Color and smoke

Hand-dyed silk ribbons for embellishment.

Our brief summer break -- after the smoky air blew out -- is already over, and smoke from wildfires blew back in again today. It's chilly and gray and smells bad. That means it's time to bust out the bright colors in the studio.

Wildfire smoke dulls outside colors.

So I pulled out my new Sue Spargo book, "Fresh Cut" ...

... and decided to make the English Garden Needle Roll, which uses a combination of felted wool, cotton prints, trims and embroidery. That's hers on the left and the beginning of mine on the right.

I used this bright, cheerful print as my focus fabric ...

... and cut out the vase from this warm yellow wool that I dyed last year with Peach Mango and Lemonade flavored Kool-Aid.

Here is part of the inside of the needle roll, which I tweaked a little by substituting a pocket for the pattern's pin cushion. The green felt squares on the bottom form a needle holder. The pink and yellow circles will be covered with embroidery by the time I'm done.

I used black and white text fabrics for the base because they set off the bright colors nicely. Sue's needle roll uses a black background, but I wanted mine to be brighter.

I used green beads to tack down some luscious plum silk ribbon. The leaf ribbon is from my stash of trims.

My next step will be to applique the vase and flowers to the front, but I'm trying to hold off on that because I want to take it on a short trip with me next month. I always like to have a hand project when I'm traveling so that I can work on it in the hotel.

Have a colorful day