Mess or Masterpiece?

I've joined a new Facebook group about fabric books and while its only been running a couple of days I must say I'm feeling totally out of my league.  So I need to pull something out of my proverbial hat.   I, like so many others, have Pinterest boards up to the wahzoo with different styles of embroidery to try and I love them all and I want to try them all.  But where do I start to make something I'm not going to feel embarrassed about sharing with the group.  Thats the kicker.

Step One:  Spend a whole day pinning ideas into my newly created 'Fabric book ideas' folder.  

Result:  Left feeling totally overwhelmed with everyone elses obvious natural talent and artistic abilities.  Sigh.

Step Two:  Pick a theme, trees I like trees, lets go with that.  And I'd really like to try a mix of appliqué and embroidery.  

Result:  Euphoria.  Yay!  I'm getting somewhere.

Step Three:  Pin some more pictures of trees.  Ok but how do I then incorporate that with the fabric collage type thing?  Um...

Result:  Panic.  Ugh.

Step Four:  Pep talk to myself.  "You can do this.  You just need to make a start and the ideas will start flowing.  Go upstairs and have a ferret around and see what you've got."

Result:  Hope.

Step Five:  Do what I'm told and go through my stash of fabric.

Result:  Curse myself for getting rid of my quilters stash.  Find hot pink spots, stripes and zig zags, thermal lined curtain fabric and some cotton with a print that looks like a cross between fruit salad and cat vomit (where did I even get that?!?).  Any way NONE of that is going to cut it.  Back to panic.

Step Six:  Make a list of what I COULD work with.  White calico, cheap linen, denim, an old sheet that I already hacked up to make a mock up of a costume for Miss P and the woven-y woolly fabric I used to make the actual costume.  Well, I'm not going to change the world with that lot am I?

Result:  Shopping?  No, be strong Kimberley, be strong.  To be fair I already have so much craft stuff I could start my own shop.  Why is it you never have what you need for the next project though?  

Step Seven:  Requirements gathering.  I'm an analyst by trade so lets start at the beginning.  The need to be met is to create a page made from fabric.  Lets not even entertain the idea that we're working on a whole book at this point, my confidence just won't take it.  Because we're aiming for trees, nature, leaves, birds etc we want natural colours.  (So the fruit salad up-chuck fabric is out for sure).   And I want to make a collage of the fabric before I start embroidering.  

Result:  Back to self doubt.   Right I need colour variations and I don't want to spend any money.  (well not today at least).

Step Eight:  I was going to get to the point eventually, right? 😊

I keep reading peoples amazing blogs about their efforts with eco-dyes.  Now I should point out I have no, and I mean ZERO, experience with any form of dyeing, painting or even colour pencils (unless you count me picking them up after my daughter has left them lying all round the house).

The more I've read the more curious I've become.  But when you're inexperienced its also easy to become over-whelmed.  But I have to make a start right?  Thats the hardest bit, that first step.

Result:  Action.  Doing something other than pondering my own lack of skill, talent and supplies.

Step Nine:  Now to be honest it currently winter here and even in summer I don't have a garden full of Tansy, Dandelions etc.  So we're going to have to play with whatever is in the cupboard.  So we're starting with the most basic of dyes - Tea and Coffee.  We've all ruined something with one or both of those.  And I also found some acrylic craft paint, no idea if that'll 'stick' but we'll give it a go.

So here's my list of 'experiments, which are currently still drying, brewing etc.

1. Wet fabric and then drips of coffee applied.
2. Dry fabric this time then drips of coffee applied.
3. Wet fabric scrunched into small balls then drips of coffee applied.
4. Dry fabric and then coffee brushed on to cover the fabric
5. Wet fabric then coffee stripes brushed on
6. Wet fabric then coffee applied using the end of an old cotton reel
7. Dry fabric then coffee applied using the end of an old cotton reel
8. Wet fabric then watered down acrylic paint brushed across it in stripes
9. Wet fabric then the watered down paint was watered down again and then spritzed on
10. Dry fabric then using the watered down paint I spritzed it onto some bubble wrap and applied to the fabric.
11. Dry fabric brewing in left over coffee
12. Laid down some toothpicks on a piece of calico and spritzed the fabric with tea
13. Dry fabric then dripped tea on it
14. Wet fabric then dripped tea on it
15. Fabric brewing in left over tea
16. I thought Miss P would never forgive me if I didn't try sprinkles, so I did
17. Wet fabric with Cinnamon sprinkled on it and then spritzed with water
18. Wet fabric with Paprika sprinkled on it and then spritzed with water
19. Wet fabric with Tumeric sprinkled on it and then spritzed with water
20. Fabric soaking in Tumeric water
21. Dry denim with fresh lemon slices laid on it
22. Dry denim with fresh lemon juice dripped on it
23. Old sheet with lemon segments laid on it
24. Dry demin with lemon segments laid on I
25. Used a bit of the old sheet and blotted up the lemon juice I had dropped all over the bench
26. Found one lonely dandelion flower in the lawn, so I chopped the petals up over the last piece of linen and then spritzed it with water
27. Threw a few seeds onto dry denim and then spritzed it with lemon juice.
28. Laid out a few leaves onto dry denim and then spritzed with lemon juice.

Yes I got a bit carried away 😊

So I guess the next question is how long do I leave these?  As they're currently taking up most of my kitchen bench it won't be able to be that long, especially if the family wants dinner tonight.  

It'll be interesting to see what 'takes' and what doesn't.  The linen I don't think has been washed before so it was definitely resisting the liquid a bit more than the calico.  And I think I might put the lemon juice bits and bobs in the sun this afternoon (if I can find any sun that is).

And I guess most importantly will any of it be any use for my fabric book??  But I've wanted to give this a go for a while, so if nothing else I can definitely cross it off the to do list.  

Thanks for stopping by.

Dandelion petals and lemon juice with seeds/leaves

Acrylic paint