one is a white cotton sleeve, the cuff on the right end.

These next two pics are a white blouse that was wrapped round rusty nails and other bits, with afew more of those leaves amongst the fabric folds. It was steamed for a couple of hours on a low heat. No sign of the leaves on the fabric but the rusty marks are just great! Top one has little cave men with raised arms on it lol And this is the reverse of the fabric, hard to know which sides best! All fabrics were allowed to go cold in the pots and left for a day or so before washing the rust n bits out.

And after reading how Dale Rollerson had stood and ironed her sari silk strips for 2 hours, then
seen how she laid them down and stitched them with a machine, cut them up and restitched them together again...........I thought Id like to try that too.......... well my strips were thinner than Dales and after 45 mins...I gave up ironing them lol It drove me nuts!
At which point I should have trailed upstairs and machined them down on to a backing............but I tacked them into position then sliced the block into 3 pieces...........
By which time I should have been in bed so left it, but have since stitched afew beads in place to hold the fragments down for now. So may go down that route with them .... see? My Creative Gene springs from one thing to another lol theres no hope for her!