The pretty, The practical and the ZOWIE !

A few days ago, I treated myself to a bunch of five little tight budded bright yellow tulips. I have really enjoyed them. I LOVE tulips. I love the sound tulips make- go figure! Have you never noticed that when tulips are moved against each other , as in while they are being arranged in a vase, that they make a lovely little hollow, squeaky, popping sound as they rub against each other? Well, I have - because that is the kind of a strange woman I am! Anyway, these buds opened up and I noticed, to my great delight , that there was a tiny, fine red line around each petal. As the blooms opened, that red bled down into the yellow, eventually turning the yellow tulips coral-y orange. LOVELY As they opened further, I saw that beautiful slatey blue star shape in the base and the stamens were bright orange! LOVE IT! I could help myself no further. I had to take a few pictures to share. Here are a couple ...

 Now, the practical-I am finally finished the Red Iris and have used the wonderful instructions on Elaine Quehl's blog to create a strip facing. This is not a great photo but it DOES illustrate the finished product. The hanging sleeve is in place too as you can see. All it needs now is a good label.

And , finally- the ZOWIE part! I ordered some dyes from Pro Chemical and Dye and they arrived on Friday AM. One of the colours is called Eggplant! LOVE that colour- not so keen on the taste, but I took the dyes down to my subterranean dye shop and wet a piece of paper towelling and then opened one of the little pots of dye powder to try the colour. I dipped a tiny brush into it and just sprinkled the powder over a spot on the wet towel. INSTANTLY , the gorgeous Eggplant purple bloomed- but then-
because it is a mixed colour, and the component parts of mixed colours strike at different rates, began to travel!!!! I was VERY VERY excited, ran upstairs for the camera and here is the result!

Look at THAT! I say Zowie! Cannot WAIT to try it on cotton. That is it for today. Now I am off to adjust the white balance on my camera so I can get more accurate pics of my quilts. Enjoy the rest of the day :-)

I MAY be finished with this now!

I say MAY because I want to see it in the daylight tomorrow before I decide for good. I have done a lot of metallic stitching today and stopped before dinner so I did not overdo. I THINK I am happy with it now. I introduced the reddish-purply colour over the big blue petal in the foreground and if I like it in the morning, I plan to use Elaine Quehl's instructions for doing a strip facing to finish it.

This is as close as I am to finishing now. It does not crop to 4X6 very well but you do get the idea.

Just the centre part to show some finished detail.

These  two are basically the same  but you may see one better than you see the other. There is a LOT of metallic stippling on this blue petal in Slate and Cranberry Metallic and Fuchsia Glitter thread- all Superior products

 I HAVE to say once again - and I am NOT selling it or anything like that- that Superior's Metallics and Glitter lines are marvellous to work with. I crank the upper tension back to .75-1.0 , put in a fresh #90 Titanium needle- and never have a moment's grief. It is really great stuff. I only wish you could see the shimmery flush of red  and slate across the surface of this petal better. I guess it has to be seen in person to truly appreciate it. You are all cordially invited to tea for a good look.

BTW, for the strip facing instructions, see Elaine's blog at elainequehl.blogspot.com and see the sidebar for the Strip Facing post.