I found this little vintage castle spinning wheel at a garage sale. It is a linen parlor wheel and has a distaff which I removed and put away for safe keeping. The European painted designs just didn’t work for me. I decided it needed a little jazzing up since the spinning I plan on doing will be contemporary art yarns and even paper. I think I am done with it but it could still get a little tweaking of the stylized jasmine design. I also altered it to make it a spindle spinning wheel. It will be a few days for the paint to cure before its final clear coat and then it will be ready to spin spin spin.
art cloth
Harvesting Summer Gold
By the end of autumn, my marigolds were in over drive. Yellow ones, orange ones and red/orange ones. A bucket over my arm and fingers ready to pinch there lovely heads off was all I needed. They dried all winter and with dyeing season coming into full swing, it was time to see what these would do, but first the petals had to be separated from the sepal and the receptacle. But never fear, nothing is going to waste.
The sepals when soaked overnight in a pot yielded a soft yellow after a little alum was added. I was surprised! I might have been able to leave them all attached but would not want to dilute the strength of the final marigold dye bath.
Next up, results!
A UFO Becoming
Left over scraps of moody hand dyed fabrics from my stash begged to become. Beginning stitches with hand dyed embroidery threads pieced them together but it lay hidden for a while waiting for rediscovery.
A bought with a nasty flu bug has kept me out of the studio with time for hand stitching. The embroidery is nearing completion and then it will be intensely hand quilted. It even told me its name but wants it to remain hidden until it says it is done.
Silk Information for Dyeing and Printing

Information on Silk Fabrics – Types, Terms, Weaves,
The Result of Patiently Waiting
Isn’t this glorious???? More than a year ago , and if I’m honest probably two, I eco printed this large piece of wool challis. And it was miserable. Meh! So it was stuck on the back of a shelf and forgotten. Moving into the new studio space I found it again. Can you believe I nearly tossed this out before? It was patiently waiting to be the star of the show.