Fun with rust!

I decided to play with rust dyeing. First, I saved a bunch of rusty stuff from the burn pile at our farm. Then, I put them in a jar of water with a bit of vinegar, and let them get *extra* rusty. Here is the jar of vinegar. Mmm..rustwater. I acutally have this on jar of rusty water hand to use as a mordant for various natural dye projects.


Then, I signed up for a quilt swap, and found some white 100% cotton flannel at the fabric store. Hmmm...... after some research into how to dye with rust, this is what I did. I laid out various rusty objects (nails, washers, staples, screws, etc) on the fabric, splashed a little white vinegar over, dumped on some of the rustwater, and then wrapped the whole thing in a plastic bag and let it sit outside for a week. Ah....art!

After a week, I washed the fabric in salt water, then threw it in the washer and dryer. The result is shown here. I LIKE IT! What do you think?

Now I'm looking for other interestingly-shaped rusty stuff, so I can do more dyeing!!!

Look at this beautiful sock yarn! My Secret Pal from the soapdish sent me this gorgeous sock yarn from knitpicks! The purple is SO me, and the gorgeous steel blue is a wool/silk blend I've been wanting to try. I'm so excited! Thanks pal!!!! :)

THIS is what I need to deal with today... these are the last of the tomatoes and peppers that I picked, just before frost on Wednesday. Hmmm...what to do? I think the majority of this stuff will get chopped and frozen. I will probably make some hot pepper jelly with the red, green and yellow hot peppers. Does anyone have great recipes for what to do with green tomatoes? i couldn't resist picking them...but I'm not sure what to do with them. chutney??