Vacation Link Up #3

Wow!  It’s been a super busy week already and it’s only Wednesday! I’m very glad we’ve taken this break from the quilt along because looking at how packed every single day has been, I know I wouldn’t have had time to make a decent video on top of everything else.

So what have I been so crazy busy with?  Well, all weekend was consumed with the dyeing experiment which started big and ended up growing to gigantic proportions.

I do plan to share a tutorial on fabric dyeing soon.  I’m still just getting the hang of this and haven’t yet tested my ability to reproduce a color exactly.  I don’t like to teach something until I’m sure I know what I’m doing!

And for anyone concerned by the photo above – I’m not dyeing in my main kitchen.  This is the small kitchen area in my basement studio.  When Josh and I started looking for our house 6 years ago, I specifically looked for a place with a finished basement and extra kitchen, just in case I got into dyeing fabric.  It’s a good thing I planned ahead as it’s coming in very useful now.

Looking through all the colors of red, orange, and yellow I played with this weekend, I believe this is the perfect color of red:

The dyed fabric is on the right and the color I’ve been trying to achieve is on the left.  No, it’s not a perfect match, but it’s close enough and I really love this rich red color.

When I haven’t been dyeing fabric, I’ve been working outside, trying to get my yard under control.  Yesterday evening with a level, string, and bit of elbow grease, I set the stone for this third garden:

Unfortunately we’ve been having HUGE rains several days in a row and for the first time, we started getting water seeping into the basement.  This is the downside of having part of the house underground.  It’s very scary to walk into a puddle in your laundry room!

Fortunately I already knew what needed to be done to fix this problem.  I’d always planned on installing a tile or french drain to catch rainwater and drain it to either side of the house and now it must be done to deal with this weird weather.

So that’s what we’ve been busy with.  I’m really hoping the weather will clear up, but even if it doesn’t at least the new drains will stop the basement from flooding.  As they say “when it rains, it pours!”

Time to shut up and go quilt,

Leah