Dyeing in the microwave

I have had a creative day at long last. I spent much of the morning dyeing these cotton fabrics and cords in the microwave. I have always avoided dyeing - too difficult, too fiddly and far too slow! Now I have discovered the microwave I am a complete convert. I think I will even invest in some procion dyes. These cottons have been dyed with the common rit dyes from the supermarket and I am not happy with some of the colours, particularly the blue. I read a couple of articles in Quilting Arts number 17 where the artists have achieved really good results, perhaps I need to practise some more, and also perhaps I need to look for some other colours - or just get the procion dyes!!!

These silks were dyed with the lovely Landscape dyes I discovered at Wrapt in Rocky. My sister recently visited Hong Kong and brought me back about 10 metres of silk for dyeing, so these are some of the results.

My sewing machine has come back home after having the threads disgorged from its innards so now I hope to be able to use thes silks in some creative efforts over the next few days. First I need to go back to the boring job of photocopying records to take to the accountant because it is tax time! That is a necessary evil I can postpone no longer.

We went to a fabulous concert on Monday night - the Quensland Orchestra made its annual pilgrimage to Mackay. The soloist was the young violinist Feng Ning, playing Beethoven's violin concerto in D. If ever you get the chance to hear him play, grab it with both hands, he is absolutely wonderful, he brought the capacity house down on Monday. Then he came back and played God save the Queen as you have never heard it before. He really made the violin sing.

The rest of the concert was pretty good too.

Our kids have now got a definite contract on the house they want to buy up here and will move in during the first week in October, just three weeks away! We will have a very full house for a couple of nights as our other son Stuart will be visiting from Canberra to see his daughter Hannah, so they will be here as well. We need elastic walls!!!!! It is great fun to have the whole family together though, or almost the whole family. Stuart's new partner and her two young children will still be in Canberra - that would be stretching it to fit another three bodies into the house! We used to do that on my sister's property before they retired to the coast, but we could always take over the shearer's quarters there!

Enough for now, back to work time.