colorful goldendale

Last weekend I stayed with Pat Brim-Williams at her Goldendale home. The location was sublime—smack dab in the middle of a ponderosa pine forest.

On Friday we drove to our destination—a trip that took us down the south side of the spectacular Columbia River Gorge. Late that afternoon we cut and prepped fabric for dyeing.

Saturday started rainy but by noon was perfectly sunny. With our dye concentrates and soda ash solution ready, we headed outside to begin low-immersion dyeing. It was tremendous fun as we dipped, squirted and dabbed dyes on our PFD Kona cotton.

After rinsing and setting the dyes, it was time to iron the fabric. As I had dyed 15 yards, it took over three hours to press all the pieces. Thank heavens for movies on DVD!

We drove home on Sunday on the north side of the river—another memorable drive. The three-day trip was a non-stop pleasure. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

adopt-a-project

Ragamuffin, 2009, 33" x 39"
GIFTED TO MICHELLE FARRIS

Pat Brim-Williams abandoned a series of 4" squares—checkered fabrics in bright red, green, purple and gold—that she had sewn together in long strips. Being allergic to 4" squares, I snipped the strips apart. Without a straight edge or measurements, I cut the fabric into smaller pieces and stitched everything together in a folksy, asymetric pattern.

The baby boy blanket is finished with hand stitching and backed by a red organic cotton. The 1/4" binding is mostly a purple check with insets of contrast fabric.